Week 28: Retiring a Helmet and Assessing the Damage

So I had a very rough start to my Memorial Day weekend. I joined Dennis and his TNT cycle team for an 80 mile bike ride in Marin. As an assistant coach, Dennis leads a pace group, also known as "Team Wrong Way." They are a group of strong riders who are training for America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride, a 100 mile course around Lake Tahoe on June 7th. (So far, their entire team of 90 cyclists has raised over $310,000 to support the fight to cure cancer!) The group was nice enough to let me join in their pace line. (A pace line is a group of cyclists riding close behind one another in a line, so that each cyclist can draft the cyclist in front, except, of course for the leader, who is taking a turn to pull the rest of the group. The riders take turns pulling and drafting. A group of cyclists in a pace line can maintain a substantially higher speed than even the fastest of the group could do alone.) This was both challenging and fun for me, because triathletes don't train in pace lines due to the fact that drafting is illegal during triathlons.

The ride was an out and back with Stinson Beach as the turnaround point. In order to reach Stinson, we had to ride on Highway One for awhile. There were many factors that made this a very dangerous stretch to ride: lots of cars (it was Memorial Day weekend), lots of cyclists, rough pavement, curvy descents, and no shoulder. On one of these curvy descents, Amanda, a "Team Wrong Way" member, hit some gravel (and possibly a stray water bottle) and went down. The car driving behind her came to a skidding halt, luckily not striking Amanda. The Range Rover, driving closely behind the first car, slammed on its brakes skidded off to the right of the road to avoid hitting the car, but rear-ended it anyway. And this is where I realized I was in trouble. Since I was riding downhill, I was still gaining speed when I saw the sudden car accident. I jammed my breaks as hard as I could, but my bike doesn't go from 30 mph to 0 mph in 5 seconds, so at somewhere between 15 and 20 mph the last thought in my mind was "Oh shit, I'm going to nail the back of this car!" and then I was eating dirt. It happened that quickly.

A few other riders who were behind me and able to stop in time rushed over to help. My left cleat was still clipped into my pedal. I unclipped and rolled over on my back, and almost immediately started shivering from body shock. "I'm O.K." I remember Mickey unclipping my helmet, unzipping my jacket, and asking where I was hurting. I was too numb to access where the pain was, but I was very conscious of the fact that I couldn't see due to all of the dirt in my eyes. I stayed on my back until the numbness went away and I could feel the sting on the right side of my body, from my shoulder down to my thigh. I rolled over, picked myself up and headed over to where Amanda was sitting. The poor girl had hit her face on the pavement, she was conscious but was swollen and bleeding. By this time, Dennis had ridden back up the hill and arrived at the scene. This would be any coach's worst nightmare - to see a car accident, your rider badly injured, lots of stunned onlookers, and then throw in your fiance who's claiming to have rear-ended a Range Rover. Dennis handled the situation like a pro. He was interviewing the drivers and witnesses. When the paramedics and police arrived he read off his notes and directed them to those involved. He completely kept his cool and took charge of the situation.

It turns out that I didn't hit the car, I steered the bike off the road, and as soon as my tire left the pavement, I went down on the right. The momentum of my bike caused me to somersault, slamming by bike down on its left side and sending me into a skid. Someone had to tell me that this is what happened, because I have no recollection of crashing, only what I was thinking right before and right after. The good news was that I landed in dirt and leaves and I was wearing arm warmers so my road rash was pretty minimal considering my speed when I hit the ground. The bad news was that I cracked my helmet in 3 places, had some upper back and neck pain. I shared this info with the paramedics, and the next thing I knew, I was getting strapped on a backboard and loaded into the ambulance. Amanda was also transported to Marin General, but as a trauma patient, since she had lots of facial abrasions and confusion about what had happened.

When we arrived at the hospital, we were greeted by really friendly physicians and hospital staff. Apparently, they see people like us all the time. I mostly felt at ease with the staff until the nurse's aid pulled out the scissors and attempted to cut my shorts off. Being strapped on a backboard and wearing a neck brace gave me somewhat of a claustrophobic feeling. I think I'd handled it pretty well up until this point. Feeling steel scissors on my leg sent me into near panic mode. I very directly communicated to him that I DID NOT want my clothes cut off. The aid stated that this is normal protocol, but my doctor sensed my panic and suggested that I could somehow "shimmy out of them later." Um or not. Long story short, I didn't break my neck, but I did strain every shred of muscle in the front. Amanda's CAT-scan came back normal. Luckily the abrasions on her face were shallow enough that she didn't need stitches. Once we were done assessing all of our bodily damage, Den called us a cab back to the cars so that we could assess the bike damage...

