Recreation Through Endurance

Injuries can be depressing. You're activities and abilities can be limited and when you can't do the things you love, it wears on you. It really wears on you when you can't even do things you don't love, like typing well at work. As far as injuries go, a finger dislocation is about as good as it gets. Fairly non-serious, not too painful, decent recovery time, and only slightly limiting. Still, it can wear on you.

During one afternoon earlier this week when I would've rather been mountain biking, I was reading the paper instead and came across an article that made me feel better. If you've gotten around Richmond at all, you've seen the Seal Team PT sessions and how hardcore the guy must be to put them on. Well, seems like he got it worse than I did. Popping a finger out of place in a bike wreck is nothing compared to breaking your neck on a trampoline. If he can push through that, I can quit my whining.

My checkup with the doctor perscribed the other PT, which I can't start since I'll be in the Netherlands for the next couple weeks. Guess I'm going to have to subject myself to my own painful recovery, which started today. Nothing like zip-tying your finger closed and keep cranking it down more and more until you can't stand it anymore. Give it a try sometime!

Trails are beautiful and they hold a special place in my heart right next to Sierra Nevada beer and complete exhaustion.

It's rained pretty hard the last few days, almost all the leaves are down for the fall. The trails are harder to see and look very natural blending into the woods.

My finger's still in the healing process, or at least I hope it is since I still can't close my hand and can't ride the thick bike until it does close.

I've been running the road more lately, but it never feels fast since there's no danger or trees flying past.

Teva had a great offer on trail running shoes for $40 that I couldn't pass up.

There are sections of Forest Hill Park that descend hills with tight footing where, if you move your legs fast enough and hold your arms out like wings for balance, you can feel like your flying. It's a beautiful thing.

Democrats have been spending the last 6 years blaming the Republicans for everything that didn't go their way. American changed that last tuesday by turning Congress over to the Democrats and now the Republicans are starting the blame game. How quickly things change.

I'm still thinking about pushing through the tough times. It's not even that times have been tough, at least not in any tangible way, but I know it's been hard to me to handle those mental roadblocks in the past. Lately, projects have gone unfinished and the motivation hasn't been there to complete them. I don't feel I've made progress fitness-wise this fall and that's a new concept for me to handle. I haven't been making good use of my time, etc. Really though, it's important to take a look at the big picture and realize that these things are things I've brought on myself. Looking at the big picture, I have to consider myself lucky and just do what needs to be done to push through it. Get a couple accomplishments behind me and build that motivation back up. Perhaps, I should consider it a different kind of endurance.

Ok, here's the truth. I found a new HTML tag I wanted to use and wanted a paragraph to go with it. Enjoy.

Maybe it's that time of year. Maybe it's the colder weather or the shorter days keeping people inside to think. Could be a random collection of events, but it seems like everyone's been a little more reflective lately.

My friend, Jay, has been reconsidering the nature of America, and his place in it. A good friend who moved to Richmond from Texas about the same time I did felt, for very intangible reasons, he'd be better off back in Austin and now I don't have a source for music recommendations. More than one person has confided in me they're thinking about switching jobs out of boredom or lack of meaning. I'm reading Timequake, where the universe falls back 10 years and everyone's forced to relive a decade of their lives only able to observe their previous actions. I've heard of more break-ups than hook-ups. I also know I've been looking back more than forward lately.

Before new life can be born, the old layer needs to be shed. With the falling of the leaves (and the end of race season), life seems to be preparing for hibernation. Just stick it out guys. You'll be glad after the winter's over. It's the only way to enjoy yourself.

BTW: I can bend the finger a little more each day. Maybe I'll ride a mountain bike again someday.

If the Broncos can beat the Super Bowl champs, does that mean they're going to win the Super Bowl?


Running in the cold at night is vastly underrated.

Zillow is vastly overrated.

Just because your fast on a bike, doesn't mean 26.2 is easy. Velonews reports Armstrong saying:

"In 20 years of pro sports, endurance sports, from triathlons to cycling, all the Tours, even the worst days in the Tours, nothing was as hard as that, and nothing left me feeling the way I feel now in terms of just sheer fatigue and soreness."

Ski season is a month away! Liz reminded me it's time to get those edges sharpened and bottoms waxed.

With enough distractions, a stationary bike isn't a horrible experience, it may even be somewhat enjoyable. You can listen to music without compromising safety, ready a book, watch monday night football, or all the above at once. Having said that, I got back on a real bike as soon as I possibly could.

Went out today for a reasonably short road ride. Partially due to a time crunch and partially because I didn't know how much my hand would allow me to take. Mountain biking is still several weeks out, but I figured if I kept the hills and bumps to a minimum, I could ride on skinny tires. After it was over and declared successful, I realized my forearms got a workout from the unusual handlebar positions. My forearms probably don't get enough exercise anyways.

