June 2008

And that will not start to convey all the gratitude I feel and debt I owe to those who have assisted me over the past few days.

For those not keeping up, I took a spill at Hellyer Velodrome on Wednesday night, leaving a fair amount of skin behind (nose, upper lip, both knees, both elbows), getting a fair bit of bruising (right ribs, shoulder, and knee), and breaking the end of the right femur. The femur has a hip screw (large screw into the ball of the femur), two plates, and several additional screws that were added on Thursday. I am one messed up guy.

The biggest thanks has to go to The Wife who has been doing yeoman’s duty helping out under what are, for her, difficult circumstances. She has such a tenderness to her heart and soul that it is hard for her to help me at times since helping causes some momentary pain. She fights through and has been solid in doing what she can, and more, to help me get around for now and repair so i can become independent again. I can tell how hard it is, and sometimes my pain may come across as grumpiness, but I can assure her that I appreciate all she does and I am working to keep my comments to myself. Thanks sweetie!! I can never repay in full, but I will work on that debt later.

Also a big thanks to those who helped at Hellyer and assisted in getting us to the hospital. I was pretty much out of it; I remember the start of the race (BxC points race) and I remember someone telling me to wait for the ambulance, but other than that my memory banks are blank until such time I was in the CT machine at Regional Medical Center being scraped along the wall of the device by incompetent techs.   Major thanks to Rick Adams, and to Michael and Sabine who helped to gather my stuff and get it to the Toaster along with the newlyweds Erika and Linda who continued to help transporting the Toaster to the hospital for the wife, learning my full legal name in the process.

A big thanks to the staff of Regional Medical Center who worked fast to get humpty-dumpty together to the point that I was able to go home about 64 hours post accident. And to the dozens of folks whose calls, e-mails, and blog posts have conveyed good wishes.

And a special thank you to the friends who have taken some of the burden off The Wife by offerering to plan, prepare, and drop off meals to keep us nourished, thereby relieving The Wife of that extra task

If I do not get a chance to extend the thanks in person, know that I want to and I greatly appreciate the tasks of the many.

… training ride. That is what I had at Pescadero on Saturday.

A quick review of the year leading up to this. I was just getting some traction in racing this season, with a good effort at the Rondee von Brisbeen Circuit Race on March 30th, then had my commuter tip-over accident on March 31st leaving me with a broken thumb. That meant no racing for the next 6 weeks and no real intensity workouts for much of that. Then one good crit (EBC) and a couple of good nights of track racing leading up to Memorial Day and a crash in the crit then. That was less than 3 weeks ago, and I was without my racing bike for two of those. The road rash has healed, but there is still some bruising in the lower left back region that is a limiter for really hard efforts. That sets the stage going into Friday. I deluded myself into thinking that despite the paucity of intensity training the past two-and-a-half months, and despite being still a bit sore from a crash 19 days before that I could hang with the pack … at least for the first lap (28 miles).

Friday night as I finished packing for the early Saturday start to Pescadero it became obvious that something in my gastrointestinal tract was not right. And that became more obvious through the night as it kept me awake for a good chunk of the time I should have been sleeping. I gave in and got out of bed at 4:30A, and was doing the internal debate as to whether to trek over the hills to the race or not. The severe cramping was subsiding, so a bit after 6A I figured ‘what the heck’ and we headed for Pescadero.

A slightly late start hitting the road and the need for an urgent pit stop in Woodside led to a later than ideal arrival at the Pescadero High School. After another urgent pit stop and a quick trip to the registration desk, I loaded the extra water bottles into The Wife’s saddle bag and sent her on her way to the feed zone about 16 miles down the road. I then pinned on my number, got the bike ready, and did a warmup on the road between Pescadero and Butano State Park, an abbreviated warmup given our late arrival.

Our field lined up for our 8:50A start, but they were running late and kept getting later. We finally got the start whistle at about 9:12A and eased into the 2 miles or so of neutral promenade through the business district of Pescadero. After the motor pulled off the field picked up the pace slightly but kept things reasonable and I was content in my 5th wheel position on the narrow portion of Stage Road. As we neared the sprint prime point a few more guys, mostly from Synergy-Taleo, came to the front apparently ready to contest for the $15. It was not much of a sprint, three guys powering on the front, then everyone settled into getting ready for the climbs coming up. We hit the first of the Stage Road climbs and the pace was nice, much, much below what I had done on the pre-ride the week before. But the depleted body was, well, depleted and the legs had nothing in them. I could not push; in fact all day I had trouble even tickling the bottom HR zone 5, never even close to reaching HR max, but the legs and body had no push. And so I quickly slid back in the pack as we neared the top and was soon off the back.

