On the Drops

I was in bed early last night. I guess the renewed training routine, together with the other stresses of summer in the city, must have been catching up to me. I still felt a little sluggish this morning when I stepped out into the humidity at 6 am. As I slowly climbed up the path to the levee I glanced at the sun over my right shoulder. It was a big dull orange disk, filtered by the thick summer haze. I could already tell that today would be a hot one.

Brooks was already up there, sitting down and leaning against the big siphon pipe. Right on cue the other riders started showing up and we soon headed out with a pretty large group for the long Thursday ride. Brooks and I rode herd at the front for the first few miles, and then I dropped to the back as the pace started to ramp up. We had a light tailwind today, and that seemed to keep the speed up pretty high. At some point a few riders went off the front and the gap opened really quickly. Somebody tried unsucessfully to make the bridge, but the pack simply responded by gradually bumping up its pace. We ended up with a good smooth paceline comprising about half of the riders, with the other half staying our of the rotation. Today I spent most of the time in the front half. The group off the front had 40 seconds or so, but I think we were holding that in check over the last ten miles.

After the turnaround we could feel the headwind and the group went really easy for a long time, but of course you knew that couldn't last forever. By the time we were halfway back we were back into race mode. That's when I finally made the transition and got on the drops. I had been avoiding that position for a couple of reasons, one of which was mainly psychological, but I guess today was the day to fold over a little more and get back down where I belong. Granted, I can still feel a little pain, especially when I go to change hand position from the drops to the top of the bar. So I ended up riding quite a while on the drops as we took turns pulling. The pace stayed pretty fast the rest of the way back and I was definitely feeling tired when we finally eased up at the playground.

Today is kind of hectic. Lots of stuff I have to get done today at work, along with a lot of emails and phone calls about the Tour de La (I'm the contact phone number). Pre-registration is running a bit behind last year. The combination of a big NRC criterium in Austin and the ever-increasing price of gas may be part of the reason. On the plus side, it will keep the field sizes down to manageable sizes, which is always nice on the narrow winding road race course. We've got a whole slew of motos lined up for the Road Race, and along with this year's addition of a second back number, there will be some centerline penalties dished out for sure to anyone who really gets stupid about it. I hate to do it, but last year was out of control in a rather dangerous way. BTW, if you happen to read the nice article in the NY Times ("Faster, Higher, Stronger") check out the mistake near the end where the author gives this obviously wrong quote, presumably from Christian Vandevelde; "When negotiating curves, he said, position your feet so that the pedal on the inside of the curve is down, with the outside pedal up (which keeps your weight balanced). " Yikes!

Crunch Time

It never fails. Just as the Tour de La approaches, all sorts of other things start to go critical, mostly at work. Many years ago I would start skipping training rides during the two weeks prior to the Tour, sometimes just to get the rest, and other times because there just wasn't enough time. For the last six or seven years, though, I've steadfastly refused to give up my riding time. After all, I won't get in a single pedal stroke this weekend while I'm officiating the TDL. It never seems to really matter, but at least it keeps me from regretting all the work that goes into the race a little bit less.

So anyway, it's been busy on all fronts. The NOBC team has been working hard to pull the event together. There are a million things that have to be done - getting portable toilets delivered, charging radio batteries, producing the Race Bible, arranging for follow vehicles, police, moto refs, etc. The list is endless. Personally, I carve out just a small piece for myself, as do most of the rest of our experienced race organizing crew. I hesitate to call any of us promoters. If we were, we'd probably either give up on the event altogether or figure out a way to make money on it. As it is, the costs have been rising alarmingly from year to year while the number of riders has stayed more or less constant. Aside from the $4,000 prizelist, I guess there are another $6,000 in costs, mostly for police, officials, hotel rooms, and those sorts of things.

So I woke up this morning feeling really tired. I had done the long levee ride on Tuesday and have ridden every day for the last ten days or so, plus commuting to and from work. Speaking of commuting, I've been strapping my messenger bag to the rear rack on the commuter and I guess that's starting to take its toll on the antique rear wheel. Yesterday, on the way home, I broke a spoke. Of course, since it's a good old-fashioned 36-spoke wheel, I was able to get home without a problem. Later that evening Dustin came over so I could make some badly needed adjustments to his bike. I trued up the wheels a little more (they're still rather far from perfect), gave him a couple of water bottle cages and bottles, blocked out his rear derailleur so he'd be legal for the Junior race, raised his saddle a little bit more, etc. After that I spend a couple of late-night hours updating the LCCS points series and posting all of that to the LAMBRA website. Basically, I got maybe 5 hours of sleep before I was back on the bike this morning.

Today's ride seemed a little odd. We ended up with a pretty long paceline and the pace was fairly brisk, but the strange thing was the wind. It felt a lot like a winter wind, other than the fact that it was in the 80s. That meant that much of the ride was into a crosswind, and on the bike path that means four people with a draft and ten more lined up along the edge of the road without a draft. On the way back Elise and I tried to organize a second eschelon, but apparently that is just totally beyond the comprehension capacity of most of the riders. They would rather ride without a draft on the edge of the road and complain about the leaders not being far enough over to the other side. Oh well. We tried. As we cooled down after the playground Gabe asked me if I had some aero bars he could borrow, so he followed me home and I gave him a set to use this weekend. After that I had to replace the broken spoke in my commuter bike's wheel and true it up. Luckily the broken spoke was on the non-freewheel side, because I don't think I have a remover for that single-speed freewheel. Anyway, I finally made it to work. Whoo hooo.

Cars, Bikes and Water

*** WARNING. THIS ONE'S LONG. ***

FRIDAY

The last few days have been kind of eventful. I'll start with Friday. The Daughter is up in Iowa City where the Iowa River was starting to flood parts of the city. She's hobbling around on crutches, working at the UI hospital, which happens to be on the other side of the river from her house. Her car, which isn't running reliably, was at the Jeep dealer, which would have been fine except that the Jeep dealer happens to be located on Riverside Drive, an as you might guess, that's right alongside the river. So after some debate, we decided maybe it would be prudent to move the car just in case the flooding was worse than expected. So, as the city is closing down bridges as the floodwaters rise, she somehow talked the dealer into sending a van to pick up her roommate so she could rescue the car. Anyway, she and the car finally made it back home, and by the next day the U. Iowa art complex, university center, and probably the basement of the library were swimming pools. Since she's "essential personnel" she'll be at work tomorrow, assuming she has a way to get there.

SATURDAY

So anyway, Friday afternoon I decided to join Mark, Ed, Jorge, Laura, Brian, Steve and a few others on Saturday morning for a couple of laps around the Tour de Louisiane road race course. A new junior rider, Dustin, was also coming along. So we loaded ourselves into Ed's van after meeting at Starbucks and headed for the northshore to pick up Steve and meet the rest of the group out at "cucumber corner." Along the way I learned that Dustin had just started riding and if he made two laps of the 15+ mile loop it would be a personal best. Fortunately, I was not harboring any intentions of doing a hard ride, so I figured I'd keep track of him since he'd surely come off the back once the pace ramped up.


