Cat 4

When I was a kid, I used to tease my brother, who was fanatical about biking and the Tour, by shouting "biker!" whenever a cycle-tourist rolled past our house. He'd race to the living room window, expectations deflated when someone mosied by in full blaze yellow. We still say it. Back on the bike, and in New Haven where drivers on cell phones in SUVs race you to every red light, I am now happily wearing my blaze yellow vest. My Achilles/calf is slowly limbering up from rubber-band status, the switch from Shimano to super-loose Crank Brothers pedals is working and I felt able to spin today. I can begin to imagine pedaling hard, even standing up, not so far from now. Not quite Hilltowns-worthy... In the meantime, I am trying to learn how to swim better. I watched this video of an Olympic 50m free, laughing at the idea of it as instructional video and at the boxer-like posturing of these sprinters. This one that seemed a bit better. Or you could try to recover like Dara Torres. Swimming, resistance stretching, physio ball, they are all refreshingly new.

Way to go Leg!

Quick because I am going pedaling but doctor's appointment today and I AM OUT OF THE BOOT! X-rays showed "a surprising amount of new bone formation." I can do everything except go running, but even that I can probably start in a month or so. Way to go leg! That's more like it! The straight-talking x-ray tech didn't disappoint (last time she told me I was in the "baby stages of healing"), exclaiming "wow! look at how much muscle you've lost!" Wow indeed and that's the next project but hurray for now. Thanks everyone.

Update from Training Camp

My recovery is suddenly getting fun and interesting, a project to reinvent myself improved. I seem to be done with the freak-out period after those mediocre x-rays, now I am being less drastic in adding new activity (my recovery has been filled with overdoing it, then backing off) and starting to see some gains. One endeavor has been, in the words of a friend, "working on my physique." I have a New Haven friend to thank for the lifting, since after an unsuccessful too-early foray to the gym, when just the walking involved with Yale's expansive gym proved excessive, I was ready to give it up. But he urged me to try again, after more healing, and the routine of working out in the gym around motivated people, followed by a nice time in a coffee shop, that was priceless. Since then I have been doing upper body lifting and core strength three times a week. The gym here in the Berkshires is great, and funny. It's me and a bunch of retirees, some of whom are really fit and some who are not. Power to them. One guy was sitting on a weight machine completely absorbed in a library book (a guide to camping). I said "looks engaging," to which he replied "yeah, tough to get the lifting done!" Others are lifting in khaki pants. But we are all in the same boat and this group has been supportive. I am also thankful to the office for storing my race bike, which enabled mobility, huge given that I've been "house-sitting" or whatever you call it - watering plants and picking the flowers off the cilantro plants in the garden - this week at my mom's with no readily available rides by car. I'm going to build up an old cross bike as a commuter bike, put a rack and panniers on. I was finally allowed to swim at the six week mark, and it was fantastic, free to be boot-less in water. I was also happily shocked to see I can actually swim, though I still make note of "swam this far without stopping," as though I wrote in my training log "rode one hour without stopping!" All this is good but I sure hope the bone is healing. I find out tomorrow. This morning I am riding down into Connecticut where I can get a ride back to New Haven (should be nice to visit my life) - actually a sizable ride, so I hope everything feels good. Nice job New Englanders at Fitchburg!

AND BIKING!!!!!!!!

Hiking!

My brother continues to hike, tele-ski, and snowboard above Juneau. I have been hiking too! Oh, and someone designed a cardboard bike.

My Leg is the Center of the Universe Part VI

I made it to yesterday's three-week checkpoint embracing the new policy of extreme rest and "don't make yourself crooked." I was pretty sure that the proscribed three weeks more in the cast for a normal person would be two weeks more for me. Instead my x-ray looks shockingly like it did three weeks ago - a broken bone with a diagonal gap between sections that actually grew. The x-ray techs, Oz-like speaking from behind a screen while looking at my x-ray, after a conversation about how they were prohibited from opinions, said "fracture" one to the other, then to me "how long has it been?" - "three weeks" - then a relieved (and ominous) "oh, you are still in the baby stages of healing!" My orthopedist is not worried, points to some evidence of new bone growth and reminds me the fibula is the source of bone grafts, but he upped his tune now to four more weeks in this walking cast. But again he says ride, that it will even help. Still highly skeptical, but my anti-crooked policy is out the window and I am going pedaling. I hope it hells fast too, or at least hells.

Canoe

It is hot outside. I watched Black Robe about a Jesuit missionary traveling up the St. Lawrence in the 1600s and want to go on a canoe trip. Forget Nature Valley, take me to the Boundary Waters and let me sleep outside. I am resting this silly leg. I am restless. I have been inside too long but like I said it is hot outside. Played bridge and tweaked my leg walking on a dirt driveway. Ate some yogurt. Since I did not buy it, I am not sure how expensive it was though it was not wheat or corn. Read up on ecosystem services and transfer of development rights. Iced my leg. Drank some ice water. Made a phone call. Maybe I will learn the new camera. Or call in lost frequent flyer miles. Or do something edifying like learn to crochet. Is bike racing just going to grind to a halt as a result of fuel costs? Should it if we are causing a global food crisis? Photo credit. And talking bike racing: how about Jen McRae's 4th place at Philly?!!!!!

And playing Scrabble...

The racing expression "don't try so hard" likely applies also to recovery. With a lot of wise advice, I think I finally came around. I had been pedaling a bit with the boot but honestly it's awkward and the more I hear the more I am concerned about assymmetry injuries. The return on riding is pretty low right now. Better to heal the bone and come back when I can pedal normally. So I will be relaxing (and engaging in academic thoughts) as I root for the team at a boiling-hot Philly and strive to have my bone fully healed at the three-week checkpoint (rather overly optimistic but who knows!). In the back of my head I am trying to remember how exhausted I felt in early November of last year, when after tanking at Chainbiter, I almost didn't even show up for the Northampton Cross. With regard to chocolate and waffles this December, this might be just perfect. Ok not perfect...but not terrible!

