Indie Series Opener!

I can sum up today by saying: I think I broke my face. Yep, it was a great day! Big kudos to my awesome kick-ass teammates though! The uBRDO gals are a force for sure! Mercedes tore it up out there and won the Sport class with some fantastic riding. And Leigh rode strong and finished a very tough, wet, and muddy course. I love these pictures of Leigh and Mercedes with their $30 mud facials. Ha! Nice job ladies!! Ya'll rock!

The steady downpour created a muddy and slick course that became an exercise in controlled sliding. Nothing on the course was very technical, it was just a matter of slogging through mud and trying to find traction on some steeper pitches. I don't have much sprint in me so I didn't get off to a fantastic start. A few gals seemed a bit tentative going downhill on the slick mud so I stayed off the brakes and used it to my advantage to pick off a few people.

Ironic really, because brakes, or lack thereof, are what lead to my rather spectacular crash towards the end of the 2nd lap. Headed down a longer downhill pitch shortly before the start/finish line, I grabbed my brakes to slow for the corner at the bottom. The brake levers went straight to the handlebars and I wasn't slowing. I pumped the brakes to no avail and then had that fantastic "Holy shit, this is not going to end well" moment.

I should have made the corner, but by the time I wrapped my brain around the situation it was too late. I slid out hard on the gravel trying to make a fast turn and hit the ground first with the right side of my face followed by everything else. Not a good plan. I immediately saw stars and things were in trippy 3d vision. Sorta cool but not really. Thanks to the girl behind me for stopping for just a sec to make sure I was ok.

I sat there for a bit and then got back on the bike. I had just gotten into a good rhythm and really wanted to finish the last two laps but the rest of the ride to the start/finish line I couldn't shake off the stars. Pretty wack. When I crossed the line I asked the announcer if I was going the right direction and then thought it might be a good idea to not ride anymore. I wasn't even sure at that point if I had brakes or what was going on.

Shortly after I finished I shook off the head fog and felt ok, so I really wish I had just kept riding. Ah well. Not really the finish I was hoping for today, but there's always next time. With as hard as I went down on the gravel, I'm pretty surprised that I only have a shoulder scrape and some gravel rash and bruising under my knee. My head hurts and my eye socket and cheek are pretty sore. It will be funny if I wake up with a black eye tomorrow.

I have no idea why my brakes failed. Sure, conditions were crappy, but I've never had that happen before. I run Hayes Sole and Scotty said he's heard of them failing. Seems pretty widely reported in some online forums. Anyone else had that experience? Very weird. I think I see a new brake system in my future because that big time sucked!

My dog is trying to kill me

Well, I broke my nose today. Yup, that's right. I wish I could say I did it in a gnarly cyclocross crash or something, but of course I don't work that way.

I was getting ready to take Jake out on his morning walk and leaned over him to clip on his leash. At exactly the same time my less than graceful cat jumped onto the bathroom counter, knocked over a ton of stuff, and scared the dog. He jumped...right into my nose with his head.

After the pain subsided I went about my day but stayed home from work because my head and my eyes hurt so bad. I'm still having difficulty looking at a computer screen. Later in the afternoon I stopped by my doc's office and she confirmed the break. I guess it's pretty minor and I'm lucky to say that I've been spared excessive swelling and bruising so far. If you look at my nose, you can't even tell it's broken aside from a tiny bit of swelling on the bridge. I really hope I don't wake up tomorrow all black and blue.

Current score is Jake 2, me 0.

New bruise!

Guess what leaves something retarded like this on your shin? (The lighting was bad so it looks pretty weird)

This is what happens when trying to bunny hop a mountain bike without first checking to make sure the toe clip straps are tight. And yes, I was using f*** toe clips. Not my choice so no comments please.

A rainbow of colors!!

Here's the colorful result of last Tuesday's little PR incident. Look at those fabulous rainbow colors! I especially like day 3...very pretty! (This is the outside of my thigh btw...)

The bruise didn't turn out as bad as I initially thought it would be. It took it nearly a day to even get colorful. It's fading now but the spidery lines are a bit funky. I should have taken pics of the bruise under my right knee...that one turned out pretty too :)

Frieked out muscles

The worst part so far about Tuesday night's crash is how strained all of my muscles are. My neck was getting so tight and sore yesterday that I went to the UW Medical Center to get it checked out. That was a fun experience. Turns out I ended up fracturing one of my ribs, which is weird because it doesn't really hurt unless someone pokes it. I guess there's not much you can do about a fractured rib since, as the doctor said, wrapping it up would render you unable to breathe.

I walked out of there with a ridulous drug cocktail. I'm supposed to take a muscle relaxant, vicodin, and prescription Ibuprofen together 3x / day for 5 days. Then the doctor said not to take them when I need to focus since they might make me drowsy. Oh really? I asked her, "Gee...I suppose I shouldn't take this if I'm doing something like...bike racing?"

