Followup #1

Lots of lonely solo rides in my immediate future.

A rainy Tuesday morning offered a welcome excuse to sleep late yesterday. Although I've been able to sit on a bike and pedal, trying to do so on wet streets would be a very bad idea. With a compromised ability to take evasive action, and apply the front brake without pain from the smashed and still swollen finger, I have my hands full just riding slowly on quiet city streets in daylight.

Not there yet, but progressing I guess.

Later in the day I had my first followup with Dr. Savoie. They took a couple x-rays and he said that I was doing very will with the x-brace. From at least one perspective the collarbone pieces look to be quite nicely aligned. It still hurts, sometimes quite a bit, sometimes not so much, but I guess it's progressing more or less normally

Last night, after having to get picked up from work because it was raining, we went over to Dat Dog on Magazine Street for a fundraiser for CALM. Despite the pint of Tin Roof Parade Ground Porter, I was feeling pretty uncomfortable by then, partly because I was sitting on what was basically a bench, and partly because my back and collarbone were getting pretty achy by then. Back at home I was setting up the Excel workbook for the LSU collegiate races I'll be officiating this weekend and looking over the list of "permanent" bib numbers I got from the conference director when I noticed that things didn't look right.  Double-checking the list against the USAC collegiate database was easy, but unfortunately revealed numerous riders who had already been allowed to race in the wrong categories, along with some who were racing in the higher categories without collegiate licenses at all. Three riders from Rice raced in the Cat. D criterium despite having Cat. C licenses, and subsequently placed first, second and third.  Apparently nobody was checking licenses, or just didn't care, last weekend. That kind of puts me in a bad situation for next weekend. Do I enforce the rules or look the other way? It's rather frustrating because this seems to happen every year.

Better than nothing, but hate losing so much hard-earned fitness.

Anyway, the weather this morning was really nice with the temperature around 58, a light breeze, and a clear sky.  I strapped the brace over my jersey and rolled out at 6:30 for another cautious ride on the levee.  Along the way I rode with John for a little while, pointing out two Bald Eagles near the nest at River Ridge. He turned back shortly afterward, but I continued on to Williams Blvd. before heading back. As has been happening when riding with the x-brace, my left hand kept going numb and my neck was hurting, but under the circumstances I couldn't complain too much since I was at least outside on the bike. When I got back home I looked at my Strava stats and, wow, you can really see the training cliff I've fallen off of!  I guess it'll be at least two or three weeks before my weekly mileage even approaches normal again, but there's no point in pushing the envelope and risking a fall or even just interfering with healing.  Kind of sucks having this happen during what is usually some of the best riding weather of the year, though.

Eleven Days

There were floats all over the place today - lots of parades from here until Fat Tuesday

After a rainy Friday that extended well into the night, Saturday morning was looking pretty nice. At home, staring out the window at the slowly drying streets and blue sky, I knew it would be a nice day for a long Giro Ride - one that I wouldn't be doing. It had been eleven days since I broke the collarbone, and I'd been thinking I might try going out for a very cautious ride on the Bianchi once the street was dry. The collarbone has been mostly a dull ache when I'm wearing the x-brace, with is essentially all the time. When I take it off to change shirts, though, it's immediately obvious that there's still a long way to go before it's back to whatever normal will be now.  The smashed ring finger that was purple and swollen is finally back down to where I can, with a little effort, get the ring off, so that's progress.

No big numbers on the Garmin for a while

It was a bit after 9:30 am when I rolled the bike out the door for the first time since the crash. With the x-brace cinched up tightly on top of the jersey, I picked my way carefully through the side streets, trying my best to avoid the wet leaves, cracks, and potholes. I was a little surprised that I could easily reach the brake levers and could put some weight on the left hand without much pain. The last time I broke a collarbone it was three weeks before that was feasible, and the time before, which was admittedly a more severe break, it was a good five weeks. Even so, I knew my ability to take evasive action was severely limited, so the two miles from home to the levee bike path were a little tense.  Once up on the path, though, I could relax a bit thanks to the smooth asphalt and lack of cars. It was a beautiful day for riding - blue sky and summer kit - so although I knew I wouldn't be doing anything that would qualify as training, at least I was outside and moving.

