Riding With Courage. For Sure!

So, with todays struggle of a ride, I have decided on a little something for the time being.  I'll get to it in a sec.  So, today, I rode out fo Pueblo with all my attention focused on how it felt.  When I was just cruising along, things felt ok.  But when a strong wind came, or when I hit a small crack or rock, or when I went down hill, or when I went up a steep hill, things just got painful.  It was so frustrating for it to feel this way because it was challenging my inner-most workings.  Every time I put something out there to do, I get so, overwhelmingly dedicated to actually doing it that I can not imagine myself not doing it.  And here I am, faced with the potential of not being able to do something I have put forth for myself.

So, tomorrow, I will work out with Lindsey in the morning, then I think I'll head over to the Pueblo hospital to get it re-checked out, perhaps get the thing in a cast as I would very much like to use my hand in the future.  From there on out I will ride my bike for a good while, and workout again in the evening.  We will just make some slight progress each day for the next few days as I feel out my recovery.  If by monday things are still this brutal, I may have to call it a valiant effort and cut my losses.  But for now, I am going to ride a bit each day, with this wonderful suport I have coming in, and see what happens.  And while there are so many OTHER things I can do physically, I will be sure to do so.  After all, I do have the CrossFit Regionals coming up in 3 weeks.  I may not be able to participate, but I might as well get some extra work in while I can.

Thank you so much to all the comments and support you all have given, it is amazing to know you all are out there filled with good wishes.  Believe me, I will do everything in my power to do this as safely and intelligently as I can!

Keep following!  These next few days are going to be interesting.

Update

Quick one here. I woke up this morning and am still in a pretty good amount of pain. With ice and tylenol and epsom salt baths, the swelling in the hand has not gone down at all. This makes me very nervous and I am thinking I may need to go get a cast on it, rather then just this splint and an ace bandage.  Seeing how this is clearly a little more than just a break, I need to focus on the rest of my crazy fitness life and make sure I have the use of my thumb before I go ahead and just meat-head my way through the rest of this ride.

So, the second I finish writing this, I am headed to get another helmet )man those cracks in my old one are eye-opening), and then I am going to just ride out of down for a few hours.  Ill try to get some hills, some speed, some wind, some bad pavement and see how I can handel.

My mentality is to get back into this adventure, and finish the thing off.  But, and this is so hard for me, I need to think about what is honestly best for me and my hand.  If it is a major struggle to ride for 30-40 miles with no trailer, there is no way I can do 100+ with all my gear, for anther 15 days.  So, saddening and pride-shattering as it is, I am headed out today with all my senses in top form and hoping I can come to some conclusion as to what I should do.  This has been one of the most difficult situations for me mentally, perhaps insight into just how thick headed I can be when I decide I am going to do something.

I'll let you all know...

Halfway Point Montage

Still In Pueblo...

Had to take another day.  Lindsey is coming in tomorrow, and I am hoping to get enough recovery in to just tough out as many miles as I can over the next few days.  While it's a rather small injury in the grand scheme of things, it's not in a very conducive spot to be biking.  My risk of another accident has just gone up ten-fold.



I'll post again soon!

WIPEOUT!!!!

I am sitting now in a coffee shop (4/13) in Cañon City, CO feeling, well, really, really crappy.  The goal was to ride the 100 miles to Pueblo, and then maybe ride a bit more.

Right off the bat I felt pretty good.  The ride was a gradual downhill and the scenery was great; moving along a river with looming rock cliffs separating cow farms, it was really nice.  It was a little chilly, but the sun was out and I was excited because the forecast had called for thunder storms (we got some crazy thunder, wind and rain the night before in Salida).  But everything looked good along the ride, and I knew I was making some good time.  I stopped in a tiny town called Cotipaxi for a breakfast burrito and some more snacks for later around 8am, switched up audiobooks (just finished Deception Point by Dan Brown, on to Consent To Kill, by someone) and headed back on the road.

