A long way to the top

Since the crash in August I've been plagued by knee and hip problems, not to mention the lingering, renewed Crohn's issues over the past year. It's been a (litterally and metaphorically) wobbly path back to cycling, with a lot of ups and downs.

I've worked up to finally doing some real distances again, but am still distrustful of my knee's integrity and shy away from any real torque or out of the saddle riding. My base miles are still low for this winter and my fitness is behind where I need it to be leading into the next racing season. I've got a lot of work to do, but it's looking up. I have a referral to a new physical therapist; one who worked wonders on a cyclist friend who was told they'd never walk again.

And, one more promising sign is that this weekend I did a relatively fast ride from NYC to Bear Mountain in Harriman State Park and back, which includes 6000+ feet of elevation with a 5 mile climb in the middle. It almost destroyed me, but I survived and even said, "Oh, this is it? I thought it was longer" at the top of Bear.

Here's to continued kneehab to come. If it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be fun. Right?

The view from the top of Bear Mountain, NY.

Muckity muck.

Warm, cold, warm, cold, rain.... Snow, warm?

We've had some nutty weather over here in the NYC area. All of the snow melt has made for some very muddy riding earlier this week before things froze again.

Here's some lovely photo evidence of my rather impressive dirt tan lines!

sock lines!

dirt tan lines for December.

cycling mud masque, anyone? With a side of bleary, road salt splattered eye treatment.

The season of cold-damp-rainy-snowy is upon us!

It's officially here! It's been here for about a month now. It's winter riding season.

Although sometimes it takes extra motivation to step out into the mist, or onto the frozen ground outside the doorstop, all hesitancy is always erased once I'm on my bike and moving.

Winter changes the landscape, making everything new again. Old routes covered in ice, or bare of leaves with new views at the top of climbs.

Into the wintry mist... friends, fun, and fog!

Tip for winter success: Order a case of those instant hand and toe warmers, so there is nothing holding you back from getting on your bike when it's freezing outside. Toe warmers make the difference for me, as cold feet is my big rate limiting factor.  Also, get some good waterproof shoe covers. Then, it's off into the cold-damp-beautiful world with you!

Chill'n out and doing some focused strength exercises

Since the crash in August I've been keeping it pretty low key. Not that I've had much of a choice, between a wicked concussion that kept me off the bike for about 6 weeks, and then realizing just how badly I'd messed up my knee once I was back on the bike. I've also continued to have some lingering Crohn's related ick. So, I'm continuing to ride it out, and try to enjoy the time I can get out on the open road even if it's at an easy pace.

The benefit of the easier pace is that I get to spend time with our newest riders on the Yale team. And, I must say, I do love helping folks master cycling skills like pacelining, cornering, and climbing hills! Getting to see the huge gains in confidence and the satisfaction of mastering a new skill is so satisfying.

40 degrees and sunny in New Haven! 

Plus, it's fall. And autumn riding means we are back to base miles anyway, so my easy pace is right on target.

I've also been taking the time to work on some other stuff while I've been in the saddle less.

The problem areas:

- Core strength: I have terrible core strength, which is likely because I have trouble with ab spasms on my ostomy side if I do much direct core work like sit ups.

- Medial leg strength: It's easy in cycling to work only the front and back muscles, as we have no side to side movement.

- Gluteus Medius strength: Yep, that's the muscles on the side of my butt. A lot of cyclists have  this issue. Have you ever seen a competitive cyclist on a bike and noticed that the side of his butt looked almost indented? That's the gluteus medius underdeveloped. And, according to my physical therapist friend (it was a strange night of casual consults and laughing about it), mine are sincerely lacking.  She said that my "massively hypertrophied hamstrings" had been doing all the work instead.


The remedy: 

- planks! Oh man, I am terrible at these. But, I'm making myself do at least 5 sets of holding it for 30 seconds with keeping good form before bed every night.

- Spider-mans: 2 sets of ten. From a plank-like position with your arms straight, bring one knee out to the side and touch it to your elbow. Then bring it back together with your other leg. Now do the same on the other side. This should make you side ab and back muscles burn.

- cross training: and by this, I mean cyclocross training. Yes. Running, leaping onto a built up road bike with knobby tires, and then jumping over barriers and roots. It's good for building stability in all of those other little muscles that don't get used in just moving forward. Still not sure what cyclocross is? Check it out: http://www.behindthebarriers.tv/

- Actually cross training: Really, not bicycling. Walking vigourously while focusing on form - ie, not compensating for my lack of gluteus medius muscles by using just legs. It's suprisingly difficult to focus on using butt muscles while walking. Try it.