Rode with Pat, Steve, Kurt and Charlie for a little while

I nearly out at Williams Blvd. when Steve, Pat, Kurt and Charlie rode up from behind (I was probably going about 15 mph. They had started out around Ormond, so were on their way back. They eased up so I could join them for a while, but when we got out to the end of Jefferson Parish I figured I'd pushed my luck enough already and turned back, stopping for a minute to watch one of the Mardi Gras parade krewes getting their floats lined up to convoy over to the start of one of the afternoon parades. By the time I was halfway back my left hand was going numb. I guess the reason was that I wasn't moving it around on the handlebar, because that hurts a bit. Anyway, I made it home in one piece, so the ride was a success in my book. If I can tolerate an hour or hour and a half every day on the bike path for a while perhaps I won't get too fat and will be able to get back to more serious training without too much drama. Guess I'll just have to play it by ear for a while, but I'm hopeful I'll be back in action in two or three weeks if all goes well. I have a followup visit with the orthopedist next Tuesday.

Can't complain about the February weather in New Orleans lately.

Visit to HQ

A room full of officials. The symposium was surprisingly well attended. Most of these people are more serious
about officiating as a career than I am.

So it's been almost a week since my unfortunate encounter with a car, and about 24 hours since I got back from Colorado Springs. It was a good thing that this broken collarbone and associated bruises and such haven't been as painful as those from the last collarbone fracture, although my back and neck have been increasingly achy. It's funny how you initially focus on the most obvious injury, and then over the following few days you start to notice all of the other stuff that was initially overshadowed. Wearing the X-brace helps a lot, although it does of course restrict movement a bit and certainly gets uncomfortable, but if it lets the collarbone heal up without surgery and other complications I guess I'll just have to live with it for a few more weeks. At least I've been through this before and already know how to get into a T-shirt and do a bunch of other things without raising my left arm.  Meanwhile my shoulder, left arm, and left hip have turned a nice shade of purple and yellow as the bruises and pooled blood start to show up more.  I'll spare you the photos.

USAC HQ still hasn't changed the logo on the building
to the new version, which I like much more

I had been registered to attend the USA Cycling National Official's Symposium, held last weekend up in Colorado Springs, so I felt lucky that I wasn't so much in pain or under the influence of narcotics that I'd have to cancel. Even though I wasn't looking forward to all those hours sitting in an airplane passenger seat and knew the collarbone and everything would make that even worse, I got up at 4:15 Friday morning so Danielle could drive me to the airport anyway. Under the circumstances, I thought  it best to pack really light for this little two-day conference, so all I had with me was a nice little rolling backpack with a couple of shirts and changes of underwear and little else. It was a good call. The first leg of the trip was to Houston, where I switched planes to one of those neat little ones with one row of seats on one side and two on the other.  The flight attendants were of course going crazy dealing with all of the carry-on luggage that wouldn't fit and had to be gate-checked, but they let me through with my one bag.  That when I realized two things.  First, there wasn't enough room under my window seat to stow the backpack that had easily fit under the seat of the larger plane. Second, I couldn't lift it high enough with my broken collarbone to get it into the overhead bin. Luckily the girl behind me saw me try and immediately offered to help.

The Race Caravan Training Certification session was interesting. It's a totally different world
than the "one follow car" world we usually work in.

So I get off the plane in Colorado Springs and it's something like 70°F and sunny. I had to wait half an hour or so outside for the shuttle from the Marriott to arrive to pick three of us up, and by then I was pretty warm from the temperature and achy from the collarbone and five or six hours of sitting. This was my first Official's conference, although I'd been to maybe eight or ten of the Local Association conferences in prior years. I really didn't have anything to do the rest of the day or evening, which was fine since it allowed me to lie down, take some Aleve, and veg out watching TV.

