Reach the Beach

I am noticing that most of my posts are around cycling, so with no surprise, here is another cycling post.
First a little background. Just as I thought I had gotten over my injury and I no longer felt pain, I woke up on Wednesday night with sharp shooting pain in my left knee again. Damnit!!! It was rather odd as to why it happened as Wednesday was actually a rest day, so I didn't do anything! The pain did not go away on Thursday so Friday first thing I called my doctor to get an appointment, and maybe a cortizone shot as a quick fix. I went in to see my doctor and after he did some testing on my knee, he could feel that my knee was loose. He then asked me if I would like to go see an orthopedic surgeon and get an MRI. I took it as a question, not a suggestion, so I told him NO! I asked if we could explore some alternatives first. He then referred me to get physical therapy. Before leaving I asked him if I could ride RTB this weekend, and he said he probably wouldn't. I told him probably didn't mean much to me, and if he said probably then I probably would attempt it. I could not force him to give me a yes/no and all I had was a referal to a PT. I left the doctors office a little more than pissed, as I have never gotten a yes/no from him, and he couldn't figure out why I was sick a while back. It is now 3:15 on a Friday, good luck trying to get an appointment with anyone. I was disappointed, upset, depressed and stuborn figuring I will just ride and see how it goes. This didn't make me feel great, as I could do something to my knee because my doctor was not capable of helping me.
I spent a few minutes in my car just figuring out my next steps and tried getting myself from blowing up at someone/something. I then started calling all of the closest PT places and they were all booked. I then was able to find one that just had a cancellation.
Ian, my PT was awesome. He spent a lot of time with me analyzing everything about my walk and run and both of my knees. He confirmed that I did have some play in my left knee, but he said it could be from anything, it may have been that way since my ACL surgery when I was 16, so it didn't mean much to him. He then was able to find some scar tissue in my left knee (bummer, but no biggie). He was not able to find any rips, tears or strains in my knees. He figured it was a joint injury that was brought on by impact exercise, such as running. He told me since cycling has never hurt my knees, I was good to do RTB. He warned me that if the shooting pain came back while riding I had to stop, and regardless it may take me a couple extra days to recover, but he didn't see anything horrible as long as I was smart about it. I left their offices in a much better mood.

Okay, that was much longer than I thought, sorry. Maybe just a little venting.

Weaver and I did Reach The Beach on Saturday. The ride is a 100 mile ride (Century) from Portland to Pacific City on the coast, and it supports the American Lung Association.

I was not able to do my usual day before pre ride that "primes the engine" so I was a little hesitent about how my legs would feel. Since I had to do the two Dr. appt's I was lacking time on Friday and Friday night as I was going to try and get a short ride in I found that I had a problem with my cranks. So, I had to cut out my ride and run to a local bike shop to get my bike looked at. Turned out a bolt on my crank was no longer at the spec'd torque and that caused the issue. Then I rushed the rest of the evening to get everything ready for the ride.

Kristin and I picked up Weaver at 6:35 Saturday morning and she dropped us off at the starting point. We were on the road by 7:20. As I had suspected with no riding three days before the event, my legs felt like they had lead in them. They start off the century had a good climb after only 10 miles taking us up over 1,000 feet. The views were awesome, but it just felt too hard, but I knew I would have some sluggishness, so the goal for me was to make it and do it without killing myself, as I didn't want to ride 85 miles after spending myself on the first climb.

After the climb, Weaver and I had a very fun descent with some tight twisting switchbacks, which were rather fun. The next 20 miles were rather uneventful, just heavy legs and the winds. Oh yes, the winds sucked hard core. It was a constant head wind the entire way. The winds were WSW, and we were heading right in to the winds. When we would normally be going 20 to 21 MPH, we were going 15 to 16 mph. So much for my thoughts about beating my previous best century times.

About 40 miles in we were passed by a paceline of about 12 to 15 riders. The first 6 to 8 riders were holding a good paceline to cut the wind and the ramaining 6 or so were not holding a good line, but I was tired of fighting the wind so I decided to hop on the back end of this ugly paceline. After we were on this paceline for about 60 seconds someone did one of the cardinal sins in a paceline and he jammed on his brakes when there was no corner or any other thing to cause someone to logically slow down. I overlapped his wheel quick and I had to jam on my brake for a split second to slow down so I didn't hit him and crash. Weaver who was right behind me and at the very back did not have his hands near his brakes and he had no braking option. I didn't know this at the time, but all I felt was him hitting my wheel fairly solidly, then I hear him clip out of his pedals and then hit me again and then I hear this weird grinding on the pavement, which wasn't him going down, then about a second later I hear him hit the ground. Of course I turn around and check on him. All I could think at the time was thank goodness nobody was right behind him in the paceline, otherwise it could be worse than anything I was coming back to.
As I turn around, Weaver is still laying on the ground, not really moving, but not screaming, which is a good thing, since I knew he wasn't knocked out. A guy who saw the accident from behind also stopped to check on him. He had pretty good road rash on his left calf and his shorts by his left hip had some holes on them. The guy then told me what Weaver did just before the wreck. When I heard the weird grinding noise, that was him putting his foot down and pushing down with his foot and pulling up with his hands a bit, causing a high speed wheelie. The good thing was the head wind, had there not been a head wind and instead a tail wind or no wind we would have been going at least 23+ in a paceline with no wind and probably close to 28 with a tail wind, which would have made his wreck much worse. The road rash, although not good looking by any means, it wasn't too deep.

