Landis Decision preannouncement

CAS has announced that they will release their decision regarding Floyd Landis on 6/30/2008 at 10am CDT. I am very interested to find out what their decision is and what they have to say about it.

Back on the bike

I rode for the first time in about 2 weeks and it felt great to be back on the bike. The shoulder was sore, but the pain was muted by the joy of riding again. I rode 67 miles in my first ride back. I wouldn't recommend doing this for most the first ride back after an injury, but it worked for me.

Anyway, it is great to be back on the bike. I won't be racing until the end of July due to the injury and family commitments so I have plenty of time to train to be ready for the heart of the season.

Also, you should be seeing a few more blog posts from me from articles I have been reading.

Shoulder update and items for sale

Yes, my shoulder still hurts. I did some research and confirmed what I already knew... I separated my right shoulder. I rode my bike on Tuesday with the family since it was feeling better, but this was a bad idea. I was riding with my daughter and I needed to make her stop for cross traffic. I wasn't thinking about my shoulder and reached out with my left arm which made my right shoulder rotate. OUCH!! It has been quite sore since then. A sling is recommended for this type of injury so I am now using one. I expect to be off the bike until Sunday or Monday and then ride the trainer for at least a week, probably 2. It sucks to be riding the trainer in the summer, but it could have been a lot worse.




Also, with my spare time, I have been cleaning out my inventory of used cycling related items. I am selling them on Ebay. You can see them here:

Obama... c'mon, put the helmet on right!

After being involved in a crash on Saturday where the helmet saved me from serious injury and having a few of my friends being hit by cars recently, I saw this picture in the Chicago Tribune. So... what is wrong with this picture? Yup, Obama didn't strap on his helmet. Doesn't he know that the helmet isn't doing him any good if he doesn't strap it on? If he falls, the helmet most likely will come off before he ever hits the ground.

For a guy that is campaigning to run our country, you would think he would be smart enough to make sure he straps on his helmet. And if he forgets, there should be someone there to make sure he does.

Crash and Wound Care

Well, as they say, it isn't if, it is when.... I crashed today on our club's group ride. I won't bore you with the details. The basics are someone crashed up ahead of me and it caught my attention and the person in front of me moved to the left and slowed down to get away from the crash and crossed my front wheel. Down I went and in a hurry. Shoulder hit first and then my head. I have a bit of road rash, but the shoulder is the worst as I know I at least sprained it. I don't know when I will be back on the bike but I expect to ride at least easy rides in a few days, but probably won't race at Sherman Park like I expected to. Anyway, it could have been a lot worse and my bike seems to be no worse for wear. I will take it to Spin Doctor Cyclewerks on Monday to get a full check to make sure there isn't any damage.

With that out of the way, one of the guys in the club has a lot more road rash. My wife helped him get acquanted with the more recent advances in wound care. He only had gauze on the wound which isn't the best. Anyway, here is a rundown in what I use for road rash based on personal experience as well as doctor care and my own personal research.

- If I have a very deep road rash wounds, I start by using non-stick gauze and silvadene creme. Silvadene is by prescription only, but doctors usually have no problems prescribing it. On top of being effective, the creme feels GREAT going on.

- If you aren't concerned about changing bandages often, you can start with Tegaderm, but normally I wait until my road rash isn't seeping a ton so I only have to change it every couple of days. The bandages aren't cheap, but there is nothing like them for effectiveness and simplicity. Tegaderm looks and acts like plastic wrap. It keeps the wound clean and moist which is what you want.

Remember that road rash is nothing but a burn and burns should be kept moist. Also, polysporen and neosporen should not be used. I forget why but it has something to do with killing not just bad bacteria but also inhibiting some of the body's normal healing processes.

By keeping the wound moist, you also minimize the scarring. If you let it go to scab, scarring will be dramatically increased. Speaking of letting it scab up, it will take a lot longer to heal if you let it go to scab, not to mention that the scab will get ripped off at some point and have to reheal itself at least once.

One drawback to Tegaderm and products like it is that you see the wonderful secretions from the wound. Some people can be grossed out by this, but I suggest either wearing pants and/or long sleeve shirts if that is the case.

One product I have tried that many people like is Duoderm. I found that Duoderm leaks too easily. I find with Tegaderm, you can tell when it is time to change the bandage (if you can call it that) to alleviate a "leak". The more margin you have when applying the initial Tegaderm, the longer you can leave it on.