USAC CEO, ??, UCI Technical Director,
USAC Technical Director

Saturday morning I was up at my usual time, which was unfortunate since my usual time was in Louisiana and not in Colorado. In other words, I was up at 4:30 am. Oh well. Lots of time to delicately slide off the brace and T-shirt, take a shower, and cinch down the brace again over a fresh T-shirt and button-down shirt. The meetings themselves were pretty good and covered a lot of the things I wanted to find out about, especially the new IT system they have been working on.  A lot of the people there were also Local Association representatives, so I knew many of them and of course most of the USAC staff who were on hand. Sitting for so long was more tedious than usual, so I spent a couple of sessions standing in the back of the room, but mostly I was taking notes to share with the other officials. Saturday evening they had a happy hour at USAC Headquarters, where the meetings were, prior to a buffet dinner.  Under the circumstances I thought it best to limit myself to just one glass of wine and a light dinner since I hadn't gotten any exercise in days and probably wouldn't for a few more to come.  I headed back to the hotel a little earlier than usual, took a 12-hour Aleve, and got in a little sleep. It's been a little uncomfortable to sleep, which is pretty typical for a collarbone break.  I tend to wake up, try to get comfortable, sleep for a little while, wake up again, and repeat.

Anyway, Sunday was pretty much a repeat of Saturday except that it had snowed overnight and the temperature had dropped into the 30s and everything ended at noon. I headed back to the airport with John Patterson from Georgia and Josie Strange from Florida. We were all on the same flight to Houston. The return trip was fine and I was glad that the plane was big enough that I could get my bag under the seats each time, but even though I didn't have a long layover in Houston, I was a bit uncomfortable. The plane for the first flight from COS to Houston was super cold for some reason. I had to fish out my vest from my bag just to keep from freezing.  Then the short flight from Houston to New Orleans was unusually warm.  Go figure. Anyway, it was a pretty good trip under the circumstances and I'm glad I went. I probably would have spent the whole weekend sitting in a chair in front of the TV feeling sorry for myself at home anyway.

Races start next weekend with a collegiate race in Texas. Don't know if I'll be needed for that one yet, but I guess I could help with the driving. I had been looking forward to riding the road race myself because they were combining the Collegiate A men with the non-collegiate Cat. 1/2 men.

Break in Training

Riding back along the Kenner bike path in the crosswind.  Last group ride for a little while for me I guess.

Things had been going just fine on the training front lately. Not a single missed day since the first of the year, some good long training rides across the lake, and over 1,500 miles logged through the first week of February. The weather had been reasonably cooperative, the training rides were starting to get a little more intense, and I was feeling as strong as would be expected for weak and frail old guy. I was thinking about travelling with the Tulane team and racing in Texas in the combined Cat. A/Cat. 1/2 road race in less than two weeks. After a nice easy recovery ride on  the levee on Monday I headed out as usual Tuesday morning with Dave and Rich to meet the lakefront training ride. The sky was overcast and rain was expected later in the morning, but radar was, for the moment at least, clear. There was a significant, and increasing, south wind blowing, and it was summer-kit warm. Meeting up with the rest of the group on the lakefront, things ramped up pretty fast, and after making the loop at seabrook they got even faster. A number of people turned off after the lap of Lakeshore Drive, and once we hit the bike path heading out to Kenner I could tell that the crosswind was going to have a big influence on the ride.  Indeed, it was pretty much like ten people trying to sit at a table for four where the front four or five guys were getting a decent draft, but everyone else was strung out along the edge of the road mostly in the wind. It was a good enough morning ride, though, and afterward Rich and I headed back uptown via the usual route as the sky started to darken with the approaching thunderstorms.