For the next 12 miles or so I had visual contact with the pack much of the time, even on the twisty mountainous roads, so I deluded myself into thinking I might catch back on or at least catch some stragglers with which to work. I did pass some remnants of the Cat 4B field that started 20 minutes before us, but never anyone in my field. At the feed zone I told The Wife that I was now in a training ride as she reported the field was not that far in front of me. From the feed zone I had the 2.5 mile climb up Haskins Hill and making ground with dead legs was not in the cards.

I pushed on, not slowing down at all, and did finish the ride strong. I was never passed by any in the two fields behind me, which started 5 ( W P/1/2) and 10 ( W 3/4) minutes after us. I was amazed that as a solo rider on a tough course that neither pack was able to make up the ground, though the front of the W P/1/2 field was only about a minute behind me at the finish.

There were a couple of other interesting tales from the course.

• At the start of lap two, coming into the turn from Pescadero Rd. to Stage Rd. in downtown Pescadero a motorcycle was starting to try to pass me before the turn when a CHP car following squawked on his PA ‘do not cut in front of the bicycle, do not cut in front of the bicycle’.
• Near the top of the first Stage Rd. climb on lap two I was passed by the front of the men’s P/1/2 field. As they passed one of guys pulled to an abrupt stop and pulled up the halves of his Campy Ultra-Torque crankset; apparently the torque on the connecting bolt was insufficient and it had come loose and fallen out. Bummer!

Next year I will try to redeem myself and actually race at Pescadero. But for now I will finish healing and do some intensity work.

That is what I keep asking myself about the Pescadero Road Race this coming Saturday. Originally I was not going to do this race, but signed up for it when I missed the Wente RR due to my broken thumb, figuring I should do one of the hilly road races this year. But the time off the bike due to the thumb compounded with the recovery from the Memorial Day crash has not given me a lot of time to prepare for this sufferfest. And to compound the problem, my right ankle which was rebuilt some 40 or so years ago has been locking up regularly for the past week. I may start a race on Saturday, but end up with a long training ride.

The Wife and I did wander over and do a pre-ride of the Pescadero course on Saturday morning, joining dozens of others taking a look at this beautiful but brutal course. The attached profile is a bit mis-leading; there is only one summit on each climb, but for Saturday’s little ride I tested my climbing legs on each hill then descended back down to find The Wife and then climbed back to the summit with her. And it is just a partial profile of what the race will look like since we will do about 1.7 laps, with the finish at the top of Haskins Hill, the biggest of the 3 climbs on this profile. 47 or so miles, 6 climbs, lots of suffering. It was such wonderful weather on Saturday, and the area so beautiful, it seemed like racing through it and not enjoying it would be almost criminal. Sunday may have been an even better day, but knowing that the Tour de Cure was passing through much of the course area made me want to avoid that traffic jam.

Sunday I did get out for a bit of a ride, mostly trying to work out the ankle. Often when the ankle locks like that riding helps to loosen it up. But not this time; it was locked and painful the entire ride. If it is still acting up like that on Saturday then even the training ride aspect will be abbreviated.

This week I will try to front-load my efforts, and relax a bit at the end of the week. I had an unplanned 24 mile ride to work this morning (CalTrain clogged, again), and will attempt the Tuesday Night Crit tomorrow and track racing on Wednesday. That should be enough before Saturday’s main event, though at least one person has suggested that I should do the Friday night track races, too.

… is mostly back together again.

The road rash from the crash in the Memorial Day crit is rapidly healing. The worst spot is on the back of the left hand, which was itching up a storm through the night and resulting in me throwing in the towel and getting out of bed at 4:37AM (uggh!) since I could not sleep. Still a bit of bruising, but that is fading. All of the bodily parts seem to function.

Last night the Colnago was restored to some semblance of working order. The shifters are on and seem to shift fine. I wrapped up the bars, trying the fi’zi:k tape made of Microtex. Not sure about how it will feel or wear, but it is a pain to work with. Only thing that I have used that is more of a pain is the Brooks leather bar wrap.

This weekend I plan to get out and see if the body and bike will be up to the 47 mile Pescadero Road Race 8 days from now.