So we start out on the ride and Dustin is immediately having trouble keeping up even though the speed is under 20 mph. I told Mark to go ahead and that I'd stay with Dustin. His legs look pretty strong and he runs track in high school, so I'm surprised he's having so much trouble, especially on the hills. Granted, he's riding a fairly heavy entry-level bike and I can see that the saddle is set way, way too low, but even with the hills I'm thinking something's wrong. So anyway, I ride alongside him for most of the loop dispensing sage wisdom and enjoying the scenery when we finally turn onto the last stretch of the first lap. Dropping behind him on a downhill, I notice his rear wheel is way out of true. He's also told me that he can't shift into the two largest cogs. So near the end of the lap I spot a convenient place where we can stop (in the shade). I go to check the wheel and discover it is hitting *solid* on *both* brake blocks. Working the pedals with my hand, I can't push hard enough to get the wheel all the way around! The front wheel is also rubbing a brake block. Sheesh! I'm amazed he's made it this far. So we limp the last mile to the corner and wait for the group to come around on it's second lap to borrow a multi-tool. After doing the best I can to true the wheel with an emergency spoke wrench, and readjusting the derailleur, I raised the seat at least an inch and a half. It's still a bit low, I think. Anyway, his next lap looked a lot easier! The rest of the group bailed out after three laps, and so we followed them in to the cars with two laps under our belts.


Then, on the way home as we're nearing Covington on Highway 21 Ed, who's driving, suddenly yells something like "holy s&!t!" A few cars ahead a shiny little convertible VW beetle is somersaulting across the road. We hit the brakes along with everyone else and rush down the road to see if everyone's OK. Amazingly a rather attractive girl opens the door of the VW, which had luckily landed upright, and steps out. She's dazed and frightened but otherwise fine. The passenger side of the car is crushed, another car is on the shoulder with its rear wheel ripped off, and there's a pile of crushed glass and CDs in the middle of the highway. Whew! One lucky girl.


SUNDAY

Saturday afternoon I'd gotten an email from Gabe, who is a student at Union College and is doing a summer internship in NOLA with Tulane's SAFER (Student Advocacy for Equitable Recovery) program. He's a Cat. 5 who's done some collegiate racing and is looking for somebody to give him the scoop on training routes in town. We agree to meet on the levee bike path at 7 am on Sunday.


When I woke up Sunday morning I thought I heard the rumble of distant thunder. I fired up the laptop to check the radar and although there were some big thunderstorms just to the east of the city, they looked like they were moving in the right direction and everything to the west looked OK. So I met Gabe and we headed up the river on the bike path. Half an hour later my phone rings. At first I thought it was Dustin who was also going to meet us. I'd figured he wouldn't be there because it was raining in Chalmette when we started. It turned out to be The Wife asking if we needed to be picked up because it was raining at the house. We looked up the road and the weather looked good, so we decided to keep going and hope that the rain would pass by the time we got back. Out near Ormond we saw a few of the Bicycle World guys on their way back and then we met up with Dave who lives out there. When we turned around and saw the menacing black sky over the city Dave suggested that we head over to his house and get a ride back. We decided to ride back anyway, and so Dave came with us for the first ten miles or so before turning back home. The whole time, as we changed direction with the bends in the river, we're reassessing our chances of getting wet. We were actually thinking we'd make it home dry until we came around the curve at the Country Club. The drizzle turned quickly into big stinging raindrops. The wind picked up. Then the lightning started. This was not good. We were maybe a quarter mile from the bridge when the lightning started striking dangerously closely so we bailed out onto one of the local roads in a heavily industrial area. The street was already starting to flood. We found a building with a big overhang over the front door and ran for cover. Well, we ended up stranded there for quite a while as one of the more severe thunder and lightning storms just pounded the area. The rain was coming down in Biblical proportion, and I knew there would be some serious street flooding. We were starting to get really cold and so I called The Wife to request emergency extraction. A little while later I called her back and found out that she had to abort the mission because the streets were flooding and she couldn't get though.


So we waited it out for another fifteen or twenty minutes until the lightning moved a bit further into the distance and mounted back up. By now I was shivering badly enough that I had to hold the bars near the stem to keep the front wheel from wobbling! After riding through a number of flooded streets we finally arrived at the house. The rain soon ended, so I put Gabe's bike into the car to drive him home. Fifteen minutes later we were back at the house because the streets we needed to use were still flooded and in a couple of spots there were residents blocking the road to keep people from driving their cars down them and making waves that would flood the houses. We tried again about half an hour later and although the water was fairly deep around Audubon Park, we made it through OK. It took me a good hour to get my body temperature back to normal after that little adventure!

The Long Way

For the last few days I've finally gotten back to riding the bike to work. This seemingly simple thing has presented a challenge or two, the most significant of which involves the messenger bag. With collarbone and ribs still a bit on the tender side, throwing my fully loaded Timbuk2 over my shoulder doesn't seem like a good idea. Luckily, I have a classic old aluminum Pletcher rear rack on my commuter. With the help of an old toe strap and a bungee cord, I am able to mount the bag on the rack pannier-style. The only problem with that is that heel clearance is a little tight and I have to be careful to arrange it so nothing hits the spokes. It's been working fairly well, considering.


With gas prices out of sight and rising even The Wife has decided it's time to leave the car at home a few days a week, and so yesterday evening we rode home together. Rather than take the short route via the Broad Street overpass, we decided to take the long way. That turned out to be a rather pleasant ride, largely along St. Charles Avenue. The long way is still only about six and a half miles, compared with my usual 3.5 mile route. I've noticed it's a lot cooler riding in the summer with the bag strapped to the rack rather than on my back.



The long levee ride was looking to be a small group at first this morning. We rolled out kind of easy and since I was on the front I picked it up to about 20 mph as we approached the playground. A little while later Diego, Chad and a couple of the Bicycle World guys came streaming past. Figuring that the rest of the group was probably right behind, I latched on as the pace went up to around 27 mph. I'm still quite reluctant to look behind while I'm riding, so it was a few miles before I did. The rest of the group was nowhere to be found. Well, these guys were riding like they were in a breakaway, and although I wanted to be in the rotation I thought I'd better not let them lick my plate clean and then leave me for dead, so I sat on the back. Since I haven't been "really" training for the last five weeks I knew the pace was going to take its toll on me eventually any way. Chad dropped off early and soon the pace started to ease a bit. I guess by the end we were down to 24-25 mph, so I took a few pulls. With such a small group I felt safer than I do in the middle of a long paceline where I can't see much of the road ahead. Anyway, at the turnaround I looped back right away while the others hung around and waited for the rest of the group. As a result I had a nice easy few miles until the group finally caught back up to me somewhere before the Dip. I was kind of surprised at how good my legs felt, but I have a feeling that they may be a little sore tomorrow morning. Nonetheless, it was probably the best workout I've done in a long time.



Early this week a cyclist was killed on River Road near Baton Rouge when he was hit from behind by an inattentive driver (with a suspended license) who was apparently fiddling with his radio and not looking where he was going. This happened on the course that we often use for time trials up there. The road is dead flat and curves gently with the river. The rider was from New Orleans and while I recognized the last name, Goodier, I was hoping it wasn't a family I knew. Well, yesterday I learned that it was the brother of one of The Daughter's classmates from the Academy of the Sacred Heart. The rider was training for triathlons, but was also a recent M.D. doing a residency in Baton Rouge, probably at Our Lady of the Lake hospital to which he was airlifted and later pronounced dead. After a double fatality on the same road during a training race a few years back caution signs went up along the route warning motorists that it was a cyclist training route.

