Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Play The Hand Your Dealt


Holidays have come and gone and so has the month of June so I figured it’s time to update this blog.  The end of May and all of June have been extremely busy resulting in my lack of providing updates.  Or is it my pure laziness that led to the neglect of this blog?  I’ll let you decide the verdict on this one but I’ve got plenty of evidence to acquit myself from the latter.  Anyway, May ended with a few races in the Mississippi River area of Illinois and Iowa with Snake Alley and Quad Cities criterium.  Snake Alley was tough as usual and bumpier this year than last.  Rain caused mayhem and overfilled tire pressure caused some climbing issues.  I finished the race nonetheless but managed to crash after the finish thanks to a an idiot stopping an pulling a u-turn 30 meters after the finish line.  I clocked him at over 30 mph but I took the hurt from the crash.  Broken helmet… ouch.  Confidence wasn’t shaken though and two days later I was able to race to 5th place at Quad Cities criterium on a 8 corner, hour glass shaped course.
June came and disappear in the blink of an eye.  No racing in the first half of the month and travel to Florida for work made for a relaxing setup before the Tour of Americas Dairyland (ToAD).  My category for ToAD this year was 2/3 which made for tougher and faster races than regular cat 3’s are used to.  One would surmise that the races would be fairly safe with experienced racers partaking in the events.  That conclusion would be on the opposite spectrum in the terms of safe riding.  Each race with exception to the individual TT was marred with crashes.  On the opening day I managed to use a guy’s bike as a ramp to do some tricks in the air.  I didn’t exactly stick the landing though, but did stay upright.  While not an elegant landing and not crashing, the bike took some strain of some sort that cracked the seat stay on the drive train side.  Being a determined racer and knowing that the area the crack was in wouldn’t cause a catastrophic failure if the seat stay completely broke apart, I continued to race on the frame for the remainder of the Tour. 
The highlight of ToAD for me was having an absolutely fantastic day on the bike during the individual TT.  Placing 3rd I got the chance to stand on the podium.  Overall my average result for the series was between 10th and 20th.  Those somewhat consistent results landed me in a tie for 10th place overall.  I’ll take it considering I was racing with guys a level up!  After a bit of research I was able to identify that I placed 3rd overall for guys that were Cat 3’s!  Definitely a confidence booster!
With a broke frame I had to send the bike back to Trek for evaluation.    The owner of the shop I race for (Extreme Ski & Bike in Thiensville, WI) sent my frame to Trek a little over week ago and I just got word yesterday that I’d be getting my new frame either late this week or sometime next week.  Trek prides itself on great bikes and excellent customer support.  Their bikes and in my opinion, world-class support have definitely made me a lifetime customer of Trek bikes.  I can’t thank Extreme Ski & Bike and Trek enough for the continued support they’ve provided me over the years.  Two top notch companies!
Going back to the title of this entry, one thing I’ve learned over the course of the last few months is that you have to play with the hand your dealt.  Crashing and coming back to place well in the next race, racing on a broken frame, and dealing with the fact you’ll never have full use of your arm again.  Yes, after analysis by a specialist in neurology, there is nothing that I will be able to do about my right arm in which I only have 40% range of motion.  Long story short, had a small surgery that may have caused scar tissue to develop on a nerve that provides electrical signals to the shoulder muscles.  This is only in theory because the recent MRI didn’t show any nerve damage or excessive scar tissue buildup.  The specialist noted that only a small layer of scar tissue may compress the nerve enough to interrupt transmissions to fire the muscles.  Any further surgery to investigate the problem could result in more severe consequences so there’s no option but living with having to compensate with other muscles to utilize my arm fully.  Play the hand your dealt.  Better yet, I’ll just change the rules.
July will be another month full of racing starting with the State Criterium Championship.  I may not be able to participate in the championship due to lack of a bike but being that I haven’t participated in this race for the last two years, it doesn’t bother me too much.  It’s only one race with a title of a championship.  There’s bigger races out there that mean a lot more to me.  Speaking of those, ICC-Superweek starts at the end of this week.  I’ll be looking to participate in a number of the races around the MKE area.  Those races will make up the majority of the racing in July.  And a few of the biggest races that I have my eye on for the remainder of the 2011 racing season include the Tour of Elk Grove and the Gateway Cup, a 4-day racing series in St. Louis over Labor Day weekend.  Those races are what I call championships.
Check back periodically on this blog.  I’ll try to be a little more consistent with updates

1 comment:

Jeramey said...

Wow buddy, sorry to hear about your shoulder. Keep the positive attitude and see you soon.