- Thigh master like it's 1992: Just kidding. But, same idea, squeezing a soccer ball between my knees while doing a slightly more upright wall sit. This targets the muscle groups on the inside of the thighs without activating the larger quad group.

Awestomy Wrap Review

About a month and a half ago I got a new wrap from Awestomy, a new company that makes ostomy undergarments, and I have been meaning to write a review since then.

Beyond a review, I also wanted to talk a bit about what the deal is with wraps. I'm usually pretty amazed that so far none of my GI docs have ever seen a patient wearing one before, and no ostomy nurses I've encountered have had any idea such a thing existed! No wonder there are so many folks out there stressing out about what to do with their pouch as they go about life! No, you don't have to have it flopping about, or hanging outside of your clothing, as I've seen many a question on facebook groups and message boards. Tucking it in to a wrap helps keep you discrete and helps smooth out any contents. I'm honestly not sure how I'd function if I didn't have wraps to keep the pouch secure, and I can gaurantee that my wear time would be less due to the weight of the bag pulling on the adhesive. This is one of those product types (like Skin-Tac) that was a game changer for me, when I found the ostomysecrets.com website years ago.

These ostomy specific wraps are different than a simple tube top, which you could wear around your waist just as easily, in that they have two inside pockets on the right and left side. This keeps your bag from resting against your skin, where the edges can be irritating and in warmer weather the plastic makes for a sweaty time. The pockets are on both sides so as to work for folks with an ostomy in either (or both!) location.


Personally, I'm a minimalist. I don't like having to fiddle with zippers, or velcro or other elaborate contraptions to empty, and I hate wearing any more clothing than I need to (no wonder I love cycling!). I also don't like the constricting effect of standard, old fashioned, elastic ostomy straps. I like wraps for their simplicity and freedom of movement, as well as low profile under a t-shirt or dress shirt. In the past I've had wraps from ostomysecrets.com, and those are still the majority of my collection.

Pros: 
1. The wraps from Awestomy.com are different in that the top is a bit higher and they have a silicon band around the top seam so it will not scoot itself down during activity such as running, biking, etc. For activity this is super nice, since repositioning a wrap mid-run is always a bit awkward.

2. The silicon band and higher waist ensure that the top crest of the pouch doesn't peak out over the top of the wrap, which was ever so slightly the case with the ostomysecrets.com wraps. This is a nice features if I know I'll be changing in public (not that I care either way or have ever been shy!), running around topless, swimming, etc.

3. They come in more colors than white and black! I'm a fan of the grey and argyle.

4. The material is soft enough to be comfortable all day long, and the seams don't rub.

5. Customer service is awesome. I custom ordered a 27 inch waist size, and they were happy to oblige, despite that not being one of the standard sizes available. And, the size seems to be pretty spot on (note, I did order it a hair big due to my anticipated issue with the band, in case you were looking at the photo and thinking "that doesn't look tight at all"). Nice work, guys.

Cons: 
1.  I will confess that the silicon band does make it slightly harder to access the pouch and empty it - a very minor inconvenience, and I suppose I'm just fussy or lazy.

2. The band does make you aware that you are wearing something around your waist, not uncomfortable but aware, much in the same way that a loose elastic band on your wrist feels present but not uncomfortable. Again, maybe I'm just inordinately fussy, especially for somebody who spends a lot of time wearing spandex.

3. Finally, why no neon colors, guys?! Don't you know pink is the new blue for men in 2013?! Yet, these are all minor complaints, very minor complaints.


The verdict: Awestomy is awesome. The pros of having a wrap with a higher top and a silicon band to keep it in place outweigh the cons, and you can't have one without the other for this feature. Hot pink, or maybe some electric green (?), would make my day. Zebra print would also be sufficiently loud. But, I'll settle for ordering another grey one for now! Thanks for making such great products, Awestomy! I'm not sure what I'd do without such creative folks out there looking out for their fellow ostomates!

It could have been worse. A short story.

"Oh god, I don't know what to do..." said Justin.
"I think Brandon's really hurt."

Brandon wasn't moving. He was laying in a creek bed with shallow water and large rocks, his eyes closed, and suspiciously shallow breathing.

