Gaining Ground Just to Lose it Again

The CX training has been down this year compared to last year. I really cannot complain too much. Sure, there were conflicts with travel for work, but I also made the choice to take time off to go up to Montana and drink beer with my nephews while pretending to attend a wedding. I would make the same decision again tomorrow. However, the consequences of spending the most of the month of August off the bike are quite noticeable come race day. The first race of the year was a mud-fest down in Colorado Springs. The amount of mud made for a course that required you to run about 1/3 of it. It was drying out as the day went on, but when the beer drinking dad league launched, it was still pretty wet. Major amounts of running equals major amounts of suffering for this CXer. I spent most of the time over 90% of my max heart rate. I even ran it up over 95% a couple times. Gad, did that suck! All in all, I survived and rode the course clean with no crashes.

I have chosen to take the approach that there is nothing to do but keep training and know that I will get faster over time. Due to conflicts, I was not going to race for a couple weeks anyway. Hopefully, next time I would gain some ground on the pack. I got in some good work on the bike over the next couple weeks while fitting in the annual attendance of Interbike.

Next up, Frisco CX. Nothing like going all out a 9100 ft of altitude to check for improvements in conditioning. I did a few warm-up laps and found the course to be technical but without a lot of vertical. There were over 55 in the Beer Drinking Dad League on Saturday. We took off and I soon discovered that they altered the course from the previous race. The fairly flat course had been modified to include a good sized climb on pavement. I know immediately that fat-boy here was going to have to minimize my losses on this climb and make any gains on the power portions of the course. At the end of lap one, I am mid pack. However, I am maintaining position with power in reserve. Nice! This is what I envision for racing rather that the last attempt in Colorado Springs. It is time to start pushing things and move up. Midway through lap 2 I am closing down a gap a getting ready to pass a couple guys. In my new found aggressiveness, I totally overcook a left hand turn, wash out the front wheel and body slam myself into the ground. I hop right back up, and grab the bike back upright. Michael and one other go by while I am straitening the hoods. My first thought is “Damn, I am going to have to ask Michael how that one looked after the race. He had to have had a front row seat for that catastrophe.” As I come back up to speed and try to catch back on with Michael and his homies, I notice that the Kona is not shifting cleanly. A quick scan finds that the culprit is a right hood that is not straight. I reach over with the left hand to push it into place (always a safe thing to do while barreling down a single-track…. Not). I never get my left hand all the way over to the right hood. Half way through and……. Wholy Mother of God!!!!! I see stars as pain shoots right through my left shoulder. In my book of good and bad, the sensations I am having in my shoulder are not in the good chapter. After about a half lap, I know that this race is done. Any type of hard effort on the bike puts in a request to the muscles/tendons in the left shoulder and they are sending back chamois wetting pain as a response. At the start/finish line at the end of lap 2, I stop and celebrate my first ever DNF.

Had the local ER take some pictures to make sure nothing was broken. Turns out to be a 2nd degree shoulder separation. The future now is rehab of the shoulder. Not sure when I will be back racing CX.

But…. in the meantime…. I got a question for ya (Feel free to leave answers in the comments). I was noticing what a pain in the ass it is to do anything with your left arm in a sling (and I am right handed!). It got me to thinking about the question…. If I was in one of the cultures that ate with your right hand and wiped with your left, what the hell would I do with a separated left shoulder?