BikeSource race report (recent races)

Fischer Farms 6/20/12 (podium)
3rd Expert: Robert Fish
3rd Sport 35-44:  Ryan Kelley
2nd Beginner 35+:  Omar Reese (I can only assume in Dickies shorts)
1st Juniors 8-13:  Ty Gibbs
Sorry Jeff, no podium at Fischer Farms

Results

Tree Shaker 6/23/12
5th 4 Hour Solo Men:  Ryan Kelley
7th 4 Hour Solo 40+ Men:  Jeff Smith
7th 8 Hour Solo Female:  Rebecca Bubp
2nd 8 Hour Solo Single Speed:  Eric Hagerty
1st 8 Hour 3 Person Open:  Matt Moosa, Daniel Lenis and Donald Butler

Results by category

Clemson--Tiger Rag 6/24/12 (podium)
2nd Cat 2 40+: Ryan Kelley
2nd Cat 1 30-39:  Bobby Bryson

Results

US National White Water Center 6/27/12 (podium)
1st Expert: Robert Fish
3rd Sport 35-44:  Ryan Kelley
2nd Beginner 35+ (I can only assume in Dickies shorts)
1st Juniors 8-13:  Ty Gibbs
Sorry again Jeff, no podium at USNWC, I'll stop mentioning that soon. . . I think

Results

Renaissance Race Report and various thoughts

BikeSource Podium finishers from Renaissance (a week ago):
-1st Expert: Robert Fish
-2nd Sport 45+ Jeff Smith (clearly he just needed the motivation of being in my blog to finish on the podium)
-3rd Sport 45+ Donald Butler
-2nd Beginner 35+ Omar Reese (rocking the Dickies shorts, I wish I was joking)
-1st Juniors 8-13 Ty Gibbs

I'm astonished at how quickly Robert Fish has recovered from various injuries that kept him off the bike for an extended period of time to win back to back expert races.

My ankle is getting better, but VERY slowly, it is still swollen and my toes still have purple marks on them from all of the blood that was in foot.

While that has been disappointed, riding on the trainer has actually been going very well, no pain:  all I have to do is loosen the top Boa on my Specialized S-works shoes.  So while I might not be able to run for quite at least I'll be able to ride on the trainer and hopefully my cycling fitness won't suffer too much.

Ankle Sprain: How it happened

In my last couple posts I haven't exactly said how I sprained my ankle.  I didn't really want to talk in depth about it, it was still very raw and the timing of when it happened was REALLY bad.

I rode up to Richmond Friday evening with Marcus Barton, who was also doing the same race on Sunday.  As we had planned as soon as the trail run had finished Saturday morning we pre-road the mountain bike course (about a 50 minute ride), to get a feel for the course.  I was feeling good a fresh, I also felt good about my bike handling.  About 30 minutes into the ride through a section of the trail that was relatively wide 3-4 feet, there was a small cluster of rocks in the middle of the trail, maybe 8 inches around 4 inches high (an obstacle I don't even have to think about, I could easily go to either side of it or over the top of it).  Unfortunately I either didn't see it or didn't focus on dealing with it, more likely didn't see it.  I hit the rocks and it knocked the bike out to the side, my right foot unclipped and came out to catch myself (this happened automatically) unfortunately the way I hit the rocks it threw me down, and instead of my foot coming down on the ground squarely it hit on the outside of my foot and my ankle just rolled.  After finding my glasses, which had fallen off as well.  I got back on the bike, I was able to continue riding, but it was very painful, I didn't have much power with my right leg, and any time I had to step down on my right foot, it hurt a LOT.  I knew at the time that my race was probably over even before it started.  After getting back to the hotel room I began icing it and keeping it elevated, to keep the swelling down as much as possible.  By the evening it was very swollen and I could hardly put any weight at all on my right foot, I knew unless something changed dramatically I wouldn't be able to race.  After waking up Sunday morning if anything it was worse, and knew I wouldn't be able to swim or bike, and couldn't even think of walking, much less trail running. 

I wish I could say that it was in some major crash going super fast or something a little more exciting, but it was during a slow pre-ride through an easy section of trail, not the best of stories.

Diagnosis and treatment

I was pretty sure that my ankle was sprained, but definitely wanted to get it checked out to make sure it wasn't broken as well as the best way to move forward for a fast and full recovery.  I was able to schedule an appointment to see Dr. Picklesimer (who was highly recommend) at Eastover Foot and Ankle, Monday afternoon, I was really happy to be able to get in and see him so quickly.  After examining my ankle and looking at a couple X-rays he concluded there was nothing broken (good news).  We talked about what I should/shouldn't do over the next three weeks:  no running (no surprise there), wait til the end of the week to begin VERY easy swimming and biking (which surprised me I'd be able to start back with those so quickly), wear a boot for walking around, ice and elevate to reduce swelling.