On the Orbea

After getting the repaired Orbea back to the house thanks to Kenny and Frank and Chip (thanks guys!), I took another look at the wheels and decided that I could probably true the wheel up after all. So the other day I stopped by Sears to find the necessary 3/16" open-ended wrench for the Cane Creek hub-mounted spoke nipples. Naturally they didn't sell the single wrench in that size so I had to buy a little set of Munchkin wrenches. After getting home from work yesterday I put the front wheel on the stand and the first thing I noticed was a bent spoke. Aha!! I had found the culprit that caused my over-the-bars experience. This was clear evidence that my front wheel had tangled with someone's rear derailleur, specifically the rider who had been on my left, while trying to avoid squashing the little dog, just as I remembered it. So anyway, the wheels didn't look too terrible, and after half an hour or so I had both wheels back within acceptable levels of trueness (is that a word?), which for training wheels means they both made it through the brakes without rubbing. Then I had to readjust the derailleur hanger and get the derailleur adjusted. That replaceable aluminum derailleur hanger is alarmingly flexible! It's no wonder it was a little out of line after that crash. I still have a spare new one on hand, but since the head of the tiny little bolt holding it on is damaged I'll probably have to drill it out if I need to replace it. Anyway, everything seemed to be working fine and I was excited to be able to get back on the "light" bike.

So this morning I went out on the Orbea for the first time in five weeks to meet the morning levee ride. It was a medium sized group today and the pace was pretty smooth with Big Richard on his mountain bike, his wife, Elise, Donald, and a few of the other regulars, later to be joined by Viv. I stayed in the rotation for a while, but eventually felt like I was pushing my luck and retreated to the back where I had better visibility, more reaction time, and a clear exit door. It was a good ride and I felt like I got a decent workout, although the collarbone and shoulder in general were a little achy by the time I got home. I guess that's to be expected. I have begun to realize that this shoulder will now serve a double purpose. I could tell it was going to rain today from the way it felt!

When I got to work I had an email from The Daughter telling me that her Jeep Liberty had killed on her a few times yesterday and seems to have a big transmission problem. She's been having speedometer and other electrical problems lately, so it might be that the computer is the culprit. We'll find out the bad news once she gets it towed to the dealer tomorrow. Not looking forward to that one at all.....

Riding Like a Turtle

I went out early Monday morning for a nice solo ride on the levee. I had every intention of keeping it down to a nice steady spin, but every time I spotted another rider up the road my legs just automatically picked up the pace. I had to keep telling myself to take it easy. So when I came across a turtle crossing the road (to get to the other side, I suppose), I stopped to turn him around and place him back on the river side of the road so he wouldn't get run over. I think someone had just told me that one of the guys had hit a turtle on the bike path recently, and Donald told me there had been a big King snake up there the other day. Anyway, it was a nice ride with a few little fast stretches.

Monday afternoon was another visit to the orthopedist. The collarbone is healing, a callus is forming, and he gave me the OK to ride as long as I promised not to fall. I didn't tell him I'd already been riding for a week. He manipulated the break in various directions and seemed satisfied that things were progressing as expected. We'll take another x-ray in a month, but which time there should be some actual bone, and see where it stands. Some relatively minor surgery to smooth out the fracture area might be in the cards at some point, but that would have to wait until it was more bone to work with. The alignment is, well, let's just say I've seen a lot worse! I should have taken a pic of the x-ray. Meanwhile, up in Iowa The Daughter's doctor cleared her for swimming, so she was happy about that. She's already been back in the weight room and will probably be working half-days soon.

So Tuesday morning I made it out to meet the long ride group. I spent some time hanging off the back, and a little time in the paceline when it seemed safe, and then when we got out to the parish line I dropped off. I was feeling pretty good, but I didn't want to find out how bad my conditioning was halfway back from the turnaround, so I figured I'd ride easy and catch the on the flip side. So I rode easily out to the dip, turned around, and rode back really slowly, looking over my shoulder for the group. Finally I saw riders coming up from behind, so I sped up and latched on, only to discover that it was an earlier group, so I dropped off of that one again. Eventually, my group showed up toward the end of the ride and I finished up the ride with them, except that when we got to the playground John and Brady eased up and I stayed with Dave. It was good to get in a couple hours of saddle time, even if some of it was at turtle speed. Anyway, I enjoyed being back in the paceline, although I think it will be a couple weeks more before I feel like I can relax and ride as close to the wheel in front of me as I'm used to.

Where's my Bike?

Saturday morning I was up early, ready for the drive up to Natchez, MS for the LAMBRA Road Championships. I was going up to help out a little bit with the officiating, but mostly just to be there, even though I wasn't riding. Oh, and I also had to bring the medals for the winners. I put a few things into the car before heading off to pick up Ed N., but the car seemed particularly empty. It's not often that I take a road trip without the bike, and to be going to a race without the bike was just downright odd. We arrived well before the first races started, and it was already getting pretty hot. For purely historical reasons, this race starts kind of late on Saturday with the juniors, followed by the Cat. 5s, and finally the Masters at 2 p.m. It's a bit of cruel and unusual punishment to make the old guys start at the hottest part of the day. Maybe we should rethink that for next year. Anyway, the Cat. 5 race had a smallish but typical turnout, and the club had Ed, Daniel and Dave entered. Ed's been riding well lately and I was thinking that he had a good chance for a win, so I was a little surprised when they came by with three or four laps to go and a solo rider from Baton Rouge was way off the front. I watched as the group made the steep little climb past the finish line and up onto the dam. I could sense that Ed was feeling frustrated. Well, with a couple of laps to go another break went off from the pack that included Ed, Ali, and a few others, and then apparently Ed took off from that break in pursuit of the leader. With one lap to go I happened to be at the top of the climb up to the dam and saw the leader come by. Then, just 20 seconds later, I saw Ed storming up the climb in hot pursuit. I had no doubt whatsoever that he would make the catch within the next mile. I later learned that he'd been chasing alone for about five miles. Well, to make a long story short, he caught, they worked together for the rest of the lap, and Ed won the sprint easily to take the Cat. 5 championship.

The next race was the combined Master 30+, 35+, 45+ race. This was a decent-sized field with a good amount of horsepower in it, so I was quite surprised to see a 4-man break go clear early in the first lap. That break included Dan Bennett (in town from NM), Russ Walker, Woody Boudreaux, and Jason Miller. A strong quartet, to be sure, but back in the pack were a lot of strong riders. I guess since three of the bigger teams were represented, there weren't many riders left to chase. Anyway, over the ensuing laps, Jason's seatpost came loose, dropping all the way down to the top tube and he had to stop for a fix. That put him back in the main pack that by now was a couple of minutes down. Shortly thereafter Russ just plain rode away from the other two riders and went on to win solo by a huge margin. Behind him, Dan and Woody stayed together with Dan taking the sprint.

We didn't leave until everything was over, so it turned into a pretty long day. By the time I got home I was looking forward to a long ride on Sunday.

I ended up doing 40+ miles on Sunday up on the levee, spending much of the return trip with John who was recovering from a sinus infection and had been off the bike for most of the week. That worked out fine, since I'm not really ready for prime time. I was still being really careful when I'd pass other riders or walkers, especially if there was a dog involved! I think I will go ahead and count that ride as actual training. Of course, I'm now starting over in "base training" mode, and hope to be spending a decent number of miles in the saddle over the next couple of weeks, albeit at a fairly slow and deliberate pace. Once the collarbone and shoulder joint stop aching I may even think about spending some time in the gym to try and build up a few muscles above the waist.

Return to the Levee

After another 940 mile drive on Wednesday, I wasn't too sure I'd make it out the door Thursday morning, but the weather was nice and after sitting in a car for the better part of fourteen hours it seemed worth the effort. So with a grunt and a moan I rolled out of bed, climbed on the bike, and with my right hand gripping the bar near the stem rode rather gingerly through the quiet neighborhood out to the levee. The 6:15 group was pretty large. Even that 40 year old guy, Kenny, was there. I figured it was safe riding alongside him as we started out. After a few miles the pace started to ramp up, so I politely excused myself and drifted to the back of the paceline. Actually I drifted a couple of bike lengths behind the back of the paceline. No point taking any chances. For the most part, the collarbone and ribs weren't a problem, although I am strongly favoring my right hand over my left as you'd expect, and there are lots of places where my left arm does not want to go. I'm also being extremely careful to leave myself a lot of room to maneuver should anything sudden happen up ahead. Anyway, somewhere out past the country club I looked down and saw that the speed was approaching 30 mph, so I decided it might be a good time to back off and ride solo. At the 10 mile point I turned around and had a nice relaxing ride back home, occasionally sitting up with both hands off the bars to give my very confused and inadequate shoulder muscles a rest. For the rest of the work day I strapped the brace back on.

