I Hate following my own advice!

A Diary of Injury Recovery

I’m posting this series in the hope that it will be helpful and instructive for others.

Injuries are a fact of life.  It’s a certainty.  No matter how skilled one is, or how careful, sooner or later, an injury will occur.  For those of us who live physically active lives, injuries tend to fall in several categories:

Impact

Strain

Over use

Repetitive motion

Mine was an impact injury.  More on that in a moment.

I have been an athlete for the greatest part of my life.  I have lived and worked around, and with,  athletes for over a half century.  Once I was a young, enthusiastic, and fairly ignorant athlete.  I did some stupid things…  and suffered from them.  I was taught, I studied, and I learned.

I first learned how to recover properly and well from an injury.  For many years I have been dispensing the advice on correct injury recovery.  From time to time, I’ve had to follow that advice too.  Here, in a short form, is The Advice:

Define the injury

Cease training and allow the injury to heal

During the healing period, maintain light, healthy, non-aggravating exercise

When appropriate, develop a “Recovery Training Plan”

Follow that plan with discipline and patience.

So what brought all this on? 

April 16:  I took a tumble while mountain biking.  As falls go it wasn’t anything spectacular.  There was no great speed or other heroism involved.  The rear wheel washed out as I was cresting out of a deep gully obstacle, and I twisted and fell to the side.  It wasn’t all that hard a landing.  I wasn’t even knocked windless by the thumping landing.

There was a fairly sharp pain around toward the back of my rib cage.  The curvature of one of my lower left ribs had landed precisely on the curvature of a rock.  This resulted in a crack in the rib, around toward the back.  Ouch.

In the immediate aftermath of the fall, I didn’t know that I had suffered a deeper injury.  It felt like soft tissue damage, and I’ve had my share of that.

April 17:  The day after.  Pain in the impact location, but it was manageable.  I was stiff and sore.

I took the Wednesday Evening Path Ride out.  Climbing on the bike was a surprise.  As soon as I was in the saddle I experienced a blessed relief from pain.  That lasted throughout the ride, but…  As soon as I dismounted, the pain came back strongly, and in waves.

April 18:  Define the injury.  Pain at the impact site increasing sharply.  Difficulty drawing a deep breath.  Time to go see a doctor.  Received confirmation of my suspicion.  I’d cracked a rib.  Fortunately, I had no ride leader obligations.

Doctor’s orders:  Avoid strenuous activity.  Do not aggravate the injury.  No mountain biking.  Avoid any risk of falling or further impact.

Took the bike out for a gentle evening ride.  I felt a good bit of pain, but kept the effort low.  I paid a penalty for that ride.  That night my entire back went into spasm.

Sleeping is a problem.  I was having trouble finding a position that didn’t cause the rib to flare.  The best one was face down, but that triggered more pain in my back.  Not a good situation.

The realization was that I would just have to do minimal activity, treat with anti-inflammatory drugs, and live through this.

April 19:  Get up.  Struggle through the day.  Go home.  Try to sleep.

April 20:  Define the injury.  Made a conscious decision not to do my usual gentle Saturday morning early ride.  Slept a bit later.  (sort of)  Met the regular Saturday morning path ride.  This is a very easy ride, and my thought was that gentle exercise would be good.  It wasn’t terrible.  I only had to deal with a slight, but constant, dull ache while on the bike.

I should mention things that I’ve dropped from the routine.  Ordinarily, my morning wake up ritual consists of a series of stretching exercises, followed by a core strength toning routine.  That was absolutely unthinkable.

April 21:  Define the injury.  I managed to sleep a bit later.  I took it very easy around the house.  In the late afternoon, I went out for a very low effort bike ride of about one and a half hour duration.  This led to an interesting discovery.

The act of mounting the bike was painful.  Once mounted, the pain subsided, and stayed down.  I could trigger pain if I tried to exert effort.  Each dismount and mount (intersections) triggered a new bout of pain.  That night, the back spasm was back.

April 22:  No unnecessary physical activity.  Getting through the work day was difficult enough.

April 23:  One week out from the crash.  “Are you going to do the mountain bike ride this evening?”  The answer that came to mind was “Are you freaking CRAZY!!??”  Instead, I went out for a very gentle one hour ride on the paved paths of the town.  The ride was good, but again the back spasms gave me a very restless night.