May not be the most comfortable, but with it I can now walk

Today I went to Performance Therapy and Mike Danenberg set me up on the Game Ready treatment device, which provides compressions and cycles cold water through a boot, both of which help reduce swelling.  The treatment lasted about 15 minutes and after pulling off the boot, I could actually  see my ankle bone (which I couldn't see before) so it obviously reduced the swelling pretty dramatically. 

My busted ankle

Pre-road the bike course on Saturday, this is the result:

As a result I haven't been able to walk, much less race on Sunday.  Extremely dissapointed that I wasn't able to race.  I'll be going to the doctor this afternoon to have it looked at, and see how bad it is.  More updates to come as I know more.

Pre-Richmond Thoughts

With the Xterra Richmond race coming up this weekend, I have some random thoughts:

-Wednesday night race cancelled AGAIN, I think we’ve had 4 race postponements out of 8 weeks.  I was disappointed that we didn’t have the race, because I was feeling good, but it probably was best for the Xterra Richmond race not to do a race middle of the week.

-I feel good about my swimming, mountain biking, and running, but it’s always a little weird when you are tapering for a race and you haven’t done a REALLY hard workout in almost two weeks, because you’re never 100% sure your fitness just hasn’t gone down the toilet in that time (which doesn’t happen, but you’re never quite sure).

-My biggest hope is that I get out of the swim in good position to start the bike and don’t run into too much trouble passing people on the bike.  Last year it wasn’t too bad to pass people on the bike, but it all depends on when you catch up to people and if you can get around them quickly.  Best case: I have an awesome swim and come out of the water without too many in front of me and I can just ride comfortably.  Worst case:  I come out of the water behind a bunch of slow mountain bikers that aren’t courteous about letting faster riders pass, in this case I just have to be smart and ride smooth save as much energy as possible when I’m stuck behind people.

-I still need to think through my nutrition/water for the bike (Camelbak, water bottle, both), I’m not worried about this I just need to think it through and make sure I’ll have enough water (I know how much Infinit I’ll need).

-It’s hard to know what reasonable expectations for this race are because last year I had a flat tire and had to run a couple miles of the bike, which hurt both my bike and run splits.  Also with mountain biking and trail running it’s hard to know what a good split is because it’s so dependent on the conditions and the course, not just the distance of the leg like on a road triathlon.  I’ve always been one that likes to plan and know how I should do so this is a little weird.

-Overall I’m a little nervous but very excited to see what I can do and how it goes.

Summer Series Race Report Anne Springs: Bad

I was thinking of calling it “embarrassing” or “terrible” but it was quite that bad, it was just BAD.  This was the first summer series race at Anne Springs (which I’ve ridden quite a bit over the last couple years).  It was good to have some of the guys that haven’t been to as many of the summer series races at the race (Robert Fish, Robert Mobley and Chris Audet). 

Got a good start (it’s about time) and entered the woods 2nd, rode in second pretty comfortably for the first 10 minutes or so, we were going fast, but I felt good.  Unfortunately I pushed my front tire too hard into a sandy turn, it washed out and I went down, as crashes go it was as innocent as possible, but I did lose a few places as a result.  Got back on and got going again, unfortunately shortly thereafter I was going uphill and hit a root with my front tire wrong and went down, again incredibly innocent, but still it meant I had to run to the top of the hill remount and get started again.  At this point the guys at the front of the race had pulled away a bit, not too bad (I still have over two laps to pull them back in), but I was playing catch up. From then on I don’t remember exactly everything that happened or the order that it happened in, but it just didn’t go well.  There is a spot where the trail splits and you can either go right or left, both the first and second lap I went to the right, which was a much slower and more difficult line.  I also crashed going through one of the really technical sections, got thrown off the bike, and my water bottle that had all my Infinit nutrition came out, only problem:  I didn’t realize the bottle had fallen out for about 5 minutes.  So no nutrition, no electrolytes for the last 50 minutes or so of the race, which might not have been so bad, but it was 90 degrees. . .not a good situation.  I don’t even remember all the other things that went wrong, but it was just a bad race all around.

Until about noon Thursday (the next day) I was pretty down on myself and the race.  But after a little time to think about it and reflect I realized that it was a bad race, nothing more nothing less.  I’m the same rider that I was a few weeks ago when I won at Rennassaince, then was racing for the win at the Riverfront Classic and Fisher Farms.  My fitness didn’t go down the toilet in the last couple weeks (I’ve had some of the best workouts of my life the last few weeks) and my bike handling hasn’t reverted back to what it was 2 or 3 years ago when I was bad at handling the bike.  It just wasn’t a good race, I made mistakes that cost me time and places, but it doesn’t mean that I’m a bad rider. 

Congratulations to Robert Fish who won the expert race (he's come back from a number of pretty big injuries over the last 10 months),  Daniel Lenis 2nd in Sport 19-34, Omar Reese (rocking the Dickie shorts) 2nd Beginner 36+, Rebecca Bubp 3rd in Sport Women's, and Ty Gibbs 2nd in Juniors 8-13.

Next up:  North Meck then going to Richmond to try and qualify for Xterra Worlds