Also, typing is almost normal. With the splint off, I can use my ring finger on those important keys, like "x" and "2" without also pressing 7 other keys. Now, I just have to work on closing my hand more than it's current level:

...they update thier blog more often.

I know I'm going against the grain here, but America's helath care system doesn't seem to be that efficiant. I called to make an appointment with the specailist that the ER referred me to. (Yesterday, the ER nurse couldn't remember his name and said she was "drawing a blank" and had to look it up. Turns out, it's Dr. John Blank. I'm not sure if she was messing with me or not.) The specialist said I had to have a referral from my primary care physician, aka Patient First. Appearantly, the ER's word isn't good enough for the insurance company, and I had to go to another doctor today for this referal, which consisted of getting my info, taking my blood pressure, being asked rather snootily "Why didn't you come see us?", and writing the slip with the number on it. Oh yeah, I had to pay my copay for it too...

Among running some one-handed errands today, I also replaced the dressing on my finger. It doesn't look to bad, just a little white from the neosporin, a little swollen, and a little black and blue.


Tomorrow, I'll probably hit the gym and ride the bike there for a while... It'll be interesting to see how long I last before acheiving boredom. Then it's up to NorVA to stay the night before watching Liz race on Saturday. Go Liz! Be assured I'll have plenty of pictures.

Things I've learned in the past couple of days:
1. Have an insurance card, maybe even with you on during potentially dangerous activities.
2. Have a camera, especially with you during potentially dangerous activities.
3. Riding bikes takes a lot of time. I can tell by how much time I have now that I can't ride.
4. Things previously described as boring are more interesting when there's less one can do.
5. Looking for neosporin is an acceptable way to pass the time.
6. For a cyclist, there are reasons to live in Nebraska

...and reasons not to

I've given the finger, I've been given the finger. Today's the first time I've ever been called "the finger". Also, who ever said mountain biking is more dangerous than road riding never got into an accident on the road.

Today was supposed to be another lazy day with nothing to do except go out for a 70 miler road ride with Andy along Riverside, Three Chopt, and up to Ashland and back. The weaher was a comfortable 40 degrees, which meant only the toes would be frostbitten. Headed out the door about 8:30 to meet up with him and another dude. The layers were keeping the cold out except for my feet, which were slowly becoming number and number, but nothing that hasn't happed a dozen times before.

Andy's friend split off from us at around 15 miles because he had a modeling gig pretending to be some girl's boyfriend. (Shit, I could do that... ) We crossed Huguenot bridge and were tearing through the Univ. of Richmond campus, where you can roll one downhill into the next uphill and really carry some speed. Along with some sharp turns, it's pretty fun stuff.

We take one fast, sharp turn and I stand up to power up a hil. About halfway up there's a student on a bike climbing the hill, which I decide to pass. I veer to the left since there's not enough room on the right, and just as I'm beside him, with Andy on my wheel, he takes a sharp left to go into a parking lot. I smash into the side of him, and smashes into me which, as you could probably guess, results in a pile of bikes and people in the middle of the road. Good times!

We get up, start to clean up the mess, try to decide whether to apologize or yell. Standard procedure, I guess, except that when reaching for something, I find that my hand won't close. I say to Andy, pretty calmly in fact, "I just broke my finger." He pretty much shugs it off, probably due to the way I said it, until I show him my gloved hand, which I was also looking at for the first time, and it was pretty clear my ring finger (with ring) wasn't where it was supposed to be. Mr. Left-Turn gets a little less confrontational, tough repeating that he'd signaled (though we didn't see it). I guess he had a harder time blaming someone when they ended up worse off that he did. He had a cut lip, but nothing a washcloth and bandaid couldn't fix.

A car stops, calls the ambulance (which shows up, then leaves which we later found out got called to a difficulty breathing call), and have to wait for a second one. The police take our information, then it seems the UR cop is trying to think of more questions to ask "for his report" to fill time while we wait. After walking around for a while, I start feeling queezy so I lay down where I then start getting cold. The cop pulls some blankets out of his car to cover me up, and fortunantly doesn't cover my head. I would hate to have died from a broken finger. I did ask the cop though "So, how many dead dudes have these covered up?" No answer...

Another ambulance shows up, loads me up after I take my glove off and show then the contorted angle my finger is at. Andy says he'll take care of the bikes and I'm off to the hospital with a very sweet EMT, who happens to not like othopedic injuries. The hook up an IV so the hospital can... I don't know, inject me quickly... if they have to.