We came over the Jeff. Davis overpass and down onto the bike lane alongside a long line of barely moving cars. As often happens in the morning, there were two lanes of cars backed up all the way from the stoplight at Washington Avenue to the overpass. basically at a standstill. I was cruising along in the bike lane at 18-19 mph a few bike lengths ahead of Rich when things all went south. Suddenly a car that I couldn't see pulled across the two lanes of stopped traffic through a little gap and then into the bike lane right in front of me.  I had a millisecond to slam on the brakes when the front of the car cleared the stopped car to my left and slid a bit sideways, slamming hard into the side-view mirror and passenger side door, and then, of course, onto the ground. I sat there stunned for a little while trying to figure out what had just happened. My left shoulder was hurt pretty bad from the impact and I immediately suspected I'd broken the collarbone (again). It's the same collarbone I broke back in 2008 when a dog ran out into the group on the Giro Ride. Since it was already somewhat deformed, though, I couldn't tell for sure if it was broken, separated, or just badly bruised.  My left hand, and especially the ring finger, must have been smashed between the bike and the car, and at the moment the tip of that finger is purple and swollen to about twice normal size (may need another visit to the doctor if it doesn't resolve soon because I had initially just blown it off as a bruise). I also hit the car and/or ground with my head, denting and slightly cracking the helmet on the left side. I had a pretty good gash on my left elbow and some raw skin on my left shoulder under the jersey, but otherwise at least I didn't lose a lot of skin. Fortunately, Rich was able to stop in time and was a big help since it took me a little while to stand up and get back to normal.  The driver of the car jumped out, asking if she should call an ambulance as Rich gathered up my bike and phone and stuff that had come out of my pockets, and the driver of the car behind the crash came over and gave me her card. Rich and I did a quick check and the bike looked OK with only a scrape on the top of the top tube and a missing handlebar plug.  It was fortunate that I'd slid sideways a bit before hitting the car. I imagine a straight-on hit would have broken the frame and launched me head-first into the window or over the roof. I was able to lift my left arm at least up to shoulder level, so after exchanging information with the driver I rode the mile or so back home.

The fracture is at the collarbone bend near the middle
of the image. The separation  is on the right.

When I got home I called the Tulane Sports Medicine Institute, which is right on campus and less than a mile from my house, to see if they could squeeze me in to get some x-rays and see Dr. Savoie. Luckily, Candy knows one of the people who works there, and by now Dr. Savoie probably knows me by name, so they scheduled me for a 12:45 appointment. I sent Danielle off to the Tulane Cycling Center to retrieve my X-brace that I keep in the team first-aid kit.  About that time we started getting emergency weather warnings from LSU, Tulane, and the city about tornadoes.  The local TV was already in full emergency mode trying to cover at least four tornadoes as some seriously bad weather moved into the area. The closest tornado touched down to the east, along and just north of Chef Menteur Highway a bit west of where the Giro Ride turns onto that road.  Whole neighborhoods were completely devastated along the path of that one

Meanwhile, we made a run for TISM, basically in-between tornadoes. After a bunch of shoulder and collarbone X-rays Dr. Savoie came in with a print-out of one of them to show me where the fracture was. He printed out the X-ray from the previous break so we could compare.  Besides the fracture, there was some separation around the AC joint, but the bottom line was that Plan A is to wear the X-brace and check back in a week or two. His instructions were basically, "Well, you know what to do since this ain't your first rodeo."  The shoulder and collarbone hasn't been quite as painful as my other two collarbone breaks, not that it's been all sunshine and unicorns, but at least I was able to get some sleep last night and haven't taken anything stronger than Naproxin. Hopefully it will heal up OK without having to resort to Plan B which would be surgery. I will be flying out to Colorado Springs on Friday for the two-day Officials Summit at USA Cycling, so I'd already been planning on having an easy week.  Looks like it may be a lot easier than I'd expected. One thing for sure is I will be travelling extremely lightly for this trip since lugging stuff across airports won't be any fun at all.

No Winter, No Problem

Riding back uptown through the park.  Not exactly winter weather.

I looked back on Strava the other day and realized I haven't missed a day of riding yet this year.  That's really pretty unusual, even down here in New Orleans where winter just stops by for a visit now and then. The current ten-day forecast doesn't show anything below 50℉ and is even predicting a high of 79℉ next Sunday. Unfortunately I won't be around here on Sunday, but I'll get to that later.

It was a pretty routine week for the group training rides. After the prior weekend's long miles, I had done an easy Monday recovery ride that probably averaged 14 mph, which seemed appropriate under the circumstances. It turned out to have been a good move, because my legs seemed to recover nicely and by Wednesday I wasn't feeling any residual effects. I do think that the three weekends in a row that have included northshore rides had a lot to do with that. On the other hand, in the back of my mind is all of the advice one reads about old guys needing more recovery. Problem is, recovery is boring, riding isn't.

