It’s my own fault

So I signed up for my first 24-hour race a couple of weeks ago.  For those that don’t know, a 24-hour race is where you have anywhere from one person on up to 8 person teams complete laps in relay fashion on a mountain bike course from noon on a Saturday through noon on a Sunday.  For the solo racers (people that are literally riding for all 24 hours by themselves), it is a masochistic exercise of mind over body.  For the five-person teams, it is more of a reason to get together with friends, ride bikes, and camp.  Don’t get me wrong, getting up at 3 AM to put on a wet and cold helmet, hop on a bike for the third time, and try to navigate a course with a headlamp that was difficult enough to ride in daylight, is no walk in the park.  But, facing a challenge with a few like-minded guys (think a bit off) is kind of fun.  The team with the most completed laps wins.  I set the ball in motion by asking my Velocity teammates if anyone was interested in joining a 5-man team for the race.  Joe, a friend of mine from the team, picked up the ball and filled the team fairly quickly (thanks Joe!).  We decided that it would probably be a good idea to go out and get a lap in on the course before the day of the race.  So Dave, Joe, and I set out on Sunday to drive up to the race course for some pre-race recon.  It was a beautiful day for a ride.  The course starts with a nice little 15 minute climb with plenty of rocks thrown in to make it challenging.  After that is an amazing single track descent with dips, whoops, jumps, banks that was basically like riding on a roller coaster you could steer.  Then, more climbing.  At this point I start having problems with my bike.  Specifically, in the middle of a technical uphill my bike would shift from the granny gear up to the middle ring (this makes it virtually impossible to keep pedaling so I have to stop and walk).  At the top of the climb I diagnose the problem.  My front derailleur cable is getting caught up on my stem when I turn too far to the right.  Now, a smart man would have figured out a way to keep this from happening for the rest of the ride (seeing as how having a cable catch on your stem could prevent you from steering, not a good thing when you are hauling down a rocky descent).  But, in the words of Forrest Gump, I am not a smart man.  About 6 miles into the 9 mile loop comes a fairly technical little descent.  As you may have guessed, I got up to speed, tried to turn, cable got stuck, bike went left, body went right.  I was barely able to stand up and lean against something then Joe came by.  He saw the distorted look of anguish on my face and when Dave came by said, “yeah, I think we should stop.”  I was able to finish the last three miles thanks to the fact that it was mostly flat but boy did it hurt.  On the drive home the pain got progressively worse.  I made it to the doctor the next day.  After two hours in the doctors office the x-rays tell me that there is nothing broken but my ribs tell me that coughing, laughing, standing, sitting, laying, breathing, etc., hurts like hell (I was going to go Lance on everyone and post a picture of the x-ray but the doc never brought them in the room).  Thank god for a doctor with a willingness to prescribe Vicodin.  I got on my road bike hooked up to the trainer today without much pain but on the trainer the upper body doesn’t have to do much.  With all of the twisting and turning required when riding a mountain bike on a technical course there’s little chance I’ll be able ride in the race this weekend. 

Saturday's weigh-in = 242.5

Saturday's Club Ride:  2:52, 51 miles, 60 min. 288 Watts or 2.64 Watts/Kg, 5 min. 354 Watts or 3.26 Watts/Kg, 5 sec. 1,438 Watts or 13.21 Watts/Kg

Comments

[Becky]

I know how much you wanted to race... just a slight bump in the road :)