I might as well re-name the blog again….to something about perpetual aches, pains and injury. After splending plenty of time dwelling on my knee issues, I told myself I would limit bitching to intermittent posts…. Well, thats easier said than done, especially when you are sitting in your office chair with a back that feels about 100 years old.
Remember the villain in that cheesy Bruce Willis movie about superheroes “Unbreakable“….Samuel L Jackson’s character, the guy that is as fragile as glass (or something like that)….thats how I feel lately. Just when I thought I was heading down a path of moderation and balance, splitting my time between sessions at the climbing gym (upper body and core strength) and moderate road rides (aerobic fitness and lower body strength)…..I end up feeling like a cripple. This is the first time in my life that I’ve ever had “back pain,” and I now see what all the fuss is about. Its pretty much the most debilitating kind of pain you could have.
The good news here is that I think the source of my pain is muscular in nature, which means that I should feel better within a week or so. The weirdest thing is how it just randomly assaulted me almost a full 24 hours after my climbing session. After a pretty mellow night at the climbing gym on Tuesday, I found myself getting stiff in my office chair late Wednesday afternoon and by that night I was having trouble sleeping, struggling to find a pain-free posture in bed. Yesterday morning I was feeling even more pain left wondering what in the hell I had actually done to myself.
The timing of this is a bit ironic. After my great ride on Monday night, I got all stoked to do a few races before my Ukraine trip in late July. Then, not being able to contain my resurgent enthusiasm for competition, I registered for the Brownstown Road Race up in PA this coming Saturday. That was probably about 4 hours before I started to feel the stiffness…and the downhill spiral of pain that ensued.
So now I’m registered to race in what will probably be an accomplishment for me to even participate in. Last night, I got out on ride #123 to see exactly how bad my back would feel come Saturday. Interesting enough…..my body position on the bike is one of the few positions I’ve found where my back doesn’t feel like hell….more of a purgatory-like discomfort. Of course when I stand and pull back on the bars (i.e. to climb or sprint)…then I feel it. So the question is whether I can limit myself to as much mellow pack riding as possible, while still having a shot at a decent finish. We shall see.
In other news, the rider that inspired me to turn up my intensity on Monday’s ride….was rewarded by having his bike stolen that very night. What a disturbing coincidence it was for me to get an email on Tuesday morning from my team’s listserv, on behalf of some guy’s friend who it seems….was the very rider that I was trading pulls with on Monday night. The only reason I can be sure that its the same guy is on account of the detailed description below that matches my mental catalog of his setup….
Here’s the email:
Hey NCVC,
I’m forwarding this on behalf of a friend at GW who just had his Ridley
stolen. Please be on the lookout for the bike described below.
-Eric
—– Forwarded Message —-
*Sent:* Wednesday, June 24, 2009 12:49:07 AM
*Subject:* [gwcycling] Stolen Bike - Ridley Excalibur
Tonight my car was broken into and my bike stolen. This happened around
11:00pm on Tuesday June 23 in Crystal City.
Please be on the look out for the following bike description:
2008 Ridley Exaclibur Black and Gray Size Medium
Sram Red shifters (custom painted with blue accents)
EA70X tubular wheelset w/Green Vittoria Pave Tires 25mm
Sram Force derailleurs, Sram 1070 Cassette 11-26, Shimano Ultegra Chain
Campagnolo Chorus Carbon Compact Crankset Ultra-Torque, 175mm, 50-34t
White Fizik handlebar tape (left hand side dirtier than right)
White Fizik Aliante saddle carbon rails
EC90 Zero seatpost 29.4 w/shim to fit 31.6
Can you imagine having that setup disappear from your car? I’d be sick. I can only hope that he has homeowner’s insurance to cover the cost of a replacement.
Lastly, I’ll bring this post full circle and touch on the “lost rides” that didn’t get posted, and how the remainder of the season looks from my point of view.