My beautiful Cervelo wasn't looking so hot, but Den assured me that is was all cosmetic and nothing structural. He was right. The mechanics at Montano Velo did a crash assessment and gave him (my bike) a face lift: bent back the shifters, new cap on the aero bars, new tires, new chain, and new brakes. He still has some scrapes and one good dent but they're like glory scars. I've given myself a week to heal in time for next weekend's destination workout - 3/4 to Ironman Training Weekend at Clear Lake!

Condition: Stiff, sore, bruised, scraped, and a tad bit cranky

Week 27: Tour of Napa

Wow! Napa is really beautiful, but really hot. My teammate, Sedonia, organized a 60 mile bike ride as her fundraiser. She chose a scenic route, recruited volunteers to host water stops, and raffled off some great prizes. I rewarded myself for keeping up with Tony and Nick by not paying attention to the where we were going. It's a lazy way to ride, but it forced me to maintain the pace or else I'd be out there by myself looking for the next turn. Poor Nick had two flats, but it was good practice for him and it was like a tire changing clinic for Tony and me. It was such a hot day, probably in the low 90's. Tony had some good cooling tips, like putting ice cubes in the holes in your helmet. It works! Belinda and Helen hosted the best water stop ever -Spray mist, snacks, and back rubs!

Condition: A little dehydrated

Week 26: Vineman Bike Course

I'm 54% of the way to my fundraising goal! Click here to donate to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

About half of my team is racing Ironman Louisville and the other half is racing Vineman in Sonoma. There are a couple of advantages to racing Vineman and one of them is that the course is close enough for us to train on. On Saturday, our coach set up a 60 mile ride on the Vineman bike course (which is actually a double loop). So the athletes that will be racing on August 1st had the opportunity to get a sneak peak. Here is the course description

"The bike course is a mix of terrain, and travels through the Russian River, Dry Creek, Alexander Valley, and Chalk Hill grape growing regions. With slightly less than 4000 feet of climbing for the entire bike course athletes find the course to be challenging but not overwhelming."

In other words, it's an absolutely gorgeous bike ride. The rolling hills were manageable. In fact, the ride almost felt flat compared to a lot of the rides that we've been doing. I was able to really test out my legs and push my speed a little. I surprised myself when I caught up to a group of teammates that are typically much faster than me. I think they were surprised to see me too. My Garmin battery died, but Mike D said we were averaging 17.5 mph. That's so fast for me!

Condition: Riding with the big kids!

Extra Extra! Read All About It...

Click here to read a fantastic article on my friend, teammate, and TNT honoree, Matt Rhodes' battle with cancer and his life's adventures since recovery!

Help me save lives one mile at a time...Click here to Donate to my Fundraising Page!

Week 25: Wildflower Race Weekend

Wow, where to begin? Well I dropped 35 minutes off of my race time from last year. This is one of the biggest rewards I've received from 6 months of training. I still have room to improve on that course, but I couldn't have been happier at the finish. I raced for Team Shadow this year, which was a blast. Team Shadow is my club triathlon team that is basically an "off-season" extension of TNT. We came in 13th overall, not bad for our debut. Our mascot, "Daisy" was supposed to be out on the course cheering us on, but she was attacked by a dog while riding James' shoulders. RIP Daisy...

The swim start was choppy as usual, but I started up front anyway. Kick or be kicked. I felt great in the water, relaxed, breathing on both sides. I was a little too far left going out, but I had fewer people to swim around. The turnaround buoy came quickly (I can't believe I'm saying that). At this point, I'd caught quite a few "yellow caps" aka old dudes. Don't get me wrong, a lot of these men passed me on the bike, but in the water, they were getting "chicked." Some were swimming blindly, meaning they were not lifting their head to see what general direction they were going so they'd cross my path at a diagnol, or they just weren't kicking, so they became floating obstacles. Like I said, a lot of them got their revenge on the bike. My swim time was 35 minutes, 1 minute faster than last year. I'll take it.

