The New NRC: No Ridiculous Cost / Carbon Emissions / Country-Crisscrossing

In addition to my sharp friends, even cyclingnews is evaluating what the NRC really means these days. Easy for me to sit back and criticize from my armchair of injury, but it sure seems that there have been few races where all the big guns duked it out. Notable exceptions would be the recent road and crit nationals (well, minus Olympians): and power to Brooke Miller who won both plus Jen McRae who pulled off 4th and 3rd. But even the Women's Prestige Series (and again, hats off to Aaron's for their awesome sweep of the series) seemed more dilute than last year, with a one-day crit replacing Tour de Toona, noticeably missing Webcor and other West Coast teams. OK EVERYONE did seem to be at Nature Valley, crashing on wet manhole covers in a field of 150 when PEI would have been much better racing... I've thought before of a series built on great races that support the women's field - because some promoters really do go out on a limb to do things like offer equal prize money, then find their events barely attended - but what is the new $4-a-gallon gasoline/"economic downturn" bike racing? I am sure the sport will rally but it sure sounds as though a lot of teams are folding, that things are looking a bit dire. Maybe it really is the old school approach, the Alison Dunlap/Katie Compton cyclocross approach, the aspiring "pro" approach, the less is more, where you hone your skills locally, the level of regional racing rises, and you hit the big races in your area and if you are ready, the BIG glorious races nationally. In New England for instance, we can do pretty well with Battenkill, Hilltowns, Bear Mountain, Fitchburg, Thater, Green Mountain, Housatonic Hills (ok what am I forgetting), then zipping up to Montreal to pretend we are in Europe. No news here but maybe racing is going grass roots, or should.

Ze 5 Minute Blog

This blog is really turning to drivel but the last entry was so boring I have to add another. I will note that others are racing in the Olympics and at road and crit Nationals, riding tandems across the country, and kayaking in the Arctic circle near the Brooks range. Not to mention live coverage of synchronized diving and beach volleyball. How much rather would I watch even pistol shooting or weightlifting, not to mention soccer or rowing? Training away here. Take note I have even improved my epic hill ride, adding 15-minute dirt climb! Riding with a power ceiling so doing some quality 50rpm climbing, good for these weak legs. No joke; I honestly think I might handcycle faster than I can ride now. You try it - take your perfectly healthy leg and put it in a walking cast for 7 weeks and see what happens. Still at the gym, not yet bringing my own gallon jug of water (evidently the true sign of status) or drinking raw eggs for breakfast. Next stop GMSR, a good quality sufferfest!

Tour of the Hilltowns!

There is method to my madness of showing up at one of New England's most challenging races when I absolutely lack race fitness! First, I am going to have a bit of fear jumping back in the pack and would like to get this out of the way as soon as possible, so I can actually race my bike a bit at Green Mountain. I would much rather race Hilltowns, with a flat/downhill first 20 miles that I thought I could hang for followed by a decisive 3-mile climb at mile 20 that shatters the field into groups than a race based on a top end (of which I have none) or a race to every corner. Ideally I would be able to ride at the front for the flat part, ride my own climb and hopefully have a bit of company since I still have some threshold power, then ride in a paceline in a small group. It would be a good test for the leg. And well, mission accomplished! I just about got blown out the back early in the race with one fast surge, but descended at the front since there is so little to be gained by racing this section, then watched everyone surge up the start of the climb, and pedaled my way up from last place, catching a few people, then rode in with a terrific little group quite understanding of my limitations! I was completely dragging by the end, struggling just to maintain 150 watts, and there were massive hills on the course that had not been there last year, but it was awesome. My leg only started to knot up once, but it recovered and did fine with the bumps and standing up. Great to see everyone too. Hats off to the other Anna M. Now I get to go home and train! Pictured: A clean bike is a fast bike, or at least a clean bike.

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!