Friday morning was kind of a repeat of Thursday. I met the group, rode with it out to the pumping station at 10 miles, and then turned around and rode back. It was a bit more of a workout than yesterday, but still a very long way from a 'normal' morning workout. Baby steps.....

Riding on Eggshells

After yesterday's successful test ride, I thought I'd try for a longer ride in the morning. Seemed like a good plan. So I got up bright and early so I'd miss the rush hour traffic, but when I looked out the window I knew I was in trouble. The sky looked overcast and the wind was blowing, so I fired up the laptop to check the radar. Good thing I did, because a big line of heavy thunderstorms was about half an hour away. Oh well, it was a nice try. I got back into bed and drifted back off to sleep as the rain started coming down.

I don't think the sun ever came out today, but we did walk down to the local DMV to get a temporary handicapped parking tag for The Daughter's car. The difference between this Iowa City DMV and any DMV within fifty miles of New Orleans was impressive. All of the employees were pleasant and helpful, they had a huge LCD monitor showing the weather in one window and the "now serving" numbers in the other. We waited maybe five minutes and promptly received two handicapped hangtags without being charged a fee.

Finally, around 4 pm, I got a chance to go out for a ride. Riding like this is kind of a new experience altogether. It's like riding on eggshells. I'm glad that there are some little hills, because that's the only way I can get some exercise without going too fast. By "too fast" I mean more than 15 mph, which is about the speed at which I start to feel the little bumps in the road. The other thing is that my slow and cautious riding makes me feel self-conscious, especially since I'm wearing my usual club kit. Maybe I'd feel more comfortable and less conspicuous in baggy shorts and a t-shirt? Anyway, I rode ten or fifteen miles, which took an hour, but compared to riding the trainer, it was fantastic. Tomorrow morning we'll be driving back down to NOLA all day, and after that it'll be back to normal, such as it is. Frank fixed the Orbea and dropped it off at Kenny's house last weekend. Thanks Frank! I wonder if it's worth trying to fix those Cane Creek wheels that apparently got rolled over in the crash...

Test Ride

It was cool and dry this morning when I set up the mag trainer outside the back door. I reluctantly climbed on, pushed the start/stop button on my watch, and started to spin. Ten minutes later I was already dripping sweat. Twenty minutes later I said to myself "screw this, it's time to get back on the road." So I went back inside, dug out my helmet, and rather gingerly rolled down the driveway. The cool air felt great, the collarbone was fine, and the ribs were OK as long as I didn't breathe too heavily. So I decided it was time for a little test ride. Luckily there was some kind of a bike path nearby, so at least I wouldn't have to deal with a lot of traffic. I don't know if it was strictly necessary, but I figured I should ride with an abundance of caution, so I kept most of my weight on my right hand, especially on the bumps, and got in a nice 45 minutes or so before I found my way back to the house. By the time I got back I could feel a little bit of tenderness in the big lump that is now part of my left collarbone, and there was some stiffness in my arm from being stretched and used after such a long period of relative inactivity, but otherwise it was fine. So basically the test ride went well and I think I'll be able to get back on the road, providing I'm careful not to take any chances. I'm sure that falling off the bike would be a very bad idea right now.

Later in the morning we stopped in at the local coffee shop for a while, and got a few things done, but mostly just hung around the house trying to keep The Daughter comfortable. She's got a pretty impressive scar this time. They cut along an older scar from a previous surgery, but lengthened it by another couple of inches. She seems to be doing pretty well, under the circumstances. Right now I'm back on the couch watching Catwoman after a very full dinner at the Olive Garden.

Post-Op.

We were at the University of Iowa's awesome hospital bright and early Friday morning, and by 9 am The Daughter was on her way to pre-op. For the next four or five hours we hung around the waiting room and conveniently located Java House downstairs, both of which had wireless internet access. When we finally went in to see her after recovery I was surprised how good she looked. I guess you get better with this post-op stuff with practice. She was taken to her room right away where they started pumping her full of morphine. Actually they just *thought* they were pumping her full of antibiotic. As it turned out, the nurse had screwed up and for the first hour or so they were just pumping fluids into her forearm tissue because she'd missed the vein entirely. That was easy to see because her arm and hand swelled up to about twice their normal size and were getting really painful. So we got that fixed and with the nerve block was still in effect and some extra morphine she was pretty much out for the count last night.

Back at her apartment, she has a little miniature pincher puppy for which the term hyperactive doesn't even scratch the surface. This little dog practically bounces off the walls. He also like to piss on the couch precisely in the locations where I'm about to sit. So I ended up doing laundry last night.

By early morning the nerve block was finally starting to wear off and the pain was ramping up, but anyway she was back home before noon along with a neat space-age electronic "Game Ready" ice pack machine.

As for myself, the ribs seem to be hurting even more, probably from lugging around my messenger bag and computer all day yesterday, while the collarbone seems to be hurting much less. I finally got on the trainer for another hour this evening. I swear, the dripping sweat and all really distract me from actually riding the damned thing. I can't wait to get back on the road.

Far Away

Wednesday we took a little drive, and fourteen hours later we found ourselves far away in Hawkeye country. Other than a near-death experience in Jackson caused by a flooded section of Interstate highway and a raging thunderstorm that left numerous spun-out cars in the roadside ditches, the drive was quite smooth. The Daughter is having some reconstructive knee surgery tomorrow morning up here in Iowa City, so we're here for a few days to help get her through the first week. I was glad that the ribs and collarbone didn't bother me too much during the drive, although as usual I arrived feeling kind of dragged-out. Funny how driving will do that.

So this afternoon I took The Daughter's trainer outside into the cool, dry Iowa air, and spent an hour or so riding, mostly with a cloud of little gnats swarming around my face. It always surprises me how sweat actually evaporates up here. Even the drops that fell onto the concrete dried up before they could form the little puddles that I always get back home. We did spend a little time at the local bike shop, Geoff's Bike and Ski. It's a pretty nice little shop - lots of Specialized stuff, of course, but also a few Orbeas and other interesting bikes, along with things like snowboards. In NOLA, we have Bike and Lawn Mower shops. Here they have Bike and Ski shops. I never cared much about lawn mowers, but I think I could get into skis.

As for tomorrow, we'll be at the hospital for 7 am, and they'll almost certainly keep her overnight following the surgery, so we'll just have to play it by ear for the next couple of days.

Making Progress

So I spent Sunday and most of Monday doing pretty much nothing, unless you count trying to grow new bone as something. It wasn't that there wasn't anything to do, either. I would have liked to make it over to the Bayou Boogaloo on Saturday, which would have involved a visit to Bayou Bicycles, but I reluctantly had to pass. The problem was that it was classic summer weather, which is to say that it was oppressively hot and unbearably humid for normal folks. Not being particularly normal, that wouldn't ordinarily have stopped me, but I have recently learned that staying out in the summer heat while wearing a Velcro vest is just plain miserable. Add to that the fact that I would have had to drive the car to something that I would ordinarily ride a bike to, and it was just too much. So I languished on the couch watching the Star Trek marathon on TV, eating oatmeal cookies, listening to the drone of the air-conditioner and looking forlornly out the window. I did take a short "work break" to replace the broken spring hinges on the porch screen door, but that was about it.