I don't really understand the prescriptions. I told them three times I wasn't in "pain" and that it was more like a general mack-truck feeling and everything was just incredibly sore and tight. I suppose the muscle relaxant might be nice since every muscle in my body hurts, but I'm happy going to see Laurel at Avalon tomorrow and letting her work her massage magic. I doubt I'll fill any of these. Need any drugs?

I was able to lightly spin on the trainer last night, so I'm going to try to hop out on a small ride this evening and see how it goes. I haven't ruled out TST yet. If I can get my neck to settle down a bit I think I'll be fine. Gina forwarded me an email from the guy we took out in our crash and unfortunately it sounds like he didn't get much of a shot. I guess he had just adjusted the camera to shoot sideways. He said he fully expected to be involved in a crash at some point but didn't think it would be the women who would take him out. What can I say? I guess we're hardcore out there...

I still bounce well

Well...women's racing opened last night at Pacific Raceways and it was...fun. There was a good turnout and we had a great Cat 4 race going. Unfortunately I missed out on the finish. There's a section of the backside of the track that has track compound, which improves traction for the start of a drag strip. When it's dry it's a little tacky and feels strange. When it's wet, like last night, it's like riding on ice. As long as you ride straight across it and don't make any sudden moves (like sprinting, applying the brakes, etc) it's not a problem. Yeah...you probably know where this is going...

On our last lap I moved to the back to take a rest and set up for the sprint. I drifted over behind a gal from TGH that I know to be a strong rider and good sprinter. About that time we crossed into the track compound and a Wines rider started to attack. The TGH gal stood up to counter and as soon as I saw her get up I thought, "Oh shit." Her back tire went right out from under her and she went down hard. I flicked my handlebars just a hair to try to get around and my back tire spun out and I hit the deck.

The only positive about crashing on the track compound is that there's no friction so you don't end up with road rash. I slid for what seemed like an eternity. At least I learned from my last fall and never took my hands off the handlebars, so I just drug the bike with me. Good news is that the Ruby didn't even get a scratch, the Polar survived, and my only long sleeve Zoka jersey is just scuffed up with track compound.

I knew we were going pretty fast and when I got home and downloaded my Polar data I got see how quickly I went from 26mph to 0. Ouch. I don't think I've ever gone down that hard. My entire left side hurts today and I have big lumps and bruises on my hip, my ribs, and the outside of my thigh. My elbow is bruised and I have several other bruises popping up all over the place. The right side of my neck feels like it has wiplash. Ugh.

I feel really bad that we also took out the poor guy shooting the Start2Finish movie. He was behind us with a video cam on his bike, so maybe he at least got a great action shot. Sorry man! I hope he's alright. This certainly adds an extra challenge to TST on Saturday. I guess I'll just have to see how I feel by then and hope I can ride. Right now I'm not feeling so chipper.

I guess it was a bad night for everyone at PR. One of our other Zoka gals went down in a crash in another race and I guess there was a crash in the juniors race that took out a coach as well. Luckily everyone got up and I think bruises and soreness are the extent of the injuries. Fun night!

Road rash is lovely...

...especially on bendable parts. Ugh, remind me next time to get road rash anywhere but my knee caps. Well, almost anywhere.

I'm starting to heal up just fine from Wednesday's crash. I can finally bend both of my knees and the most swollen one is starting to look much more normal now. The scrape on my hip is fading and now getting itchy. The patch of road rash above my hip is still a bit nasty but looking much better than it did a few days ago. My elbow is the only concern I have. It looks the least banged up, just a light bruise, but it's giving me the most trouble. Hopefully I didn't crack it.

I plan to get the parts from Ducati this week to fix the bike. It's looking like the weather may be cooperative and I can get a few rides in later in the week. This time I'll have pants and boots!

Ring in the New Year with...a bike crash

Yes, today I had my first real road crash. And here I am trying to type with a huge splint on my wrist...sigh. Good times.

I was out on the weekly Zoka ride this morning which was a nice mix of rain, clouds, more rain, and then finally a nice rain break. Towards the end of the ride one of the guys ahead of me went down going around a corner. I don't know if I slid or crashed trying to avoid him but in about half a second I was on the ground mashed into the concrete retaining wall. I stupidly threw out my arm to break my fall, which one of these days I will learn is the worst idea in the world.

Initially I thought I was fine but then started having major swelling and pain in my wrist. I visited the ER to make sure it wasn't broken and it's uncertain right now if it is. The X-rays were fine but wrist fractures have a funny way of not showing up for a few weeks, so they splinted my wrist and told me to rest it until I can get another set of X-rays in a few weeks. The swelling could also be hiding any possible breaks. And here I took up cycling to rest the running injury...

I'll have some nice bruises tomorrow I think. At least I'm still the reigning accident queen :)