Returning To Full Health

I got 4.5 hours of outdoor exercise this week. Baby steps …

I came into October strong and I’m leaving it on the upswing, but the three weeks in the middle were rough! After my bike crash on October 7th, I didn’t do anything remotely athletic until the 23rd. Then I resumed walking for fitness. On Friday morning I even picked up a Garmin Connect badge, my first since September 29th.

On Saturday afternoon I got on the bike for the first time since my crash. I would have been content with another walk, but again Garmin Connect provided extra motivation. I needed just 11 more miles to complete the October mileage challenge. But I didn’t feel like doing much more than that: I finished the day with 17 miles, bringing my October total to a modest 162. That’s my lowest monthly total since February. I am not yet fully recovered and as the weather continues to decline I am unlikely to ride outside again this year.

Today there was a third Garmin Connect badge on offer, so I knocked out a 5K walk around the neighborhood. I’m still working on the overall walking challenge for the 4th quarter of 2021, and I’ll probably need all of November and at least some of December to complete it.

One of the worst things about getting hurt was being shut out of the home gym. Because my crash happened at the end of a week-long vacation, I already had missed several training sessions. November begins tomorrow and so does my winter strength program. It may be slow going at first. My left arm and shoulder are still a little tender. Weightlifting, stretching, foam rolling … everything stopped when I got hurt. I’m happy to be moving again, but I will take care not to do too much too soon.

The 2021-2022 Hugh Jass Fat Bike Schedule

Here’s the schedule for Season 7 of the Hugh Jass Fat Bike Series, which includes a race at West Bend’s Regner Park for the third straight season:

1. 11/27 – Lake Geneva Ziplines & Adventures - Lake Geneva

2. 12/11 – Trek Headquarters - Waterloo

3. 01/01 – Minooka Park - Waukesha

4. 01/22 – Regner Park - West Bend

5. 02/12 – New Fane - Kewaskum

6. 02/26 – Black Hawk Trails - Madison

Fan Status Reconfirmed

At the midpoint of this year’s race, Sina Frei and Laura Stigger are crushing the women’s field.

Thanks to the Absa Cape Epic, I am a bike racing fan again! I had been AWOL for a few weeks. But each stage of the 8-day African mountain bike race is free to watch on YouTube, and the 7-hour time difference puts the live broadcast in the small hours of the morning on this side of the Atlantic. That’s perfect for a 3rd Shift worker like me. I’ve got my job on one computer monitor and the race on another. Rest assured: I’m not neglecting my job, but in spare moments I’ll un-mute the race and get caught up.

I didn’t see any of the three UCI Cyclocross World Cup races here in the United States this month. Injury kept me from attending the race in Waterloo, and economy kept me from subscribing to FloBikes to watch the broadcasts. I’ve said it before: it’s now almost impossible to watch cyclocross for free. So, I’m very grateful for the Cape Epic broadcasts on YouTube, just as I love the Red Bull.tv coverage of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.

Annika Langvad—the Danish woman who won the Cape Epic five times during a career marked by success on the road, in mountain biking, and in cyclocross—is providing the color commentary for this year’s broadcast. And she has valuable insight, but it’s also kind of sad that she isn’t racing anymore. She was a cyclist after my own heart, someone who was good at everything and not a one-dimensional specialist.

I like Dutch cyclists Marianne Vos and Lucinda Brand for the same reasons, and Italy’s Eva Lechner, and France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. Among the men, Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), Wout van Aert (Belgium), and Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) shine as multi-discipline stars. There’s a ton of talent out there right now.

But in addition to Langvad, a couple of recent departures have made cycling feel a little less like the sport with which I fell in love. Sophie de Boer (Netherlands) announced her retirement this week. She was one of my favorite cyclocross racers. And Katie Compton, who reigned for a decade and a half as the American women’s cyclocross champion, was forced out of the sport by a positive doping test that she and her husband clumsily denied. I didn’t say anything in August when the Compton story broke. I hoped it would prove untrue—she had been such a great ambassador for American cyclocross—but two months later there’s still no good reason to doubt the validity of the test results.

I’ll get over it. Yes, I miss many now-retired pros: Sven Nys, Paolo Bettini, Thomas Voeckler, and a bunch of others. But cycling renews itself every season. This week, for example, I recognize only a few of the names of the Cape Epic riders, and that’s OK. It’s still bike racing.

Grim Days

A week has passed since my big crash in Pennsylvania. I have been in dull pain and discomfort ever since. But the healing process is evident. I have more movement in my left arm than I expected at this point, and I have grown an array of scabs over my road rash that almost rivals the rocky carapace of Marvel Comics superhero The Thing.

Despite my injuries, I got through a full week of work without much trouble. I don’t know how I would have made it if I were not working from home; going into the office would have been torture. And for a little extra consolation, I didn’t miss many opportunities for outdoor recreation. Until this afternoon we were in a dark and rainy funk for several days.

I am content to be a bum for a while longer. It’s October, so there are plenty of schlocky monster movies to watch. The new NHL season has just begun. I’m reading books again after taking a break in September. With so many “easy chair” distractions, my convalescence should be done in time for raking leaves and other autumn yard chores.

By next week I may be doing fitness walks/hikes again, but I have no target date for getting back on the bike. My next ride might be indoors.

Back In Wisconsin … Broken

It was a great vacation in Pennsylvania until Thursday afternoon when I crashed on the road and badly injured my left shoulder … again. Pretty sure I know what to expect: two weeks without the use of my left arm, then a fairly rapid period of improvement, and finally a long winter of rebuilding strength in the home gym. I’m a mess: road rash all over the left side of my body. But aside from the shredded handlebar tape that needed to be replaced anyway, I think the bike is OK. At the moment I don't really care. I think my outdoor riding season is done for 2021.

I’m still replaying the crash in my head, and I’m still failing to understand it. I hit a bump in the road with such violence that the handlebar was wrenched from my hands. Fortunately there were no other people or vehicles nearby.

Working from home is going to prove its worth again tonight. As my new work week begins I will be relatively comfortable in my home office where no one will ask why I’m limping and holding my left arm tightly against my chest. And having my oldest kid living with me again is going to ensure a steady flow of groceries to the house. It will be a while before I make my next appearance in public, and unfortunately that means I won’t be at Trek HQ in Waterloo tomorrow for the UCI World Cup cyclocross races.

Zwift is looking better all the time. I can’t keep breaking myself like this.