I had a followup appointment with the orthopedist at TISM Monday afternoon, and the news was fairly encouraging. The collarbone is making progress and coming along nicely. I really wish I'd brought the camera so I could have gotten a shot of the new improved x-ray. It looks like surgery will definitely be avoided and I was told I could start "weaning" myself off of the brace I've been wearing for the last three weeks. As long as I don't do anything stupid, like fall off of a bike, I can start ramping up the use of that arm and shoulder as much as my pain tolerance permits, which right now is just a little bit below the top of my head. I even got a reasonable amount of sleep last night despite the broken ribs that hurt every time I lie down. In fact, this morning I even rode the trainer for an hour without the brace, which made it a whole lot cooler. I guess it would be more accurate to say it was a lot less incredibly hot, because somehow the word "cool" doesn't quite apply here. It was still plenty boring and not entirely pain-free, but it was a significantly cooler kind of boring. Anyway, the timing is working out pretty well because I will be driving up to Iowa City again on Thursday. The Daughter is having some fairly major knee surgery on Friday, so we're going up there for about a week, and yes I'm bringing my bike. At the very least, I should be able to use her trainer, since it's a given that she won't be needing it until she gets into rehab mode. I might even try a little spin around the neighborhood if everything feels OK just to see if I can still ride a bike. They say you never forget..... We'll see. The weekend after I get back I plan on going up to Natchez to help officiate the LAMBRA Road Championships since our head official, Shane, won't be able to make it this year.

The Tour de Louisiane is coming up quickly too, and we've had a flurry of emails this morning about those plans. Keith is trying for a slightly modified criterium course that would start and finish at the new Covington Tammany Trace Trailhead (conveniently located across the street from a microbrewery, I think). Of course, much will depend on Covington city officials, but if we can get it, we'll have improved road surfaces for most, if not all, of the course. BTW, if you look at the little video slide show on the Covington website you'll see a shot from the Tour de La criterium. Anyway, I have work to do and my collarbone is achy, so peace out, y'all.

Little Italian Guy on a Colnago

Slept rather badly last night. Perhaps it was the extra wine I had after (and during) dinner at Café Degas. So I woke up early and after considering the cost-benefit ratio involved in lifting myself out of bed, I went for it and got up. Eventually I found my way down to the basement with the laptop and spun the pedals for half an hour before the live Giro d' Italia coverage started on Cyclingfans.com. An hour later, dripping wet with sweat, I climbed off and settled in to see if the little Italian guy on the pretty Colnago would make it to the finish of the day's hilly stage without being caught. I have to admit, I tend to identify with those 120 pound Italian climbers like Sella. If only those carbon Colnagos were actually made in Italy. Sadly, that was about the high point of my day. The rest consisted of a drive to Baton Rouge to patch up the door of The Wife's mothers house that's been vacant for a few years now and had been broken into. With no electricity, it was a pretty lousy fix and I made The Wife promise she wouldn't tell anyone who had done it! By the time I was done my collarbone was achy, I was soaked with sweat, it was 4 pm and I was hungry.

So a bunch of the club guys are going to ride the Tour de La road race course tomorrow and I'm feeling really deprived about it. Why do these bones take so long to heal? On my way back from Baton Rouge I got a call from Kenny B. who said that the Herring guys were having a lot of bad luck up in ATL. First, the motor home they were driving up there broke down. There have been a number of crashes, and today Kenny crashed and broke his frame. Sounds like he didn't break any bones, at least. Frank and Bain also crashed. Bain crashed twice, once on his bike and once on Woody's bike, and ended up finishing on Frank's bike. Gina V. crashed today in DC. Seems like she just recovered from a bad crash a few weeks ago where she banged up her hip. What is it with all these crashes lately? I mean, we've had four broken collarbones/ shoulders this year just in our little club. That's decidedly odd. Oh well. Tomorrow is another day.....

Spinning My Wheels

Today is "Tulane Day" at the state capitol in Baton Rouge, a little three-ring circus that our office annually coordinates. While three or four separate groups from Tulane travel around to pre-arranged meetings with state legislators to talk about all the great things their projects are doing for the State, the atrium (aka "the rotunda") of the capitol building is decorated with blue and green as specially selected Tulane centers and collaborative projects set up displays aimed at highlighting the university's activities, at least those that relate directly to the state. It's actually a pretty good event that hopefully counterbalances the myth that Tulane is some kind of rich kid ivy league island that's disconnected from reality. We've done so much community work over the last few years that it's very difficult to decide which ones to highlight.


At 5:45 am I braced myself, gritted my teeth, and with a loud groan lifted my broken bones out of bed. Damn, those ribs make it hard to get out of bed! Changing into a pair of riding shorts and mismatched full-zip jersey (I have a new found fondness for full-zip jerseys, by the way) I headed down to the basement. As I've done the last couple of mornings, I put in an hour on the trainer spinning my wheels and going nowhere. I still can't really bring myself to push very hard, or for that matter put my hands any lower than the elbow pads of the clip-ons. The velcro wrapped around my lungs, not to mention the broken ribs, makes it hard to breathe deeply, and of course wearing a big velcro vest doesn't do anything good for your ability to stay cool, especially while on a stationary trainer. At any rate, I figure it's better than nothing. Still, by the time 50 minutes has passed I'm looking at my watch constantly, wondering how time can possibly be passing so slowly. Considering the relatively easy pace at which I'm riding, it's surprising to see a little puddle of sweat on the floor.


So up in Baton Rouge we unloaded a couple of cases of green apples, each wrapped in cellophane and tied with a green ribbon. They, along with 144 informational folders that we'd assembled the day before, were delivered to the appropriate offices so that they could be placed on the members' desks in the House and Senate chambers. Other than that, I basically spent four or five hours spinning my wheels wandering around the Rotunda, bored and with little to do. By 3:30 the collarbone was starting to ache, so I was glad I'd already decided to skip the 6 p.m. reception at the Governor's Mansion. Ordinarily I'd never miss something like that, but under the circumstances I just knew I'd be uncomfortable the whole time anyway. So I made the 90-minute drive back home and promptly poured myself a glass of cold Rogue Mocha Porter. Everything was better after that.....

Home Early

Didn't ride the trainer this morning. I guess maybe I didn't sleep too well last night, considering that I fell asleep on the couch and didn't force myself to switch over to the bed until around 3:00 a.m. I had decided on Sunday to see how it would go without the pain-killers, so I'd taken only a couple of Tylenol all day. I learned a few things from that experiment. The first was that the medicine works pretty well. The other was that by far the most pain I was having was coming from a few ribs in my back rather than the broken clavicle. By evening I was quite certain that I did indeed have a broken rib, which I'd been suspecting for a while. The thing that really convinced me of that was an unexpected sneeze. Yeouch! So anyway, after dinner I took half of a Lorcet. Lessons learned. I ended up ordering a couple of cycling movies (The Hard Road and Pro) to play on my laptop while I'm on the trainer. Apparently I become something of a spendthrift when I'm using narcotics, even at low doses!

