Doctors visit

I'm now officially jealous of Smokes road rash. Not that his is better than mine mind you, but that it is only skin deep. Todays trip to the doc to determine how bad my shoulder is revealed what I already knew when I asked him how bad it was, "it's not good" was the reply to my question. Unable to perform certain movements without bringing myself to pain threshold 8 pretty much sealed my bid for an MRI and a trip to the orthopedist. As for the racing season he tells me that I can't damage it any more than what I've already done. We'll see what the MRI and Ortho doc say's next week. For now it'll be long rides in the hills and fly fishing with the dogs.

After 2 days riding and working in the yard,

I had a nice break from the normally crappy Mondays that usually start my work week. I took advantage of the holiday off to head up the road sans bike but packing 2 dogs and my fly fishing gear. Drove to the beaver ponds located about 30 minutes away. Prior to fishing I had to hike with the dogs for an hour to calm them down so that when they saw the water they wouldn't throw themselves in scaring the brookies away. After about 2 hours fishing and a few fish and ponds later, it was time to unleash the hounds. Well at least my lab, Axel, wanted to swim, and swim, and swim, and... well you get the point. As for the road rash/wounds, my arm still looks like it was attacked by rabid rats and my hip's marks are shrinking slowly, but it's my shoulder that is really bothering me. Hurt's so bad that it woke me up last night to where I had to put on the icepack. Damn tomorrow is a work day.

Naproxen

Works wonders. After a half a day at work with a shoulder that was feeling like crap the Naproxen kicks in and it starts to feel better. so much so that when I got home and was getting ready to help out at the club hill race that I said what the heck, lets see what it feels like if I ride the bike around the house... no pain. Looks like the shoulder injury doesn't hurt unless I'm riding on rough roads (dirt). So off I went, hammering down the road 10 miles to the starting point. I arrived 18 minutes late but didn't care. Everyone was already gone and I just went into chase mode. Noticed I had a rear flat but didn't care, it still had air by the time I crossed the finish. It was drizzly back near the start and the tempurature had dropped about 10 degrees so I opted to catch a ride back to my house but ended up with good power numbers, 30 miles, and a sore butt. Turns out that the crash I had on Saturday had somehow pushed my saddle all the way back. No wonder I was riding on the front edge of the saddle to feel in position. Changing the bandages tonight I noticed reddness and swelling on my arm, signs of infection. It's back to the doc to have that looked at and maybe more meds. The doc today said that due to the pain he was unable to determine if it was in dact my rotator or not. so I'l be re-evaluated next week for a possible referral for an MRI analysis of the shoulder.
Later

N Boulder Crit

There are a few ways to drop out of a race.
1. The easy way like I did in the 35+ race because of side cramps
2. The painful, skin and ligament shredding while falling on your shoulder when another rider falls in front of you at 30mph giving you no way to escape as what happened in the P-1-2 race.
I guess you could say that I was lucky. I didn't break anything and the bike was in one piece. But tell that to my shoulder that feels like, at a minimum, a strained rotator. As I type this I am full under the effect of 2 Percosets and ice on the shoulder in an effort to numb the pain enough to allow me to sleep. It must have been my turn to crash as it seems lately out team has been finding their way to the pavement quite regularly lately. I really appreciate my teammates for everything that they did for me after the crash. Carter, who was with Nikki watching the race, helped me immensely. He got me to the hospital and stayed with me to meke sure everything was all right. DK watched after Nikki and brought me a couple boxes of Tegaderm. And everyone else was checking in or calling to see how I was. I have to stop now I'm having problems focusing feeling a bit nauseous from the meds

Wind...in Wyoming? Naahh

Gotta love the wind. Rode 20 miles at 12mph and 20 miles at 35~45mph. NBA update, Bulls will probably get swept by the Pistons. The Warriors, as entertaining as they are, can't seem to get past the Jazz defense to win a game. They'll lose another heartbreaker tonight.

Update: Bulls pull one out!

And Utah, shuts up the Golden State crowd

Wheels

Wheels of Thunder, what a blast. Nice course with a crazy S curve. Felt pretty good during the first race (35+). Misread the lap counter multiple times as it was on the ground and hard to see. The worst time to misread it though was with 2 to go. Well I can say that winning the lap before the last lap doesn't pay anything. An hour later I was on the line again for the Pro-1-2. It was a fun fast race and I found myself toward the front on a few occasions. The fun ended when a huge blast of wind shattered the field. Lucky were the few that were in the front and able to hang on. 19 of 30 laps was good enough for me. It was a pretty good training day for me. 45 miles of high intensity. Tomorrow easy, next weekend North Boulder and Oredigger