 Summary:  That was the first week of injury recovery.  I had two prime goals in mind.  One was to just survive the stinkin’ thing.  The second was to determine what level of activity I could tolerate.  That last was important.  Increased physical activity, within careful limits, will aid healing.  The trick is to find those limits.  If the activity is too vigorous or too long, it will aggravate the injury and retard healing.  I was looking for that happy medium.  I’d sta

Audax 200K ~~ Details

For any latecomers, here’s the basics.

It will be a 200 kilometer (125 mile) ride.

We’ll do it as a Group Ride.  The emphasis on the word group is intenional and deliberate.  The group will stay together.  No breakaways.  No heroics.  No one left behind.  We ride in mutual support.  One for all, and all for one!  If anyone has a problem, we all have a problem and we will stop and fix it.

We will adhere to a schedule.  It’s a loose schedule, with room in it, but it exists.

We will make regular, planned stops.

There is a fee.  GOOD NEWS!  Thanks to some careful shopping and such, we're able to reduce the rpice.  The modest amount of $24.00 will pay for a good, sit-down lunch, for water along the way, and for a post-ride sandwich snack.  Please contact me as soon as possible to join in this ride.  I need to make reservations so I really need to know if you are coming.  Advance payment is extremely helpful.

Pay in cash or check only, please.

Contact me either by email at The.road.dragon@gmail.com or by phone at Bicycles Unlimited 770-486-9252

Ride Time:  7:30 A.M.

Date:  Sunday 28 April 2013

Location:  Bicycles Unlimited

If you are new to all this…  You can go back and “mine” this blog for copious information about this ride.

House Cleaning

I had planned to post another in the ongoing series Your First Three Years.  Apparently that’s not going to happen today.

Big time bloggers must deal with this all the time.  Me?  I’m not the most technically adept rider in the peloton.  I’m speaking of computer-technical issues here.

I won’t bore with details.  Like most of these things, it started with a simple seeming proposition.  I acquired a “marvelous device.”

Marvelous devices always require upgrades to operating systems.  You can probably fill in the blanks from there.  Suffice it to say, I’m in recovery mode.  The trauma is fading, but the after-effects will linger for a while.  (Never mind the horus of fighting with recalcitrant compu-crap.  Hours that could have been used in some productive fashion.)

While I’m on the topic of techno-hassles, I note that I have acquired some kind of robo-spammer in the comments to this blog.  I will be working to exorcise this demon, and I do apologize for any inconvenience.  Please do not follow any links this cretin has put up.  Hopefully, by tomorrow, I’ll have the demon cut out and cauterized.

Regular programming will continue, and soon.  In the mean time, the weather is warm, and the pollen is thick.  Go outside and do something pleasant.

The Series Returns Next Week

Last year we started a series,  Your First Three Years, dedicated to advising new (and maybe not so new) cyclists on growth in the sport.  Things went well until we got into Winter.  Then we stopped posting those regular Tuesday articles.

It took me a while to figure out what the problem was.  I had a lot to say, but I kept getting bogged down with attempting to write it.  Finally it dawned on me.  I was trying to go too far and too fast.  I was trying to write about Winter training and such.  The thing is, for a rider who is new to the bike, it is enough to get the first season under the wheels.  If one can, one rides during the Winter.  Comes the Spring and then it is time to resume and explore again.

In that spirit, look for the return of Your First Three Years.  We’ll resume those posts on Tuesdays, starting a week from today.

Thank you all for your patience.

Ride Report: 65(!) mile Audax Tune Up

Sunday was the day for the first of this year’s longer Audax Tune Up Rides.  This was one for the books.

It was a truly good and great ride.  This was one where everything meshed and just went along to near perfection.  It was all right:  the right people, the right route, the right conditions, the right day, the right bikes, great attitudes, old friends, and much good fun.

The Stats:

Distance:  71.2 miles  (more on that later)

Elevation Gain:  4200+ feet of climbing

Average Speed:  12.8 mph (rolling average)

Present for the ride were (in no particular order)  Janey, Victoria, Aaron, Chris, and me.