I find that I'm very grumpy when I don't ride in the morning. To make matters worse, when I got to work this morning, while the levee ride was probably still somewhere in Jefferson Parish, I discovered that Tulane's entire Ethernet was down. No email, no web, no network connectivity at all. I put in a call to the help desk and it sounded like they were still in detective mode trying to figure out what had melted down, so I went to Plan B, which was to use my fax line to dial-up to my Bellsouth (aka AT&T) account. Problem was, it didn't like my password. So after calling their tech services guys, I got my password reset and at least I had Internet access. I'd almost forgotten how slow dial-up could be. At least it was a rest day for the Giro d' Italia, so I didn't miss the live video of the race. Once again, I have to hand it to the BellSouth tech guys, they were quick, knowledgable, spoke English, and this one was actually located in New Orleans too. Class act. So I survived on dial-up until the university system got going again, which wasn't until around 11:00. I was told that it had been a firewall issue at the hospital, which doesn't make much sense to me, but whatever...

So this afternoon I had an appointment with the orthopedist for 3:00 which of course conflicted a bit with a 2:00 conference call that I had to skip out on at 2:30. They took the usual couple of x-rays, and when we met I explained that I thought I had a broken rib because it hurt more than the clavicle. So the doctor finally took a look at the full chest x-ray and came back quite excited to have found not one, but three broken ribs. Whoohooo! Of course at that point I wasn't surprised and besides, there's nothing to be done about that, which I knew already, except to get used to the pain for a few extra weeks. The clavicle, on the other hand, is apparently doing pretty much what we wanted and things are progressing as planned, so I'll likely be in this brace for another week or two before I can graduate to a different one. The appointment went pretty quickly and we didn't have to wait around hardly at all, but even so it was nearly 4 pm when we left, so there was no point in fighting traffic to get back to the office just to have to turn around and come home, so I got home early today. Maybe I'll spend a little time on the trainer this evening. One can hope.....

On the Shoulder

It was around 9 pm Saturday night when I picked up the phone and called Ed N. We'd just returned from a nice dinner at Vizard's, a small restaurant that recently relocated from St. Charles Ave. to Magazine Street. It was a little crowded and the food took a long time to arrive, but it was really good. I'd been kicking around the idea of going up to Baton Rouge to help out with the Raising Cane's time trial and I figured Ed was a good bet for a ride. Sure enough, he had an empty seat in his borrowed Cadillac SUV (his trusty BMW's transmission recently bit the dust), so he picked me up around 6:30 Sunday morning for the drive up to Baton Rouge.

Turnout for the time trial was typical for this low-key event and I made myself useful helping with registration and we finally got things rolling about fifteen minutes late. There was some sort of blowup by New Orleans rider Jay J. where he demanded his entry fee back and took off. I haven't the faintest idea what that was all about but it seemed a little over the top for this sort of thing. Anyway, with only one fully functioning arm, I got number-caller duty for the start. Once everyone was off, I wandered over to the finish line about a quarter mile away where I walked upstream a hundred yards or so and spent the next hour or so standing on the shoulder of the road calling out rider numbers with the megaphone as they went by.

Afterwards I scarfed down some Raising Cane's chicken and a bit of Cabernet provided by the promoter as we waited for Shane to finish up the results. Ed had to get back sooner rather than later, so once the preliminary overall listing was posted, we headed back to NOLA. That was pretty much my day today. The collarbone is still hurting and I'm just generally uncomfortable anyway. By the time I got home I had a dull headache so I spent the rest of the day eating comfort food, which didn't really help much. Guess I'll spend some time on the trainer tomorrow. Can't wait.....

Who Cares?

The streets were wet this morning at 5:45 am, and the forecast last night had sounded pretty bleak. Out of habit I checked the radar. Three different warnings at the same time. Awesome. Then I thought, "Who cares? I wouldn't have been able to ride anyway."

The weather down in the basement wasn't a whole lot better. There was a steady headwind blowing at fan setting #2, and by the end of the 45 minutes I spent on the trainer even that proved to be entirely inadequate. Definitely going to Level 3 on the fan tomorrow! maybe I'll eventually drag the whole thing upstairs and do my rides in front of the a/c. This brace thing is getting really old. Maybe that's partly because I've been cutting down on the meds again, though. Anyway, 45 minutes on a stationary trainer is pure torture for me, brace or no brace. I don't know if it's more from the boredom or the overheated sweat dripping off my face, but I've never been able to understand how people can do this on a regular basis. And I'm still not pushing very hard at all. Most of the time I'm riding with my hands on top of the elbow pads of the clip-ons and the rest of the time I'm sitting straight up. The collarbone and shoulder doesn't hurt much in either position, but getting from one to the other usually does. I can feel the stiffness in my left arm, including the elbow, no doubt caused by my reluctance to move it very much. Every now and then I think about it and move it around a bit but I guess all that will need to be worked out later in the torture chamber, aka Physical Therapy. I wonder who's going up to Baton Rouge on Saturday for the Time Trial. Maybe I can hitch a ride and lend a hand -- just the right one, of course.

Ouch!

In the passenger seat of the Volvo my right hand clenched with white knuckles the handhold. I've never been particularly comfortable in the passenger seat, and it always seems worse when The Wife is driving, especially when we're running late. I tried to divert my eyes from the road, yet still struggled to relax my death grip on the handhold. Each jolting acceleration, every sharp turn, and all of the bumps and potholes reminded me of the reason for this particular mid-afternoon journey -- a visit to the doctor to check up on The Clavicle.

As I expected, the first order of business was another x-ray photo shoot. I stood this way and that as the radiologist, positioned safely away from the ionizing radiation zipping through my shoulder, directed the poses. For the last, she casually said, "now raise your left arm up over your head for this one." I looked at her to see if she was serious. She was. "OK, I'll try. Just give me a minute," I said. Ouch! Slowly and painfully I got it up where she wanted it. I sure hope it was worth it. The resident (or med student?) came in and asked me the usual questions. Toward the end he flipped through the folder and said something about my earlier knee surgery. I informed him that my knees were fine and that perhaps they had pulled my daughter's file by mistake. He looked confused for a moment and then figured out that they had put some entirely random patient's knee surgery stuff into my folder. Sheesh. Ample enough reason right there to make the extra effort to avoid surgery! Eventually the orthopedist came in, having looked at the x-rays, and said it was looking pretty good but it wasn't quite "there" yet. I asked some questions about the brace - how tight it should be, how exactly the clavicle strap should be positioned, etc. He said it was basically a 2-person job, and as he fiddled with the Velcro he had the other doctor pull back on my shoulder while he cinched down on the strap. Ouch again! I think I saw The Wife smile with gleeful anticipation. I made an immediate decision to, at least temporarily, go back to the full dose of Lorcet Plus at the next opportunity. On the plus side, he wants to stick with this plan of attack in order to avoid surgery, and he said it should be OK for me to ride the trainer.

This morning as the 6:15 alarm went off on my Timex Ironman and the Tuesday levee ride got underway, I was already on the bike down in the basement riding slowly into the steady breeze of a box fan and listening to the drone of the stationary trainer's plastic fans. I had rescued this particular folding trainer from the garbage pile in front of someone's house a few years back, and although it had been partially submerged during the Katrina flooding the bearings still seemed smooth so I hung onto it for just this sort of occasion.

The newly tightened brace that engulfs my chest and left shoulder was restrictive enough that I never even tried to get down on the elbow pads of the clip-on aero bars, but I was glad I'd bolted them on because it allowed for a higher hand position that worked out fairly well. I spun the trainer for about 45 minutes at a fairly low effort level, and in spite of my underlying hatred for the contraption and the extra heat and constriction caused by my Velcro overcoat, it felt good to have the legs moving again. I guess I'll get the trainer set up semi-permanently down there so I can maybe watch the morning news on the tiny little portable TV or listen to the radio to minimize the monotony of riding a bike that's going nowhere.