At the hospital, the gurney me past the giant teddy bear, but aren't quite sure where to put me yet. They ask the nurse "Where would you like 'The Finger'?" Appearantly, there's a lot of place not to put the finger, but room 8 will work. I didn't care as long at it was attached.

My small room then becomes some sort of party room, with 3 laughing EMT, one cheerful nurse, one really annoyed nurse, and an orthopedic specialist. The annoyed one hadn't had her break yet, but I guess that's not a big deal since no one else seemed to care. Through all the chatting, I find out they want to cut off my wedding ring. The conversation went something like this:

Othro: "We're going to have to cut off your wedding ring."
Me: "Bad news.. it's titanium."
Ortho: "Um... ok. we'll, um... just a sec."

As it occurs to me that I may loose a finger, they come up with Plan B. In a work of genius, Ortho, in less than 2 minutes, numbs my finger with a "digital block." I don't know if it's called that because it blocks feeling to my digit or because it numbs the electrical signals. Either way, the shot hurts so bad that the annoyed nurse gives up on taking my vitals during the process. In the second minute of Ortho's work, she pulls on the finger really, really hard. I, in anticipation of the worst pain of my life, almost bite a termometer in half, while squeezing the gurneys handrail so hard the arm-cuff quits reading my blood pressure. Popping my finger back into place just felt like a really stubborn knuckle crack. In the second half of the second minute, Mrs. Ortho pulls my ring hard and fast. More hard than fast, but enough that the ring comes off before the digit swells to the size of a fat thumb.

Here, the show is over. The EMTs go back to their ambulance, Nurse Annoy gets her break, and I walk to X-ray after letting my nerves calm down. X-ray's show most everything is normal, but I may have a small bone chip that will calcify back to the bone over time, which you can kinda see in the third picture.



Waiting for the splint, Andy shows back up, hangs out until they're done with me and gives me a ride home. He even brought some of his mom's famous cookies to give to me... Gotta love it!

So, from now on, you can call me the finger, just don't ask me where to put it...

It seems as if cycling blogs are all the rage. Just as popular as single-speed and night riding. Just find one on the web and you'll suddenly be linked to thousands more. Personally, I love them. Though I don't really get into Random-Dave's last ride report in South Dakota, you can come across some pretty interesting stuff. For the most interesting cycling issues from a city where everything's an issue, New York, check out BikeLaneDiary.

Another intersting one is Bicycle Diaries out of Chicago. The ones written by commuters are the most interesting, probably due to how integrated cycling is in thier life. Good stuff for reading on those days where your ride gets rained out.

Why am I writing about blogs? Because my day trip to hit a new trail out in the mountains ...was rained out.

This last weekend was the annual MORE campout at Douthat State Park. I consider this to be the best weekend of the year for about 6 months. (The other best weekend of the year is Xterra-Richmond.) This year definantly had a different feel than last year and it wan't just the air.
The temps were chili and at times downright cold, but that didn't stop the riding. Really, I didn't get in as much as I wanted. There's two thing I consider a "must-do" at Douthat, and that's a desecent on Brushy Hollow and a climb on Stony Run... I got in two Brushys and one Stony.... Still, got in 40 miles of trail over 3 days, so what's to complain about?

Really, what makes the weekend more than anything is that my wonderful wife, Liz, had fun on the trip. Though she didn't enjoy the cold, she did like the biking. The west-side trails we hit on friday up to Blue Suck Falls surprized her more than anything in how much climbing there was, but she was determined to "get somewhere" and not turn back. After reaching the waterfalls, we went down Blue Suck Falls trail and cut back to the campground. I asked her if the climb was worth the downhill... I still think she's making up her mind.
Lisa took her up Mountain Side to Brushy Holllow, which I'm stoked about. It's exciting for me to knwo she hit the best DH in the park. Her comments were that she needed to work on her switchbacks, but just doing the trail is a thill in itself.

My photos can be found here:
Jay's photos can be found here.

Sometimes, there are things just beyond our level of understanding and frequently, they are our own actions. People often do things for emotional reasons that don't make sense when looked at rationally. For example, how I thought I could do a marathon this fall running just one day a week. Sure, I told myself I had the base endurance and just needed to tune it for running. Maybe it's possible, maybe it's still possible for me, but I think I effectively killed the possibility of doing the Richmond Marathon by skipping what should have been a 20 miler to spin the road bike several dozen miles through the hills along Riverside and Old Gun today.

Another thing I don't fully understand is why I would by two CDs when I haven't heard anything off them. Jet's new album turned out to be pretty good, but not great. For Reason's Unknown, I also bought the new The Killer's album Sam's Town. This is good stuff that I would recommend to anyone that likes great music.