Weaver wiped off the wound, checked out his bike and he saved his bike (now there is where I like to see a guys priorities)! He got up and we rode to the next check point. At the next rest point we went to the First Aid station and he put on some antibiotic creams. At this point he found out he was also bleeding under his arm warmers, and under further inspection he had banged up his forearm pretty good. I must admit I admire him getting up and riding the rest of the way, and he rode strong too, and I don't think he ever complained. I guess they do make them tuff in the Army.

Around the 50 mile mark my legs started feeling fresh (Finally!) and I was feeling good. We ended up making a small paceline with one other guy and we were cruising at 20 mph for quite a while. He had a beautiful Colnago bike. After riding for 10 miles or so at this pace the guy we were riding with said that we were killing him and he couldn't keep up with us any longer. This suprised me as he looked really fit and he had some pretty strong looking legs. We had to stop at the next rest stop and he kept on going. Then a mile after the rest stop I ended up getting a flat. The next 30 miles were pretty much same ol' same ol' other than Weavers bike making this annoying click every time he pedalled and a reminder of how bad bike wrecks can be. We saw the aftermath of a bike wreck where one cyclist was being carried away in a stretcher on a fairly scary section of road. We are not sure exactly what happened, but it was a little sombering. It was interesting too, even though it caused some serious traffic problems, the cars were really nice to us the next few miles we were on that road. I think it was a reminder for everyone how unprotected a cyclist is.

At the next rest stop I was insisting to Weaver that he get one of the mechanics at the rest stop to check his bike and fix that damn ticking noise. Not only was it annoying, I was wondering if he was wasting energy because something wasn't right. It turned out his saddle was REALLY loose and that is what the ticking was. Can you imagine what would have happened if his seat came off and all that was left was the seat post!!! Can we say OUCH!!! So, off we go again, that was our last stop before the finish line and we had one hill left, as far as I could remember anyways.

Last year that hill killed me, it is 80 miles in to the ride and your legs are not exactly fresh. I know I am in better shape than I was this time last year and my training has been solid. Last year this hill killed me and I swore it would never end. This year I wanted to see how hard I could push it, not just make it to the top. The hill sheilded us after the wind, and that was a nice break. I ended up pacing with this other cyclist, who was a female (nope I am not ashamed she was in damn good shape and there are many women who can kick my butt on the bike). I was pushing my Heart Rate in to my lactic threshold most of the way up, averaging between 17 and 19 mph the entire way up and I sprinted once I saw the summit. By my book, I crushed this damn hill I had a hard time with last year. As I was at the top waiting for Weaver I heard someone go buy and so, only heart-break hill left. Then I remembered there is one more hill left. It is a really small hill about a 1/4 mile long but it is a brick wall. When I saw Weaver I had to break the news that this was not the last hill, in fact there was this ugly short hill left at the bottom of the hill. Once we were able to see this hill, it was scattered with people trudging up this thing, some walking their bikes, others about to fall over because they were going so slow. Yes, it is that steep. Last year, I thought I was going to have to walk it. Again, wanting to prove I was stronger than last year I had to crush this one. At the bottom I shifted to my 34x24 gear (not my lowest) and I stood up this hill and made it with no problem and I could have done a lot more. It really helped me see how much stronger I was from last year. The remaining 10 miles or so was just fighting the winds coming off the Pacific Ocean. I will post finish lines pictures later as we forgot the digital camera and we have to get our film camera developed.

Kristin met us at the finish line. It is always great to see her at the finish lines. She is so supportive of my "addiction" and to see her at the finish is always a great thing as she has worked hard towards all of my accomplishments as well. She is definately my biggest fan and I am very lucky to have such a great wife. I know some of you understand what it takes to spend so much time away from the house for a sport, but if I can put it in to perspective. Imagine your significant other working a full work week, being on call pretty much 24x7, travelling from time to time, working late nights, etc. then s/he is also gone 10 to 20 hours a week working out depending on these mystical workout schedules called phases. Then the extra time maintaining the bikes, updating workout calendars, etc. probably adds another 5 or so hours a week. Then, when the person gets an injury and they can't work out, you think, great now I will be able to see this person more. Well, that is true, but they get really grumpy because they are going through a withdrawl of their habit. So, now you have more time but they are as grumpy as can be. Kristin is a saint for being so supportive and I hope I can repay her some day. Although I do tease her that she is getting a husband upgrade now that I am losing weight and getting in better shape, and she now has a running partner when I am not injured.

Okay, this was way too long and I am not sure anyone will read this part of the post!