So here I am at work, having just taken another pill. After a fairly productive and caffeine-assisted morning I am starting to feel a little depleted. The Lorcet definitely makes me want to zone out, and after four or five hours in front of the monitor I find my eyes becoming more and more reluctant to focus. I think it's nap time.

Fun Meter Reading Low

It was a long weekend. Really long. Really long with not much to show for it. Chip P. stopped by to pick up the Orbea. He routinely drives up I-55 and offered to drop it off at Frank's place so he can re-glue the chainstay that pulled loose in the crash last week. Wish he could do that with my collarbone, because this thing still hurts. On Sunday I started cutting down on the hydrocodone while maintaining the acetaminophen dosage so I'm not quite so loopy and drowsy. I can still tell rather acutely when the pain medicine levels start to drop, though. I have conculded through rigorous experimentation that the addition of a glass of wine at around 8 pm is of considerable pharmacological benefit. My liver, no doubt, has been working overtime even if I haven't. I have an appointment at the sports med clinic this afternoon, so I guess we'll see where this whole thing is going at that point. In the meantime, I'm feeling pretty useless and my Fun Meter is showing no signs of life whatsoever.

As luck would have it, the week before my latest crash I had bought a few things for the bikes that I'd been putting off for a long time. I finally got a workstand, albeit a cheap one, that accommodates modern bikes, and I got a few things for commuting too. Of course, lifting a bike onto the workstand is a bit of a problem right now. One thing I'd been needing for a long time was a proper seatpost for the commuter. Since it's an old English bike, the seat post diameter was 1", but after looking around a bit I found some of those. The only problem was that they only had the really long ones in stock. So anyway, it arrived the other day and, even though it will likely be some time before I'm cleared to ride to work again, I couldn't resist installing it. Let me just say that removing and replacing a seatpost is a challenge when using only one arm. Even cutting the extra six inches off the end of it took a really long time. Fortunately, one thing I have in abundance right now is time. The other neat thing I got that I won't be using right away is a travel "folder" for my shirts. It's already hot enough in the morning that commuting in my cotton button-down collar shirts won't be feasable again until Fall, and all last year I was wishing I had a better way to pack them for the ride to work. Well, the folks at Eagle Creek had apparently solved that problem, so I'm looking forward to being able to try it out.

So I'm sitting here at the office looking out on some truly beautiful weather and wishing I was on the bike instead of squirming around uncomfortably in this office chair wondering why typing makes my shoulder hurt.

Hard to Believe

Yesterday, in a state of caffeine-induced optimism, I decided I'd go in to the office for the afternoon. I had to drop some stuff off at UPS anyway, so The Wife picked me up, we took care of the shipping (the medals for the track championships finally being sent to the promoter) and then went to the office. Well, by 4:00 I could hardly focus my eyes any more, even with my glasses on, so we bailed out around 4:30 and went to the drug store to fill a prescription. Naturally they were too busy to transfer the pills from the big bottle to the small bottle while I waited, so I had to go back two hours later to pick them up. By then The Wife had just returned from a long walk so I decided I could make the three block drive myself. Well, somehow when I was getting back into the car and reaching to close the driver side door with my right hand without making my left collarbone hurt I must have pinched a nerve in my right shoulder. You know, the one that works. This was getting hard to believe. So my right shoulder (actually it feels more like my anemic little cyclist deltoid) is now hurting about as much as the left, and since I've done this before with that shoulder I know it's probably going to hurt for at least a few more days.

For the last few weeks we've had a portable toilet stationed right across the street from our bedroom window that is being used by the crews who are working on the gas line replacement project. It hasn't been a problem at all. Well, that is until 4:00 am this morning when I heard a loud noise outside. I looked out and saw a big black pickup truck ramming the thing. It was making repeated loops around the little triangular neutral ground, plowing into the toilet each time. After five or six loops the jackass had pushed it past the intersection and all the way out into the left lane of the 6-lane street behind the house. Maybe he had a fight with his girlfriend and was taking it out on a defenseless portable toilet. Who knows? Hard to believe. I called the Pot-o-Gold folks this morning and I guess someone came out and moved it out of the street, but it's still sitting up on the neutral ground of S. Claiborne Avenue and there's a stray roll of toilet paper left as a souvenir outside my window. I hope none of the workers need to pee today.

So yesterday I bolted my old aero bars onto the Cervelo in order to further reduce my excuses for getting back onto the bike. Maybe later today if this shoulder thing permits I'll see if I can spin my legs a little bit. Baby steps..... It's hard to believe it's been almost a week, but then I guess time flies when you're on drugs.

Home Again

I'm still working, however intermittently, from home and it's getting pretty frustrating. I had originally assumed that the problems would revolve around simple things like pain management and my ability to use my left arm, but in fact the big problem has been the pain medication and its effect on my head, and also the related effect on my ability to get to and from work. It has been a challenge to concentrate, and I'm not particularly comfortable driving in traffic while taking this pain medication, much less riding my bike. I think I will start to cut down on the meds tomorrow and see how that goes. The really frustrating thing about being at home all day is having the time to take care of a lot of little chores around the house, but not actually being able to do any of them because they mostly all require a fully functional left arm. In particular, there are a bunch of bike-related projects I'd love to be working on, but it's just impossible right now. And then there's also the fact that I tend to doze off now and then! Regardless, I told The Wife to come pick me up after lunch so I can run a couple of errands and spend a few hours in the office.

So the damage to the bike looks like this: The carbon left chainstay is pulled out of the aluminum dropout by a couple of millimeters. I talked to Frank yesterday and he said he can fix that since he has the proper glue and instructions and has done it on a bunch of the older Orbea team bikes. All I have to do is get the bike up to Brookhaven at some point. I've got a nice little dent in the top tube from where the handlebar hit it. Nothing to worry about, though. As luck would have it, I had ordered a spare derailleur hanger from Orbea just a few days before the crash. The one that's on there now might be very slightly bent, so when the part arrived in the mail yesterday I thought I may as well replace it. Naturally I ran into a problem. One of the tiny little allen head bolts that holds it in place seems to be stripped (it's probably been replaced before). I'll have to check with the LBS to see if they think they can get it out without doing any collateral damage. Otherwise I'll probably just leave the old hanger on there. Remarkably, the rest of the bike seems to have been unaffected. The handlebar tape and rubber brake hoods don't look any worse off than they did after the crash I had on the levee about a month or so ago. The wheels look like they would benefit from a brief visit with the spoke wrench, although I don't have one that will work on those particular wheels that have the spoke nipples a the hub end instead of the rim end. At any rate, I guess I have a month or so to get that stuff taken care of. That kind of sucks...

Kind of a Rough Day

So the collarbone has been hurting off and on pretty much all day thanks to this brace that is trying to push it all into more or less proper alignment. This whole brace thing is a pretty imprecise thing, to say the least. For sure I'm already getting a little cabin fever from being stuck at home for two days straight. I'd been thinking I might be able to go in to work tomorrow, but now I think I'll have to wait until the morning to re-evaluate. The Wife won't be back in town until tomorrow evening, and I should probably not be driving myself anyway. At least I was able to get a little work done today. It's kind of strange, though, because now and then I find myself just zoning out in front of the computer thanks to the drugs.

I've found that my desk chair is considerably more comfortable than my bed, under the circumstances, although neither is really very relaxing. I nonetheless did get a fair amount of sleep last night, so that was good. I put the Cervelo onto the trainer this afternoon, which by the way is a bit of a challenge using only one hand, but I think it will be another couple of days before I'm ready to climb aboard. In the meantime I'll need to see if I can find someone who can glue the seatstay of the Orbea back to the dropout. As they often do, it pulled loose a little bit in that crash. Kenny was telling me that he used to just slam it back together and race it like that, but I guess I'd feel more comfortable if it was a little better stuck together! I left a message for Frank M, who I understand has some experience with that. Anyway, I figure I've got at least a few weeks to work on that little problem.