He had come down the singletrack descent, seen the tree at the other side of the plank bridge, braked, and wobbled for a moment before going off the edge onto the rocks.

Now we were watching and waiting. 911 had been called. An hour later, the EMTs and Fire Fighters would make their way through the woods with equipment to pull him out of the creek without damaging his spine. In another half an hour Justin and I would be standing next to a Police van as the ambulance departed for the hospital - two people with three bikes, both wondering, "what now?" and making dark jokes about showing up on the news in spandex. We got into the paddy wagon with the bikes and hitched a ride with two kind officers back to Justin's house, the whole time thinking about our mortality and how such a beautiful morning could have gone so wrong.

"He should have walked away from that. I've seen crashes worse than that so many times and guys have walked away."

But, he was lucky. Maybe the luckiest guy around that day, with 8 broken bones all in all; 4 ribs, his sternum, clavicle x2, and part of his T4 spine. Plus, one punctured lung. But, no spinal cord damage. He would make a full recovery.

It was only at that point, at the hospital, did I look down at myself. I was stilly dirty and bloody. I had crashed too - an epic crash over the handle bars as I had braked too hard and catupulted myself face first onto the ground, in a gruesome approximation of a belly flop on land, with serious speed behind it. I had been dazed, and tasted blood from where I bit through my lip, but it all seemed trivial in comparison to what had happened to Brandon. And, I hardly felt it until now.

One of the ER nurses handed me a stack of towels and pointed me to the bathroom to clean myself up when I asked.

My chest was skinned over my sternum and ribs where they stick out, particularly the left side. And, both of the bony prominences at the front of my hip bones were skinned and bleeding a little when I scrubbed the dirt out of them. The tops of my quads the same, with a big blue splotch visible under the skin of my legs. Arms scratched up, right ankle slashed open on the inside. But, nothing to talk about compared to Brandon.

What is amazing thinking about it now is both how lucky I am, and how amazing it is that today's ostomy appliances can withstand such a beating! Not only can an appliance stay stuck on for 3-5 days of life with hours of cycling training thrown in, but it did not get ripped off or even slightly compromised in my own full-front crash. So, thank you to both the universe for such luck, and to the folks at Coloplast and Skintac for making these things so darned durable and adhesive.

It could have been so much worse. For everyone. But, we are all pretty darned lucky after all. And, we will all ride another day. Soon.

------------

And, even the worst days have their highlights:

- Getting into the back of a paddy wagon with three bikes, and the local news filming - probably wondering why 3 bikes and two guys were being arrested! (We weren't)

- Justin looking at my bruised quads where they had hit the handle bars on the way over and saying, "Wow, are your quads swelling or are they usually that big?"

- Watching bullfighting in the ER waiting room and saying out loud, "Now, that's a dangerous sport".

In two weeks I will ride 200+ miles in one day.

The challenge is on.

On July 27th 2013 I will ride no less than 200 miles, from New Haven to Providence Rhode Island and then back to New Haven. The goal is to maintain a moving pace of 18 mph average, although I'd be happy with 16 mph average for the last 50 miles of it. The inland route would total 103 miles each way, and the coastal route ~136 each way. It is currently undecided which combination of routes we will choose.

If it is 90+ degrees outside AND overly humid, we will postpone until August 3rd, to spare ourselves having a heat emergency.

Right now, it's just me and my friend John for the whole distance, plus a few "maybe"s and some joiners for the beginning or the end. The Brown and RISD cycling teams and some local Providence cycling folks will probably ride out to meet us, ride us into Providence for lunch, and then back out to the suburbs.

It's not a fundraiser (although, if you are feeling inspired to donate money somewhere, donate it to the UOAA or Camp Oasis). There is no structure in place or organization supporting this ride. It's just a couple of guys who want to ride till they can't ride anymore. This is a Rapha style, epic ride for the sake of doing an epic ride.

Spread the word. If you are in the area, join us for part of the ride!

the inland route. 

And, you might ask yourself why on earth I would want to ride so far in one day? Clearly, this will hurt. It will be mind numbing at points. It will be hot, and sweaty, and I will be very very tired. This (not G rated) cartoon from The Oatmeal pretty much explains it all. This is essentially the story of why I ride my bicycle so much, minus the part of the comic about hornets and Japan, and plus something about being sick with an autoimmune disease and having lots of surgery and challenging the world's (and my own) assumptions about what it is possible for me to accomplish. 

The Oatmeal is amazing.