Normally, I don't get into videos, but I just bought the new Jet album, Shine On. Haven't listened to it enough to know if I like it, but I did visit they're website and found where you can watch some videos, like this one off their last album:

I got the footage put together showing off the Lummoxians and others during the race last weekend. Enjoy!



You can also download it here.

After a summer of some pretty surprising and exciting race finishes, I'd been feeling pretty strong. Probably too good. I'd be lying if I said that momentum fueled tougher training and over the past couple months, though I've been doing quite a bit of biking and such. Looking back, since the race finishes were so unexpected, I think it gave me the feeling that I was just good at it and it wasn't so much a result of strong, determined training.

A couple months later, I miss the last Xterra race, DNF in the SM100, and get a disappointing finish in the Fall Cup. Looking ahead, the race season's pretty much over unless I end up doing the Richmond Marathon, which I haven't exactly been training for. Not the best way to end the year. Really, I think what I need to do is focus. Focus on a sport. Focus on an event or event type. Focus on what I want to be good at. ...but, what do I want to be good at?

I love mountain biking for it's speed, thrill, close calls, good friends, funny stories. It doesn't evan bother me to scrap the dirt out of my scraped shins anymore, just part of the experience.
I love road riding for the miles that keep counting up: 20, 30, 40, 50, 60... Speeding down Riverside, dodging cars in downtown, passing the pastures east of town, pushing against the wind that never stops pushing back...
I really like running (if someone says they love it, they're lying to you). It's so simple, predictable, with the right dedication getting faster is, well, simple... it's quicker to get in a good workout, it's just outside the door, and shoes never need to be worked on...
I, um, well, will swim... it's not bad really, just boring and uncomfortable. ...but I don't hate it anymore.

I like going fast and hard, I like going slow and long,

Now, what do I want to do when I grow up? If I want to race well, I can't do a little of everything... I need to narrow it down. ....or do I?

This year's Fall Cup was, how should I describe it.... bittersweet? the anti-race? can't quite find the right adjective. Whatever I would imagine a race to be though, it was rather the opposite. Really, it was the most exciting and disappointing race wrapped into one. First off, it was a beautiful fall day. It did rain some the night before and despite people's concerns didn't seem to affect the trails other than making the roots slick on the tires. Liz and I got there before the pint glasses ran out, before the enduros started, and before the fog lifted.


Right before packet pickup, we cheer our good friends Jay, Lisa, Steve Utz, and Andy Welch, along with Steve Hein, Wayne, and AC off on their 5 hour Enduro-fest. As far as I know, they all had a good time. Liz and I caught Jay and Lisa on a break and they seemed to be having a good time. AC seemed tired around the 4-hour mark, but I would've been too. (In fact, I was last spring.) I only saw Steve and Andy once. Steve was chatty near the end and Andy was too busy drinking to talk.

At 10:00, Liz ran across the field in her LaMans start. What makes it most impressive is that this was her first bike race and she started like an experienced cyclist. The grabbed the bike and even though she seemed to have an issue clipping into her pedals, once she was riding, she went left of the bottleneck at the trailhead and got a great starting position on the singletrack. I saw her a couple spots along the trail, once about two miles in where she was still riding hard, and another about a half mile from the end where she was looking tired, but very determined. Talking to her afterwards, she said that she maintained her position most of the race, but lost two spots in the last mile. She ended up with 4th place by 5 seconds. She was excited and proud of herself. I was excited and proud of her. When we saw the results, we couldn't believe how well she had done. I'll skip the analysis, but she did fantastic! Her mom also came out to watch her first race and was also very impressed.


While this race was going on, a guy broke his leg near where I was waiting for Liz to come though. I offered my phone to Laurie (of Richmond Multisports) to call 911, ran down the trail to relay the "Do Not Split" message to the people that were watching out for the guy, and warned racers of the man-down before they were about to come up on.

A little after noon, my race started after Scott Schuppert, John Gonyo, Joel Webber, and Lee Hush started their races. What was strange was that from the beginning, I just wasn't feeling it. Rather than being excited about the start, I was stressing out about LeMans position and holding the wheel in front of me. I was feeling sore instead of twitchy with energy and ended up wiping-out a couple times on the first lap. A couple times, I actually felt fast, like I could move, but mostly I was being chased by the ghost of what I could've been doing. Not my best race. I finished top half, but disenchanted. I think I just had a lot going on and wasn't thinking about my own race until 15 minutes before the start and those distractions effected my mindset before starting. Live and Learn.


Liz, who's never raced, had a great day, finishing well and looking forward to the next one. Jay and Lisa, who hardly ever race, did ENDURO and had a great time. ...and myself, who loves a race, not doing so well. Quite opposite of what's normal, but I'm proud of my wife and excited for my friends, and that's worth missing out on my own performance.

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