The road was super windy, had very narrow to no shoulder, and because of the wind the night before, there was a good amount of rubble along the way, having tumbled off the rock cliffs hugging the road.  On a few occasions I skimmed off a rock and had to grab the handel bars tight to avoid wobbling out of control.  My speed was pretty good because of the slight down angle, an I was just enjoying things as the sun began to break the crisp morning weather.

Then, bang, I hit a small rock as I re-grabbed the handel bars after removing my glove.  Not a problem, the bike wobbled a bit ad the BOB trailer sure didn't help keep things under control.  But I gripped tightly and tried to settle things.  But just as I started to get the thing under control I hit another one.  This time things just went wild.  The trailers weight overpowered the bike and began to fishtail.  The front tire just shot back and forth, so violently in fact, that I lost my grip with one hand.  I knew I was finished.

I went flying.  I literally careened over the right handel bar, into the air, and just crashed into the side of the road.  I could feel my bike crashing behind me as I tumbled, head over heels another few yards before coming to a stop in a ball, my head and knees touching in a heap in the tall grass.  I could not get myself to move as I heard a truck pull up.  I thought I had broken my neck.  As two people rushed out of the car, I was able to slowly topple to my side and start to move my limbs around to make sure I could still function.  My knee hurt, my hand felt like it was missing, and my head was a bit in pain as I adjusted my helmet which was now pushed over my face.  I looked down and saw my tights ripped open at the knee, blood pouring out, brown with dirt.  I looked at my left hand, it too was bleeding something awful, and I could not move my fingers.

Another car pulled over, a nurse, and she checked me over.  I was able to get up just fine and help get the bike and trailer onto the truck.  They drove it, with me in the nice nurse's car, to Cañon City where I could get to the hospital.  The pain began to set in in the car.  My hand, more directly, my left thumb was  in so much pain.  My right knee and elbow hurt, and my neck was stiffening up like crazy.  I checked in quickly to the hospital where they cleaned me up, took some x-rays and bandaged me up.  My thumb is broken, almost all the way through the top portion, leaving my entire hand swollen and in tons of pain.  the cuts and scrapes are alright, but they will swell and my joints are going to be in some serious pain.

I checked out, and a really nice woman from the hospital drove me and my bike to the shop to get fixed. She then allowed me to hold on to her truck while she went back to work and that's where I am now, in a coffee shop, in pain, and trying to figure out a couple things:  do I stay at this woman's house for the night and see how things feel tomorrow?  Do I hitch a ride to Pueblo to crash and see how things turn out? Or do I head back to the hospital and re-admit myself because my head is starting to hurt and my neck is killing me.

Going back to the hospital.  I'll finish this later.

So, it's the next day (4/14), I am resting up in a hotel in Pueblo, CO, taking a day off to recover from yesterday.  After a CT scan we found that nothing too serious happened to my head or spine, just some pretty bad muscle strain down the neck.  I go all these drugs to take with me, but I'll probably just stick with some basic ibuprofen and get some easy stretching today.

What an ordeal!  I knew something along these lines was bound to happen at some point, I just hope that this little injury won't make riding impossible.  As of right now, my hand is pretty swollen, and putting pressure on my palm, the area where I would put all pressure when riding, just kills.  So, I am hoping with the rest of today, I will be able to hop back on tomorrow and get some good miles in.  My neck and head are feeling a good deal better, but I still need to be pretty careful because riding is a bit of a strain right on those aras that are sensitive.

So, keeping my brutal scrapes in check, icing up the hand, stretching the neck and back, and just relaxing.  Tomorrow I am going to get back on the bike and see what happens!

Here's to overcoming adversity!

Day 12 - Gunnison, CO to Salida, CO

So today was a short day.  And I mean that in terms of milage, not time.  I took off out of Gunnison without refilling my water (I expected to hit a gas station leaving town, and when I did not, I really didn't feel like turning around...).  So, it was 32 miles later, at the base of Monarch Mountain when I finally had my first sips of water.