The weather has remained pretty good for riding. It's been kind of chilly early in the mornings, but nothing really below the mid-40s and mostly warmer than that.  Saturday's Giro Ride was about the coldest it's been lately, starting out around 45℉ but ending up a good ten degrees warmer. Whenever I'm planning a long Sunday ride on the northshore I struggle with my effort level on the Saturday Giro. Letting myself drop to the back of the group seems sometimes a lot more work than staying closer to the front, even if it means taking a few pulls. Funny how that works. You just naturally think that if it's easier to be 5th wheel than 2nd wheel, it must be a whole lot easier to be 20th wheel, but it doesn't work like that.  At some point the amount of draft you get stops getting better but the number of gaps you need to close or the amount of attention you need to pay to squirrely riders ahead of you goes way up. Anyway, I tried to conserve when I could on Saturday, but of course there were a few spots where I just had to put my head down and go in order to keep from getting dropped.

The big group stopped a couple of times for
wardrobe adjustments as the temperature rose.

Sunday morning I was out the door a little early, allowing for some time to sit down at Starbucks on Causeway before heading across the lake for the 4th NOBC Winter Ride Series ride. I was feeling pretty chilly once I got over there and ended up over-dressing considerably.  I knew it was going to get warmer, and I knew we  had enough horsepower in the group to make for a fast ride, so I don't really know what I was thinking.  I guess I always err on the side of having a comfy start. Indeed, I was nice and cozy with my wind-resistant short-sleeve base layer and long-sleeve fleece-lined winter jersey and knee-warmers and long-finger gloves, at least for the first ten miles.  By the time we got to the turn onto Lee Road, about 22 miles into the ride, I was already stripping off stuff and stuffing it into my pockets.  I wasn't the only one, either.  It seemed like a lot of people had dressed for the start rather than the finish. Luckily, I don't suffer much when I'm hot.  Certainly not as much as I suffer when I'm cold, anyway.

The required shot coming over the watchtower hill
heading toward Enon

Once we got north of Enon and about half of the initial 25-30 rider group had turned back, the pace started to ramp up pretty well.  With Sam, Stanton, VJ, Matt, and others on hand, I knew it was going to get fast.  We had a couple of the Nth Degree Juniors on hand and both were committed to the full 82 mile ride.  I was pretty impressed that they both survived that, and especially that one of them stayed with the leaders even after things started to fall apart over the last ten miles or so.  For me, it was a pretty satisfying training ride. I felt pretty much like I thought I should be feeling, which is to say I didn't start to hurt until we were a good 60 miles in, and even then I was still able to hang on without too much trouble. As usual, there was a good long effort going up the watchtower hill coming out of Enon on the way back. I was sitting on Sam's wheel and just trying to stay there, and coming over the top was thinking I should thank him for riding such a nice even tempo on the climb.  Then I realized that there were just three of us with a big gap behind.  I took a couple of very brief pulls, but Sam was really doing all the work, and by the time we made the turn at La. Tung Road I think it was down to just the two of us. Meanwhile the rest of the group was coming back together and getting organized. We weren't exactly crushing it, but Sam was holding a pretty fast pace, especially considering that we'd been riding into a south wind for about an hour.  I was more focused on keeping my front wheel within six inches of his rear wheel. Every time I'd get out in the wind my quads were start to scream, so the last thing I wanted to do was come off his wheel and have to fight that headwind alone. I shouldn't have worried, though.  A few miles later the rest of the group came up on us, so it was gruppo compacto turning onto Stafford Road.  I guess a few people eased up after that because we were down to five or six toward the end of the ride.

This weekend I'm heading up to Colorado Springs for the USAC Officials Conference.  Wes will be there for the Local Associations' Summit earlier in the week.  This will be the first time I've attended a stand-alone official's conference, but it seemed like a good idea considering all of the changes going on lately. USAC should be going live with its new website and back-end database in a couple of months and I'm already seeing some strange stuff that's probably related to that. We should really put on an officials seminar in LAMBRA some time soon, but I don't know when would work. Collegiate races start up in a couple of weeks, so I may be going to a few of those.  There are eight in the SCCCC this year - a big improvement over the four they had last week. For me, it might just mean more driving and officiating and less riding, though. The first race is running the collegiate races together with some non-collegiate races, so perhaps I can go do that and get some good training in, or more likely get my ass kicked since my only option would be to ride in the combined Pro/1,2/Cat. A 82 mile road race. At least the course isn't super hilly, so perhaps I'll just hang on as long as I can and try to survive. Tulane will have at least one rider in that race, so there's a slim chance I might be of some assistance at some point.