Watching Ants

Walking back from yesterday’s expedition to Romeo and Caesar’s market down the block, where I sat outside and read and talked to strangers with time on their hands, I stopped to rest. Hanging over the crutches, I noticed the sidewalk was bustling with ants, and watched them for a few minutes. It has been a while since I have watched ants, and it’s probably good for me. My land conservation research has been very engaging, given me some ideas of what life could involve post-school, and there are definite benefits to an absence of distractions as far as productivity goes. Rather than considering this a vacation, I am considering it a chance to earn adventurous time later: late season racing with no tasks looming, cross season with a thesis largely finished, perhaps even a trip to Alaska… I do love Scrabble and without question am grateful to remember the pleasure of reading actual books, but most of what I enjoy tends to involve my leg. Keeping busy is also an obvious strategy to avoid getting bummed. I go back and forth, experiencing sea changes in how long I think it will be before I can bring some reasonable fitness to a race. I am well aware of the driven athlete's tendency to rush recovery with negative consequences, but this broken fibula is a pretty weird injury. The fibula is not a weight-bearing bone, but the attachment site of a lot of muscles going from the calf to the foot. It rotates with ankle flexing. So the treatment for a broken fibula is to immobilize the ankle, but pretty much anything else is fair game, including walking and pedaling on the trainer. Sounds crazy to me too, riding a bike with a broken leg, but with my orthopedist’s encouragement I gave it a try. Not going to win any time trials averaging 82 watts for half an hour, but my leg felt good! In other news: rooting for my team racing in Montreal’s Grand Tour (wishing I were there but not missing racing at night), eagerly awaiting Philly, and it is clearly time to ditch the crutches before I ran any more toes from my non-injured food into them. Until the new camera arrives, my leg!

Maybe I will even read a novel

Immense thanks for all the kind wishes and support. These last few days have been eye-opening. Until now, my lifetime injury list consisted of tendonitis, a broken pinky finger and a broken thumb, various ailments requiring RICE, and a few miscellaneous injuries with amusing titles such as "housemaid's knee" and "gamekeeper's thumb." Even so I thought I got what it meant to be injured, but OH NO NO. Now I am experiencing a life of sitting still, of asking for a lot of help, of strategic transportation planning across my apartment, of feeling empowered by small accomplishments such as taking a shower or going grocery shopping, and of fatigue making me vulnerable to frustration at mishaps such as smashing a glass across the kitchen floor. That said, in just a few days I will file these experiences away and be walking around ably (even pedaling on the trainer, according to the orthopedist) in this air cast! I have a diagonal fibular break with a 3mm gap that should heal perfectly well, but it might take a while. Word is 3 weeks wearing this cast all the time, then if x-rays show the bone fusing well, 3 more weeks in the cast but spared wearing it at night. I fully intend to heal in 75% of the time of a normal person and be back racing in July, but whether that's Fitchburg on the 3rd or Altoona on the 27th remains to be seen. For now count these blessings/opportunities: I can get a lot of work done on my thesis; my summer job, arranged with geographic flexibility for racing, also matches perfectly with sitting in bed; Yale has a shuttle service for the disabled and injured that will take me anywhere in New Haven (I won't be driving for the duration of this, atoning my carbon footprint); I will get to see non-racing friends I rarely see; and I can do some strategic planning as far as career and school. In the spirit of the weekend's unspectacular-but-consequential accident theme, I dropped my camera on the couch Sunday and broke the lens, so for now, a photo from the archive. This one is from the blooming desert in Tucson.

Bike Jam

Trying to be patient waiting for the field sprint yesterday at Bike Jam, I got lazy with positioning in a very sketchy field. Two people spontaneously crashed right in front of me on a straightaway, and just like that I have a broken fibula (the skinny bone in the lower leg). The break is not bad as this injury goes and I am looking toward a fast recovery. But what timing, just as I seem to be finding some legs, just as school ends and stress flies off my back, just as all the most exciting races arrive (Montreal WC, Grand Tour, Philly, Nature Valley...) I will find the opportunity in this somewhere.

Back in Action at the Wilmington Grand Prix

Travel to Wilmington left a bit to be desired: 7hrs to cover 200 miles in an all-time NYC traffic epic. Found my way to the host house, eventually joined by our tuxedoed host and sprinters traveling by air who arrived at 3am. The team was here in force! Jen, Brenda, Heather, Reem, me (maybe in force...). Here is the race story: controlled the race, looking to set Jen up for the finish on a windy rectangular course. At one point had the ideal numbers-up of me off the front then Jen covering Laura van Gilder bridging up, but the move got squelched. Jen took charge and went off the front. I missed LVG's inevitable bridge, chased hard but just set up a bridge by unknown Juice Plus rider Laura McCaughey. She sat on LVG and Jen for the extent of the break, but we were pretty happy with the odds and kept things together. Heather paced Brenda back up after they got caught behind a crash. McCaughey, who turns out to be an Australian national track champion, outfoxed Jen and LVG and took the win. Jen got second - she is fast. I led out the sprint but did not hook up with Brenda so she ended up 8th, me 11th. I gave Erica Allar a really nice lead-out. 20-20 hindsight says be more aggressive, get me out there then have Jen sit on LVG's bridge... Photos: happy team, greenhouse of orchids, a tour of a microbrewery and Delaware history lesson, and one rider's broken fork that luckily held through the extent of the race. To clarify: this chunk was not actually missing as pictured during the race as a result of the crash, but was effectively missing since it easily pulled out after. Scary.