I had some food as well and then took off for about a mile of gradual uphill.  Then it hit.  6% grade for 10 straight miles to a summet of 11,320 feet.  This climb got me big time.  There only a few viewpoints which meant I had nothing but asphalt and snow banks to look at while I climbed.  And boy did I climb.  The altitude started to get to me as well, and my head began to pound, but I kept on going.  It took me about 2.5 hours to get those ten miles, and I probably walked about a mile of it (generally when I get off the bike to rest, I just walk).

I peaked with a wheezing last push to the end and looked out over the snowy mountains.  It was a pretty cool sight, not quite Utah, but pretty damn cool for sure.  Then came the down.  10 miles of 6% grade down.  And I just flew!  With a pretty smooth length of road for 15 more miles into Salida, I stopped for a super late lunch, toying with the idea of calling it a day.  I came to the decision to shack up, and as I headed for the nearest hotel, a woman and her son called out to me if I needed a place to stay.  How cool!

I crashed at their house for the evening which was wonderful.  We stayed up a little late talking about all sorts of things, and I am sure this is yet another group of people I will be in touch with for a while.  Then it was up super early to head out to Pueblo.

Wait until you hear what happened...

Technical Post

This post is all about how I am taking car of my bike and myself during this ride.  Every day is a little different as I learn more and more about what is best for me and how I can make my riding that much more efficient.

I have taken zero supplements so far.  This includes electrolyte tablets and protein powder as well.  This may be an unintelligent decision on my part, but my body has not asked for anything at all.  My muscles have been mildly sore, mostly in the hips and quads, as well as my traps and scaps a little (just from resting weight on the upper body); but nothing that has made me hobble out of bed in the morning.  So far, the only negative I need to address is my lack of sleep.  I stay awake later than I should, then wake up super early, and when you are riding every single day for 7-10 hours, you really need to sleep more!

In the morning I've been having oatmeal, fruit and eggs (when I can, and when there is more, I usually have some juice and a pastry of some sorts as well.  Almost every morning I have made myself a hot chocolate packet with coffee and water, it just tastes good, and I know that caffeine is helping me out.  I try to consume a good deal in the morning, without weighing myself down with too mush protein and processed sugars.  The main thing, is to store p a great deal of balanced calories for what I'm about to do to myself each day.  I then get on the bike and always start off a little slow, just to get things warmed up.

I try to eat something about every hour.  I have been taking in builders bara, clif bars and roks, almond butter, fruit, cookies and nuts as my quick fuel stops.  And when I am on the road and want a bit more, I turn to Paleo Kits and add some of the before mentioned items.  I've actually ditched about 80% of the food I initially brought, on account that the route I am on hits so many locations with fuel.  I have been able to grab wonderful meals all along, and feel as though I may still have a bit of food left in my bag when I am done with this thing.

I try to eat a pretty big dinner as well.  The goal here is to initiate recovery as quickly as possible.  This is where I just take in pretty much anything; tons of calories, lots of protein and good fat.  I have not been eating as cleanly as I am used to.  In fact, I have had two hamburgers (it's been years), hoards of cheese its (my go-to snack on endurance adventures!), cookies (still addicted) and a few other not-so-healthy choices (pringles, chex mix, a couple sodas, some candy here and there).  I have just been trying to eat what I can, and to be honest, I think I am still UNDER-fueling.

I stay aware of how I feel.  If I am hungry, I eat.  If my body is stiffening up, I pull over and walk around a bit and so on.  And so far I have not found anything I have been doing cause any major change in how I feel during the day.  I may start to experiment a little here and there.  Perhaps more fruit one day, more non-water liquid another; just to see how it effects me.  But then again, I may choose to not screw around and just stick to what has been working.  The past couple days I feel were the toughest on my body, the climbs, the altitude and the loneliness.

Besides sleeping more, I also need to remember to stretch a little more, I will be doing that the second I finish this post and take a shower.  And lastly (this is weighing on my mind like crazy), I need to get some strength work in here and there.  After all, I do have Regionals a week afte this thing is done.  And while I do not have any expectations to actually finish in the top 3 after this, I would like to at least come across as a decent CrossFitter when the WODs begin.  So, a few pull ups and push ups here and there may be in order...

I'll talk about bike stuff next technical post!