The Day did not look auspicious at the start.  It was grey, and had been raining.  At ride start there was still a very light mist/drizzle.  This cleared before we crossed out of Pechtree City.  The threatened rain never did show.  Most of the day, it was cloudy, but the grey skies did little to dampen enthusiasm.

The forecast was for a high a bit above 60F, sometime around 4:00 PM.  The early part of the ride did seem to warm a bit, but then, the temp actually felt like it was dropping.  Perhaps this was due to rising winds and a lot of descending in the mid-section of the route.  Things did seem to warm a bit on our return leg, and we actually saw some patches of blue sky as we re-entered Peachtree City.

In sum, conditons were good enough, and we were all prepared to meet them.  Success!

The Company was about as good as anyone could ask for.  It’s a rare thing to be able to go out with five riders who are compatible, and willing to bend to a common goal.  This was one of those days.  Everyone got along famously, with a lot of grinning, joking, and laughter.  Good fellowship and camaraderie were the themes for the day.

I should note, Janey had a wonder GPS gadget with her.   This thing is a marvel.  It doesn’t do as much navigating as my old and faithful Garmin Etrex, but it supplies a truly amazing wealth of information.  In fact, sometimes a bit too much inormation.  One of this device’s features is an inclinometer function, that reads out in current grade percentage.  Janey was delighted to let us know just how steep any particular climb was.  i.e.  “Hey!  This is a 7% grade!”

That went on until I mentioned that there were certain bits of information that I did not want to know.  I’m really happier if I don’t know how cold it is, or how steep it is.  I mentioned this, and Janey immediately said she would be happy to not tell me, but that if I ever really wanted to know, just ask!  Then she waited until another good climb came up and she asked me what the grade was.  (Gig!)

The Route was almost my standard 65 mile Tune Up Loop.  I think it’s interesting to note that this loop compares to the famous Triple Gap.  The aforesaid is 53 miles around, and gains 5200 feet.  On this day we rode a bit more than 70 miles and gained over 4200 feet.  (I’ve said I picked this thing deliberately for its hilly terrain.)

A bit of explanation is wanted.  This ride is advertised as a 65 mile “Tune Up.”  So how did we get to 71.2 miles?  Well the answer is fairly simple.  We were having fun.  We arrived at the last planned stop in good order.  Then I had a brain-flash.  I did not want to take the final route, did not want to go to Flat Creek Trail, did not want to face the climb up the “Beast.”  And I most especially was not looking forward to the grind up the hill on GA-54.  The group was riding along well, and in good spirits, so…  I changed my plan.

Instead of going South and west, I turned a bit.  We went via an alternate route.  (Actually pieces of three alternate routes.)  We went south for a bit, and then north, and then some east, before turning back toward Peachtree City.  It avoided some more traffic, and lo and behold, we arrived back home, laughing and joking all the way.

In Summary:  This was one of the great ones.  The compnay was great, the weather was tolerable, the route treated us well, and fun was had by all.  I can hardly wait for the next 65 mile Tune Up on 14 April, or the full-on Audax 200K on 28 April.

What’s this AUDAX thing?

Some of you have started doing the Audax Tune Up Rides but you’re not really clear about the why of it.  Perhaps you are thinking, “What’s the endpoint?”

We’ll try to give some kind of answer to that question here, along with a few particulars and details.

The objective of the whole exercise is to ride the Audax 200K together and as a group.  What does that mean?

The distance first.  A trip of 200 kilometers is approximately 125 miles.  Our route covers moderate terrain, a lot of mostly rural, low traffic, roads.  There are a couple of some hilly sections, one long stretch of “rollers.” and Pine Mountain is smack in the middle of the thing.  (We get it done just before lunch.)

It’s noncompetitive riding.  Wow!  What a concept.  In the southern United States, most “group” rides turn into races without rules.  This one is not like that.  There are twin objectives here. We are here to finish the ride, and to insure that all of us finish.  Together.  At the same time.

We understand that we are all rough tough cycling animals, and we are confident of our abilities.  Nobody needs to prove anything to anyone on a ride like this.  There are no “break-aways,” no “Primes,” and no bragging rights for being first.  (In fact, at the end of the ride, we assemble into a formation and ride in the last few miles together as a tightly organized unit. 