The bike ride was great. Dennis let me borrow his race wheels which is always a treat. I had a good nutrition plan, but my stomach had been upset since breakfast. I got through the ride ok, but I didn't consume as many calories as I had planned. The biggest difference I noticed from my race last year was the last 12 miles. Typically, once I get past "Nasty Grade," I start to wilt, and the next 12 miles really suck. There are lots of rollers, so you still have to work. This year, I decided what my average speed was going to be and I made it happen. My bike time was 3:41, 28 minutes faster than last year!

Running right after you get off the bike is never easy, but this year it was manageable. I stuck to my run/walk plan of 9:1 until I got to the hills. I'm not sure what it is, but every year on the run course, my heart rate gets really high and I have to back off quite a bit. Same thing this year. Around mile 4 or 5, the hills just get ridiculous. Somewhere along the way I came up behind an athlete who didn't have legs, he had bionic prosthetics, which are not built to run up hills. So he had to do this akward motion of swinging his leg out to the side in order to progress up the hill. After seeing him make his way up this long hill, I started to mini jog my way up behind him. I saw that he had an Olympic ring tattoo that said Athens 2004. Perfect conversation starter. It turns out that he swam on the Para Olympics in Athens, amazing! We wished each other a great race and I made my way up the hill.

Somewhere around mile 9 I came into the presence of a celebrity. I had just passed this big guy running in a black cut off shirt (not good tri wear) and spectators started cheering for Dane, from the Biggest Loser! OMG, no way! I turned around and here is this big guy wearing the black shirt from the BL! I started gushing to this poor guy about how much I loved the show and how inspiring I find it while I'm riding my indoor bike trainer. Turns out that Dane and his cousin, Blaine, are still in the at home weight loss challenge. In the last month they had done an Olympic Distance triathlon, a half marathon, and a marthon. What!? It turns out that their long term goal is to someday do an Ironman. Blaine was also out on the course, but I didn't get a chance to meet him. I wanted to ask more questions about Jillian and Bob, but I had to keep moving, so I wished Dane luck and headed on my way.

At this point, I'm very familiar with the course, but it was still such a tough run for me. I decided that my run goal was going to be 2:50. I tried to really focus in the last 2 miles. Once I finally got to Lynch Hill, I knew I was going to make my time because the last mile was a fast downhill.

I was probably less than a half mile from the finish line when I saw another racer in front of me facing uphill and stumbling. Not good. When I ran up to her, I asked if she was ok. She told me she was fine, but she could barely stand. I told her she should sit down and she said 'No, I have to finish.' Luckily she was smaller than me because when I grabbed her arm to give her some support her legs just buckled underneath of her. I held her under her arms and gently let her collapse to the ground. She was now lying in the middle of the rode, with her head facing downhill. She was reluctant to give in though, so she kept her arms propped up under her. I squated behind her to support her head. This was just as akward as it may sound. Other racers jogged up to us and I urged them to have someone call the paramedics when they got to the bottome of the hill. My teammate, Les, eventually ran up to us and stopped. She kept saying, "Don't call the medic, if my hear rate is over 60, I'm goign to finish this thing." Les and I looked at each other like "Wow, she's either delerious or super determined." By this time, my watch alarm went off, indicating that I did not make my target time, "oh well, it's not like I'm here to win." Eventually, a support vehicle showed up and the race workers took over from there. I hope she was able to take a salt tablet or a gu and finish the race. Mentally, she was going to finish, I hope she did. I jogged my way down to the finish line. My run time was 2:58, still 8 minutes faster than my time from last year.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience. The run in particular was really special, I encountered 3 different people with significant obstacles to overcome. Stuff like that puts things in perspective for me. What did it take for the athlete with prothetic legs to get to Wildlfower? What did it take for Dane and Blaine to get to Wildflower? And even the woman who's legs wouldn't cooperate, how could she be lying in the road telling me that not finishing was not an option? While I'm on a mission to complete an Ironman, it's really more about the journey that it takes to get there than it is about crossing the finish line.

Condition: 7:27 - Best Wildflower Race yet!

Family Updates - Congratulations!

Congratulations to my sister, Lauren, on completing her first half marathon! Her next race will be the Danskin Sprint Triathlon in July. And congratulations to my Aunt Carolyn, for finishing the Providence Half in under 2 hours! See you at Nike in October :)