A Little Reflection

Late Fall and Winter tend to kick the general pain and discomfort up a notch. There is something noticeably different about this year, I'm not really bothered by it. If I pause and think about it, yeah, I hurt. But where in the past it was at the front of my mind and I had to actively work past it, right now its in the background.

I've been thinking about what has changed. It might be an unforeseen side effect of my crazy bike rides? I willingly put myself through some physically and mentally hellish rides this past year...I think they helped. To get through some of the rides I had to put the pain and fatigue in the back of my mind and focus on pedaling forward. At the time I questioned why I was doing this to myself. It certainly was risky to push my body to that extreme, but it seems to have helped me learn how to better deal with my chronic pain and fatigue. I asked my doctor about doing rides like the Crusher and whether they were bad for me. I probably should've asked beforehand, but I was afraid he might say yes they were bad. He just told me to listen to my body, it'll let me know if I'm overdoing it.

I've made plans for an even more challenging year in 2012. A 50+ mile snow bike ride, the Iron Horse Classic, Crusher in the Tushar, LOTOJA if I can get in again, and all the training rides in between. Hopefully I don't find my physical limit any time soon.

'Cross

The Utah cyclocross season is coming to an end this Saturday. I was introduced to the sport four years ago by my friend Ethan. I had never heard about it before and over the past four years I've found that most people don't know what 'cross is. It's hard to really explain what it is. I mean I can tell you some of the background legend about how it started, I can tell you the rules of how it works, but all that doesn't really explain what it is to me and why I enjoy it so much. If you are really curious about that other stuff, Wikipedia does a decent job of explaining the nuts and bolts.

What I love about 'cross:

It doesn't matter if its hot, cold, dry, snowing, raining, the race is never cancelled. In fact poor weather conditions are considered a good thing in 'cross. The worse the course conditions the more fun it is. The worse the weather the more fun it is. I used to dread seeing a bad weather forecast for a Fall weekend. Now. I can hardly contain my excitement when I see rain or snow on a Saturday!

'Cross racers don't quit. I love that! I have races like a few weeks ago at Wheeler Farm where I feel awesome. My legs have strength. My body has energy. I can try and chase people down or try and stay ahead of my nearest competitor. I can race! Then there are races like the one the following week at Mount Ogden where it was all I could do to pedal around the course. My legs have no strength. My body has no energy. I'm not able to chase anyone down or stay ahead of my nearest competitor, but I have to be there. 'Cross racers don't quit.

The people. I've especially enjoyed having a Clydesdale category (over a certain weight, 210 lbs this year) to race with. Its a small group which I think has helped us get to know each other better. Its a great group of guys. We all want to do well and try our hardest to be the ahead of the others across the finish line, but its a friendly competition. I like that.

LOTOJA - Ready To Talk About It Now

LOTOJA is a few months in the past now, almost three I guess. In a lot of ways it was a traumatic experience for me. Going into it I was not very motivated and almost didn't go. I was pretty sure I could finish, just wasn't sure I cared about doing so.

I'll spare a lot of the details. The short version is that I started from Logan, UT at 5:50am riding with a group of 6 guys and I finished my day at 8:20pm alone, 5km short of the finish line at Teton Village, WY. If my math is correct that's 14.5 hours. I had been fighting varying degrees of nausea for around 13 of those hours. I don't know that I can say any part of the ride was fun. I don't know why I kept going. I had three chances to bail early but kept going until there was no light left and I couldn't see the road in front of me. I know why I kept riding during the Crusher, I wanted to finish! But LOTOJA, I didn't care if I finished so WHY did I keep riding!? The question really bothered me for a couple months. I think I have some answers now and I'll go into that more at a later time.

The physical effects on me? Well, at some point two screws came out of my shoe cleat allowing my left food to move side to side on the pedal a lot more than it should. My left knee has been a trouble maker for several years and the who knows how many hours of weird movement aggravated it pretty bad. For a couple weeks walking was a bit painful and biking was a torture fest. Its all good now. My right hand went numb during the ride and stayed numb for a solid month, its mostly better now...my pinky still doesn't have much feeling.

14.5 hours on a bike is a long time. 204 miles is a long way to pedal in one day. It wasn't fun in any way shape or form. But I was still essentially able to finish. That makes me happy.