Rearrangements

It's amazing how much one can get done while under the influence of drugs. I slept surprisingly well last night and was up bright and early making one-handed coffee and leaving messages at the Sports Medicine Institute so I could get in to see the orthopedist. It's still kind of difficult to get in to see a doctor around here, so I was really happy when they were able to slot me in at 1:30 today. First, though, I had to get a ride downtown to pick up the CD containing my x-rays from the radiology lab at the hospital. That went smoothly, though, leaving me time back at home to get some work done. Of course I've had to rearrange some things even to be able to do that.

The visit to the orthopedist went fairly well, I think. He got me strapped into this two-part brace and took a few x-rays. It looks like the brace is able to rearrange the broken collarbone so it's in pretty good alignment, so we're going to go that route for a week and then take some more x-rays to see if it's working. It would be nice to avoid surgery. If it looks good, then it'll probably be three weeks wearing this contraption and then another couple of weeks in a more traditional x-brace.

The downside is that, at least for now, it hurts a bit more and the Velcro around my ribcage pretty much rules out any possibility of heavy breathing. I've got a whole different apparatus to use when I sleep, so we'll see how that goes tonight. At any rate, I'll be staying home again tomorrow for sure since driving or riding with one had while under the influence of painkillers is probably not such a swell idea.

I spoke with my friend Gina in Atlanta this evening and we commiserated about our injuries. Last weekend she locked handlebars with another rider in a crit and went down pretty hard, breaking both blades off of her fork, fracturing her handlebars, and generally getting pretty banged up. There's been way too much crashing going on lately!

Ouch! Rashes of Crashes

It was looking like it would be a great Sunday. Clear skies, warm temperatures, nothing on my calendar except the Giro Ride and maybe a haircut. Dan stopped by early and by 6:30 we were headed down Carrollton Avenue to the lakefront. There was a good group on hand and I was looking forward to a good workout as we crested the two bridges and rolled down onto Hayne Blvd. As usual I was in the middle of the group as it slowly started to get up to speed. Suddenly a dog comes running from the right side of the road in a full sprint straight into the pack. There was no time to react, and in fact I don't know if I hit him. I remember the dog running in front of me, and I remember the rider just ahead and to my left braking and coming over into me. I went down pretty hard and from my injuries I guess it must have been mostly vertical because while the road rash is minimal, the impact damage is pretty bad. The right collarbone snapped out toward the end and it was pretty obvious I wouldn't be riding home. I suppose I shouldn't be complaining too much since it took something like 36 years for me to finally join the collarbone club. Big Richard also hit the deck hard, and I guess there must have been someone else too. Howard Luna went to retrieve his car and was nice enough to drive my bike and me home where my neighbor (The Wife is out of town) offered to drive me down to the ER.

So I get to the Tulane ER where they have just received a couple of really sick patients, so it was a bit of a wait until I actually got into the ER itself. Then, as they're waking me to a bed I notice the bed next to it is already occupied by someone in cycling clothes. Turns out it's Roy Tedesco who had been on the same ride. He had crashed later in the ride out on Chef Highway when he pulled his foot out of the cleat. Compared to him, my injuries didn't seem so bad. He had gone down hard with a concussion and impact seizure, broken collarbone and some broken ribs. Looks like he'll be spending the night at the hospital. What are the chances of having two broken collarbones on the same ride in separate crashes? Freaky.

This particular blog entry, by the way, comes to you courtesy of Oxycodone. This thing really hurts! I'll try and get in to see a real orthopedist tomorrow. To make matters worse I took a look at the bike and discovered that one of the carbon seatstays got partially pulled out of the aluminum dropout. Nothing a little superglue can't fix, right? Too bad it won't work on the clavicle too.

My neighbors Kim and Nancy are taking good care of me, though, picking up my prescription and bringing over a bunch of food and stuff. I'm thinking I won't likely be getting any exercise for a couple of days, and then I guess I'll be forced to dust off the trainer.

Riding Alone

I peered through the slats of the Levelors at the wet street below and glanced at the clock. 6:15 am. Dan Bennett had called on Friday to say he was in town for a few days and we had planned to ride out to the Giro Ride together. I figured I'd better check to the radar, and what I saw didn't look good. It was definitely going to rain. The only question was exactly when and how hard. I keyed in a one word text message "Abort?" After a brief discussion we decided to play it safe, so a little while later I hopped into the rental car (the Volvo is still in the body shop) and drove over to Starbucks in a light drizzle. The Wife's up in DC for a meeting until Wednesday, so I'm home alone which usually means I eat a lot of left-over stuff from the freezer and the toilet seat stays in the "up" position.

Well, the caffeine got me going and next thing I know I'm at Lowes buying a fluorescent light fixture, wiring, switches, etc. As I'm wandering through the store I hear the rain beating down on the metal roof way above my head and think "good decision." I made a dash for the car but ended up soaking wet anyway. It poured rain for a long time, but eventually the weather moved east and the sun started to come out. So the morning was spent installing a new light above the washing machine down in the basement. Of course that little project kind of expanded into a general clean-up session.

Finally, around 3 pm, I went out for a ride on the levee. By then the weather was great, of course. I guess it's been a while since I've ridden two and a half hours alone. I'm sure it must be a good thing of course, but it tends to make me feel a little self-conscious. Anyway, the entire 23 miles of levee were lined with people fishing. The water is starting to come down fairly quickly now and I guess this will be the last weekend for levee-fishing. It's amazing how big the fish these people are catching. They're not the only ones fishing, though, because there are tons of birds - herons, egrets, ibis. Anyway, there were lots of people out since the weather was so nice. I was pretty much just in cruise mode, looking at the scenery in the small ring. Guess I'll do the Giro Ride tomorrow with Dan.

Antisocial Behavior

I rode out to the levee this morning to meet the 6:15 ride and didn't even feel the need for a blinky light. It must be summer. Indeed, the temperature was warmer and a stiff wind was blowing out of the southeast. The river level is finally starting to drop ever so slowly, exposing dead and waterlogged grass and impressive amounts of once-floating flotsam including everything from trees to plastic bottles and Styrofoam.

So the group started out as usual, but for some reason there was a big gap between the trio of Chad, Jeff and me, and the rest of the group. We weren't going all that fast, at least not until Chad went to the front and started ramping up the speed somewhere around the playground. Soon we were rolling downwind at around 27 mph and I remember thinking, "this is rather anti-social behavior" as I looked back in search of the rest of the group. But hey, I was already committed, so I tried to hold the pace when my turn at the front would come up. Even so, I have to admit that we were slowing down a bit every time Jeff or me would hit the wind. After a while Eddie caught us after what must have been a pretty serious effort, and shortly thereafter Jeff dropped back. By then I was already taking shorter and shorter pulls, knowing full well that we'd have a long and mostly upwind haul for the return trip.

After regrouping at the turnaround, things were relatively civilized for a long time, and we were just beginning to get really rolling again when we came across a rider walking his bike who apparently was in need of a valve extender. So a few riders continued on, a bunch of them stopped, and a handful of us just soft-pedaled. I don't know what the hold-up was, but it took forever for the main group to catch back up to us. Anyway, I got in a pretty good amount of exercise this morning before having to rush off to work. I'm not sure what I'll be doing this weekend. There's a lot of deferred maintenance stuff to which I need to attend around the house, but otherwise I'm hoping the weather will cooperate so I can get in a few miles.