I am moving up, at least in the ’self-selected’ (not entirely) fields for Tuesday night races at Hellyer. The previous two trips to Tuesday nights I had raced with the ‘B’ group, in part, and had been spanked big time. So I signed up for the ‘C’ group again last night with a warning from Larry that the ‘C’ group might be ‘women only’. Great to have a ‘women only’ race, there are some fast, strong women out there! There are some legititimate ‘C’s, so the less strong get thrown in with some of the strong; it is a field with a lot of variance in capabilities. Two of the strongest women, Ileana and Beth, did self-select into the ‘B’ group which I am sure was appreciated by a few.

June means back to to scratch races for a few weeks, leaving the points races for July. I did start the first ‘C’ race, but myself and a bunch of other guys in the field were told we could not be factors in the race; no attacks, no lapping, nothing to help affect the outcome. I tried to stay near the rear until I started seeing real bad decisions, mostly a rider who liked to dive down on the inside when the rear of the paceline would swing uptrack in turn 3. That is a recipe for some skin on the pavement, so I went high and soon found myself in no “man’s” land, between the main pack and a break mostly consisting of ProMan Virginia. When I feigned to sprint against Virginia for a cookie prime I got a reminder from Larry that I was not racing. So back to spinning my own circles for the remainder of the 30 laps.

Since I was riding rather than racing with the ‘C’ group I decided it was time for more. I did not even exit the track after the ‘C’ ride, just went around and back up onto the rail for the ‘B’ race. It was a big field, and I was a bit nervous after the crash 8 days before. I found it much easier to stay in the group this time, and even set myself up to block at the front if a teammate decided to try a flyer. He tested the waters at one point but pulled up on the front so I sat in and continued circling and paying close attention. The problem with big fields and lots of wheels is that you keep ending up on the wrong wheels and have to sprint back on when you realize the person in front of you has fallen off. After a bunch of that I did not have enough gas to catch back on and ended up in a 3 person chase group, including Beth, for the last 10 laps or so. We were never far behind and we came close, real close, to reattaching but there was not enough time and we lost one engine at a critical juncture. As we dropped down after the race Larry called out for some of ‘B’ riders to join the second ‘C’ field; I thought about it briefly, but I had just done 60 laps (30 and 30) and was a bit dehydrated so I cooled down instead of making it 3 straight.

The second ‘B’ race almost ended for me as soon as it began. At the beginning I had an opportune moment so I took a flyer off the front. It was short lived as the legs were a bit too thrashed and I was soon OTB and considered pulling out. But I stayed and soon was riding as tail gunner behind Mark F. After a couple laps of recovery I moved back up into the middle of the field where I would have more options. That was a nice place to stay until about 25 laps in (of 40) when things strung out and I dropped down into the paceline; the paceline was short lived and when it ended I found myself blocked down in the sprinter’s lane. I was fending off a constant barrage of guys trying to drop down without looking so I dealt with the fact that to get into a safer position I would have to either sit up and drop back, or take another flyer off the front. And I chose option B. It was another short-lived event but I did get out of harms way. And that seemed like the perfect opportunity to pull myself out and cool down a bit.

So I guess I will be making it a habit of signing up for the ‘B’ races from now on, saying goodbye to the ‘C’s. The other aspect of ‘moving up’ is a bit more of a question. I may have the minimum number to do a category upgrade, depending on whether the low-key races last October count. So today I am musing on whether to send in the upgrade request, or wait two weeks and then try.

That could describe the racing at Hellyer last night, but this morning it is what I experienced on CalTrain. Train 227 gets to Mountain View about 10 minutes late, I am early enough to catch it, but the house is over full so I take the gentle push to stay behind rather than fight for one of the spots standing in the vestibule. Train 231, my normal train, is due in just a few minutes anyway. Then 231 shows up with Bombardier equipment and only 1 bike car, so max of 16 bikes total on the train and there are 15 on the platform waiting to board. So it was waiting another 20 minutes for the next train, which had room for only 13 bikes and there were about 18 on the platform. But I fought this one out and got on that train.

CalTrain needs to rethink their bicycle strategy; putting a Bombardier set with one bike car on a run, like #231, that usually has a full bike car is going to cause ripple effects for the rest of the morning. The topic of conversation on the train this morning: folding bikes. Perhaps I will be forced to go that direction.

Update: The fun continued on the way home. The train I usually catch at Hillsdale normally has Gallery equipment, with a capacity of at least 32 bikes, and runs full. Tonight it pulls in with a Bombardier set, 16 bikes max. Conductor comes out and says 3 bikes, only. And there were at least 8 folks waiting to get on.