Thursday, November 24, 2011

#occupytogether

#occupyCX



-from ChrisGO

gobble gobble. good luck at jingle cross! I'd be there racing if it weren't for this broken leg thing (have fun Lyles!)

peace and riding!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

4 more weeks...

on crutches. not happy. but gotta do it so i can walk the rest of my life.

come see me. about to be at my house for 8 days by myself and I've already been bored out of my mind the past 3 weeks.

peace and gimping.

quickie

obviously, not much going on with a broken leg. It's healing well and quick I feel like. Can't believe it's already been 3 weeks since Boss Cross Halloween.

Of course, the first two weeks of November were fucking gorgeous. Many a time I wish I was on my bike, but whatever. Makes me realize that I need to ride as much as I used to when I was 21-22 and when it was nice out, I was out on a bike of some sort. I've also been wanting to run so badly. Amazing how that is when you can't walk...

hopefully stitches are coming out this morning and starting PT soon. I'm aiming to be back strong again by BoneBender in mid-April. Probably not 100% power wise, but I know my aerobic condition's going to get better from all the swimming, stationary bike, and eventually running I'm about to get on the next few months. This broken leg might have actually been a god-send for getting some sort of workout schedule set-up. Selfishly, the past few weeks have been all about me, which I am kind of sad to say I probably don't do enough of. Made me realize some priorities I have are screwed up and that really (even though I knew this all along) being with family/amigos and riding my bike are the best things in the world. I'm lucky to have 2 great bikes and lucky to have the amigos/family I have and I appreciate everything they do for me, truly. You can try to save the world all you want in front of a computer screen in a planning studio, but it leads to a dismal life. Having this discussion with a very beautiful girl made me realize once again that individualism and self-reliance breed isolation and loneliness.

Life is full of hypocrisies...

gotta get to the doc. out.

peace and riding!!!

Monday, November 7, 2011

surgery...

had surgery friday to repair my right ankle. it went well. ended up with a plate and 8 screws. Not too horrible. Am in some sort of high tech boot/cast thing for the next 2 weeks then hopefully i'll get to move onto an air cast.

Pain level is pretty shitty; I can really feel that plate burning in the leg. Normal unfortunately. Yesterday and today have been the worst, last night especially, after I took out my nerve block. That thing was a god send. I couldn't imagine how much i'd hurt without that on me the first 48 hours after surgery, It was a lifesaver. (basically I had a local anesthetic bag hooked into my knee through a soft catheter that numbed the nerve that transmits pain from the outside lower leg to your brain...aka awesome when you get metal put in to hold you back together). Medical technology is crazy. Doc said before I got cut that I should be riding normal again within 6-8 months. Full strength of before, assuming PT goes well, which I plan on hitting hard. I have a meeting with him in 2 weeks and after than am going to try and convince him to let me swim at least. I can already feel my right leg muscles wasting away and the couple extra pounds that are trying to take over. i have decided this is not an option. period.

halcyon holiday details are here: http://mtbkc.blogspot.com/2011/11/halcyon-holiday-gravel-grinder.html hope to see you there!

peace and riding!!!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

boss cross broken leg...

well I broke my leg, as I'm sure you know by now. Having surgery to put my ankle back together tomorrow morning...joy! Now both my legs will be held together by screws!

Huge thanks to the following peeps:
*first dude who helped me sit up after I ate shit (can't remember your name, sorry),
*Mark Horn who helped carry my broken ass off the course,
*TJ (I think) the Trainer (Trek jacket),
*Jeremy Haynes and Joe Fox for the bitchin course! and support (good to know event promoters got your back),
*Sherri Hahn, USA Cycling official,
*Micah Gordon, Adam Keck and the rest of Team Colavita/Parisi Coffee powered by Volker Bikes (good racing boys!), and finally
*Racer X-Aubree Dock for being my personal ambulance/sitting for hours with me at KU Med waiting on slow ass doctors.

Thank you all for the initial help of getting me off the race course (since juniors and women were starting in about 90 seconds) and to the hospital. It was by far the most physical pain I've ever been in, and I've had a compound fracture, major joint dislocations, complete knee reconstruction, etc, etc.

now for the gory details!

Hadn't even put my kit on yet and was warming up in shorts and a hoodie. Bunny hopped the "barrier" then did the 180 on gravel, hucked the next "barrier" and was flying going in behind the large BMX berm. Well I soon found out that behind that berm was super super dry, loose and off camber. What comes next is a freak accident. Mistake #1, I was going way too fast for a "pre-lap" (I hadn;t seen or ridden the whole course yet), then I feel my front wheel start to wash and feathered my brakes, mistake #2 (should have just let her rip). My entire bike starts to slide out from under me towards the non-drive side/downhill side of the off-camber turn. Now here's where the freak shit comes in and stuff starts happening in slow motion. I feel me going down, ok no biggie, we've all had wheels slide out on us right? (especially cross), well I happened to be on an up-stroke pedal on my drive side leg (right and also uphill side). Somehow the angle that my bike fell was perfect to catch the tip of my foot right in the front triangle of my 29er. The bike continued to slide out downhill while my leg was caught...then basically I felt my leg snap in half. I'd never been so consciously aware of an major injury I was sustaining like at that moment, but as I said, it's like everything was in slow motion. First I felt my fibia snap. Straight up like a twig. Nastiest feeling I've ever experienced. Then I felt all the ligaments tear in half, almost like I was holding a piece of paper tearing it in my hands, but this was happening inside of my leg. By then I was skidding along the ground and remember telling myself as I felt the adrenaline shot hit me "fuck, this is going to hurt really bad in 5 seconds". Laid there, unclipped from the left side of my bike and got rolled off that then the pain hit and I started screaming. Screaming like a little bitch, but ya know, my foot had tried to tear off from my leg, no biggie.

Dudes came and said something about how it might just be a sprain cause sometimes they are worse, I said "ya I know, I've sprained ankles and you usually don't feel your bones or muscles tearing in half." That I think was enough they knew it was serious and they got the idea real quick that I was serious about getting off the course as to not delay any racing. Mark Horn's tall ass basically dragged me off the course over to the trailer where for some reason the best thing to put under my hanging broken leg was cones. Needless to say, I did not enjoy those cones. One of those things you probably had to be there for, but yes, I did not like them one bit.

Laid on the ground for awhile in stupid pain and decided fuck this, I need morphine, stat. Got a ride worked out and Aubree stepped up HUGE! btw-she had also just got 3rd place in the women's open race. total bad-a.

so, surgery manana for screws and a plate, then crutches for the next 6-8 weeks, fully healed in 12-14 (February). Thank god it's winter...I really wasn't looking forward to another season of bike commuting in KC winter. Now I don't have a choice...which sucks.

I also got a real boy job this week! Working for the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) on water quality issues and green infrastructure implementation. 20 hours a week when I have class, 40 when I don't. Good way to get around paying me benefits, but at least I'll have a steady income for this grad school thing I'm getting ready to start...

So, still looking forward to watching cross and drinking beer. I was always best at those anyway :D

peace and riding!!!