Most of you realized pretty quickly after my Race #5 (the Baker’s Dozen) meltdown, that I had devolved into a (gasp) recreational rider and lost a lot of my mojo for posting about bikes or getting all hopped up on gear - hence the “lost rides”. Being far to vain to descend head long into a beer gut-double chin destiny, I got in the occasional ride, and joined a climbing gym to keep from getting too bummed out (somewhere in there was the sale of my Seven….more on that in the next post). I saw myself lose a lot of threshold fitness pretty quickly (and the science supports these personal observations….if you don’t train/race near/above threshold, your threshold naturally lowers). On the other hand, I still felt pretty good aerobically speaking, going out for 1-2 hour 18-22mph rides without much of a problem. The climbing gym was another story. The years of upper body neglect were shamefully evident (at least to me), when I found myself burning out after an hour or so and struggling to stay focused on progressing to more respectably challenging routes. So even as I contemplate a bigger mix of cycling and some increased focus on competition (I still want to get up to Cat 3 within the near future), I don’t see myself neglecting my upper body/core like I have in the past. Interesting enough, I think one of the reasons that my lower body is so often out of whack after lots of riding….is on account of horribly weak core muscles that provide my lower half minimal stabilization. This is something that a sports doctor mentioned years ago, and something that I plan to pay a lot more attention to. With normal core workouts being pretty boring, I’m hoping that climbing will be a far more interesting way to help balance out my body.
OK, so why the interest in riding more and getting back into [some] racing? What was wrong with the 1-2 rides a week? One contributing factor, and a funny one at that, is the “Presidential Fitness Challenge” program that some folks at work have setup. Beginning on June 15, some colleagues signed the company up for the Presidential Fitness Challenge, gave us all login IDs and formed a management team and a technology team, pitting us against each other over a 6 week period. Each team has the same number of employees (about 20) and we each earn points based on our activity level. If you’re not familiar with the Presidential Fitness Challenge, its the offspring of the high school testing that everyone remembers from their teen years (the mile, the pull ups, etc.). In our challenge, we log our activity and each employee accumulates points based on what type of activity they did, how intense it was, and how long they took part. So there’s no mile or pull ups, but rather a big long list of different sports and outdoor activities. Me being me, I got pretty fired up about this and took it upon myself to log 4-5 multi-hour rides in the first week to see where I’d stand within the company. The result? After the first week, I ended up with 6-7x the point total of the average participant, and scored more points than most of the technology group combined. Pretty hilarious. I consider the whole thing to be kinda silly and unscientific, but its nonetheless stoked a tiny competitive flame deep inside me, left smoldering after the Baker’s Dozen. This contest at work is obviously designed to promote health and well-being, to get people walking during lunch, etc. Its not intended to increase amateur athletes’ average training time from 8 hours to 12, but I’m just rolling with it anyway. The top three participants get a prize and being a greedy bastard, I’m going to dominate the contest and take the prize…..even if the prize is a $25 Applebee’s gift certificate, I can probably buy a few beers with it…..or stand in the Applebee’s parking lot and trade it for $20 cash.
Anyway, the most significant realization behind my refocusing on cycling, is that I’ll never (in absolute terms) enjoy, or be as good at any other sport as much as cycling (both road and mountain). The rock climbing scene has really taught me a lot about how hard it is to learn the skills and physical fitness that I quite often take for granted when it comes to bikes. I look around at other climbers and I feel ridiculously humbled at how novice I am and I get excited about the smallest little bit of progress I make, with very little of it coming naturally. On the bike however, everything feels extremely natural…..like a conversation with an old friend. Even though I’ve spent plenty of time in my teens and early 20s screwing around with different climbing disciplines, I never broke through the culture/skill barrier and became a “climber”. So even though I’ll never be pro, or even Cat 2 for that matter….the saddle is home.
Looking back on this prolific post makes me feel really f#$%ing neurotic……holy smokes.
Anyway, I said there’ll be pictures and there will be…..soon.
Upcoming topics:
Selling the Seven (no regrets!)
Bikes that I’m targeting for late 09 or early 2010 purchase
some random reviews