 The group rides together, stays together, supports itself, and is a moving organism.  We all have strengths and weaknesses.  Some of us can really climb.  We have folks who can sprint like the wind.  Some of us are real diesels, capable of just motoring in the flatter sections.  Over a long ride, such as this, our differences in abilities could spread us out over a lot of terrain.  It won’t happen here.  Our motto is,  “All for one!  One for all!”  If any of has any sort of problem, we will all work to fix it.  A slower rider will be supported and encouraged.  (We’ve all had days when we’ve been that rider.)  Stronger climbers will encourage the slower ones.  Power riders will provide windshelter for the lighter ones.  It all works out.

There is a unique synergy to this kind of riding.  We’ll all arrive, together, at each break point along the route.  We’ll stop for a mid ride sit-down lunch.  It’s about camaraderie and the reinforcing power of belonging to a group with a mutual objective.

The Tune Up Rides are designed to give us experience in terrain that is actually, mile for mile, more demanding than the actual 200K.  They are also intended as a means for us to practice this group dynamic, mutual support riding.  Besides, they are a lot of fun.

One more thing:  There will be a modest fee for the actual 200K.  That covers purchase of water along the way, lunch, gratuity, and a post ride sandwich snack.  We’ll be announcing the price in a future email update and post on this blog.  We just don’t have enough information to set the price yet.  Please stay tuned.

Tires, Tubes, and Inflation

(Reprinted here from the Monday Missive by popular request.)

Tires are wonderful things.  They are actually quite simple, and yet…

The majority of flats we fix at the shop can be traced to under-inflation.  I don’t think I’ll ever understand this.  

• The range of inflation values is embossed on the side of every tire.
• Tires lose air pressure.  They aren’t very thick.
• If you don’t ride them often, they will go flat.  Pump them up before you ride.

The “roadie” mistakes:  Most “roadies” ride on under-inflated tires, unless they have recently over-inflated them.  Many road riders seem to be products of our society.  Like most Americans, they tend to think that if a little bit of something is good, then way too much must be almost enough.  Here’s the problem:  Under-inflated tires are flat-prone and make your bike slower.  Properly inflated tires roll more smoothly and don’t get as many flats.  For that reason, many roadies will run tires at the maximum inflation rating.  This is a bad idea, and it’s counter-productive.  An over-inflated tire is harsher.  It doesn’t roll smoothly over imperfections in the road, but rather bounces and vibrates.  Bounce and vibration are lost energy.  In other words they are slower.  Add to that, there is a risk of the tire exploding, or worse, of the over-pressure tire causing a failure of the wheel rim.

• Always stay at least five pounds less than the maximum value on the tire.
• There is an ideal inflation pressure for each tire width, and rider weight.  For most riders a 700 X 23 tire can be run safely and efficiently at pressures between 100 and 105 psi.

Common scenarios: 

1)  We have recently repaired a tire for a customer.  (Recently here is defined as less than a week.)  The customer comes back in with the same tire flat.

• If the customer is angry, in almost every case, we will find a puncture.
• Sometimes the recurring flat is our fault.  If it is, we fix it for free.
• Occasionally (rarely) there is some underlying cause for recurring flats.  This could be a sharp drilling at one of the spokes, a failing rim strip, a sharp piece of something embedded in the tire.

2)  “My tire keeps going flat!”  We ask,  “When did you last inflate it?”  If the answer is, “I don’t know, just recently.”  Then the tire has not been touched with a pump in the last three months.

3)  “I took this out of the shed and pumped it up.  I haven’t ridden it in a while.  Do you think the tires are okay?”  The tires in question are crumbly with dry rot.  The answer is an emphatic NO!!

4)  “I haven’t ridden the bike in over a year.  You guys did a lot of work on it, but things just happened and I didn’t get a chance to ride.  So when I went out to ride the bike the tires were flat, and I pumped them up, but they expolded!

Here’s what happened.  The bike was sitting on the tires.  The tires lost air.  (See above)  The bike settled on the tire, and the tire was forced “off the bead.”  So the tire was not well seated on the bead, and then the bike was rolled to the compressor.  (This made matters worse.)  The compressor started inflating the tire, and the owener didn’t notice the huge bulge of unsupported tube.  BANG!

Find out what pressure is right for your bike, and riding needs.  Check, or inflate, every time you ride the bike.  Be careful.