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

Ahh the TT, gotta love the suffering.

Did Haystack TT Saturday. Finished a respectable 10th @31:11 but was 2 minutes behind the winner. Damn rollers on the backside kicked me in the rear. Went out Sunday for 2.5 hours on the MTB. Felt pretty good. Was feeling it toward the end of the ride so I know I was getting in some sort of workout. Deer Creek road race is next weekend. I'll see if I can last through with the leaders on the rollers that make up that course.

The dirt races are over - BR report

Yesterday was Boulder-Roubaix, the last of 2 races, held on mostly dirt roads North of Boulder. The weather was great, sunny and warm. A bad knee and neck pain had put me in the doubtful category to start but I decided to give it a go. Not much of a warm-up had me a little worried. It seems that that the guys up front are there to thin out everyone in the back. It must have worked as I heard we had dropped 30 guys on the first lap. I was riding, to my surprise, near the front most of the time and didn't notice it. On lap 2 I finally see a familiar face as Mr. Marti (racing because his son called him out) pulls alongside of me. I can only think TR and C-man can't be far behind. I'm busy keeping pace up front and don't have any time to look around for fear of crashing. There had been a break up the road that I let go and it was still there so I attack the hill before the pavement with another rider to join them but he's not working and we eventually are back in the field. I was actually enjoying myself, riding near the front able to respond to the accelerations as they were happening... right up to the time when M Carter attacked at the start of the rollers and strung the entire field out all the way up the feed zone hill where I had my motor shut down as I tried to stand and sprint up the hill. It was disheartening to watch everyone ride by as I dropped my chain to the small ring. Everyone that is except Larry. So I turned around at the top and saw him coming up. Allright, now it's a team training ride. I still felt pretty good and as Larry put it, I basically pulled him around for 3 laps. We weren't alone the entire time as we picked up Patrick from Primus-Mootry. And I didn't pull the entire way. They pulled through on the pavement and some dirt. I did want to catch the riders that were dangling in front of us and set out as we returned to the dirt on the last 1/2 lap to do just that. After the first hill Larry&Pat were off my wheel and I went into TT mode to catch the rider before the feed zone hill, dropped hime there and went after the other 2 that were riding just to finish. I finished right behind them at the line. I felt pretty good about my ride except for the lack of power when it mattered. TR keeps telling me the season is long. Yeah, we should be killing em soon as they burn out. Oh yeah, I finish 37th out of like 90. The course was nice, can't wait till next year