Lastly, you can also find Tegaderm with a gauze pad in the bandage. I don't really think this is anymore effective except that they cover up the secretions so others aren't grossed out.

Please feel free to comment on this post with your own suggestions or comments.

Ahhh... now I understand

This morning I got up and weighed myself and I had lost 2 lbs since yesterday. I thought I had been drinking enough water, but evidently, I wasn't. I am sure the first hot days of the year had something to do with it as well as being outside all day.

While I am glad to see the weight come off, I know when I get rehydrated that at least a pound of it will probably come back.

This morning, I had a nice recovery ride with my wife. I am also glad to see her riding improve. We went a little longer and a little faster than our previous rides. I can't wait to see how much better she will be by the end of the summer.

Have a great week.

Winfield ABR Championship

While yesterday I felt good, today was not so good. I got up early to serve as a course marshall. While doing so, I could tell my stomach just didn't feel that great. I figured that once I got warming up, I would feel better.

Part way through my warmup, I could tell my right cleat was moving. Thankfully, one of the guys from the shop was there and helped me to get it tightened up quickly, although I figure I lost 15 minutes of warmup time between the fix time and finding the guy. Anyway, I went back out, but really didn't get in the amount of intensity I wanted and when I went hard, it really felt harder than it should have. Again, I figured once I got into the race, I would be fine.

I improved on one thing from yesterday... I got on the front line for the start. When the race started, I slotted into 3rd wheel, but the first 2 guys didn't want to be there, so once we got to the back stretch, I took the field to the hill. I decided that first lap to see how the legs felt and let people pass me going up the hill. Honestly, the hill felt much harder than I remembered. I came off the hill still in the top 10. I proceded to fade back at that point. During the race, I found it easy to move up on the home stretch as the field would take a break. I moved to the front 2 or 3 times during the race.

I kept positive during the entire race. I had a discussion with one of my teammates before the race about hammering it on the last lap up the hill. On the last lap, I did give it all I had on the hill, but unfortunately, I just didn't have it. I limped in for 42nd, but still with the main field.

One thing I did enjoy during this race is helping a few riders back on with the pack. I saw 2 guys I knew start to fall off the back, so I encouraged them to catch my wheel. I have been told many times that I have a good wheel to follow which is just another way of saying that I provide a very good draft. Both guys were able to catch my wheel and get back into the field. Both guys finished ahead of me. Heck, one of the guys had the nerve to pass me in the sprint. We got a good laugh about that after the race as I tried to give him a hard time about not showing his appreciation.

Well, today was an off day and I can tell my body just wasn't right today. I haven't felt very good all day. Considering how I feel as I write this report, I am very satisfied with my effort today.

Winfield Twilight Report

I was looking forward to this race for a change. I want to thank everyone who has told me that I am riding stronger this year; it has given me more confidence to do much better. So, for a change, I really wanted to see what I could do on a course where I have never done well.

Well, unfortunately, the day didn't start out to well. 10 minutes before our race was to start, my front tire went flat. I really didn't want to ride my backup wheel, so I rushed to change my tube with the help of my teammate. The real bad part was that by the time we got to the line, everyone else was already there, so we had to start from the back. I now knew that I would have to spend the first part of the race picking through the pack to get near the front. I stayed positive that I could get near the front and then have the race start.

The race started and I slowly picked up position by position as we went up the hill the first time. My teammate took the inside route and got to the front quick while I was picking my way through the field. His way was much better especially with the tail wind on the uphill section. It took me about 3 laps to finally get into the top 20, but I spent a lot of energy moving up so I was pretty spent. I planned to recover a bit, but there never seemed to be a good spot to really recover. That is the hardest part of this course. You have the hill which takes its toll on everyone and then the downhill with so many turns that you are constantly accelerating out of the turns. This is one hard race.

As Chris Padfield from Team Pegasus mentioned in his report, the memory of the race is fuzzy, but there are times I remember thinking I was done. The major mistake I made in this race was not realizing that the race was partially decided by where you were on the last lap at the top of the hill. I took it easy on the hill to save something for the finish, but that was a huge mistake. I hammered out of every turn, but it just didn't matter in the end. I past the finish line going 36. I was gaining on the riders in front of me who were also flying, but it just didn't matter because you can only make up so much ground in 200m.

I ended up finishing 19th which was pretty much what was left of the front group. I am very glad that I was able to stay with the front group in this race, but feel I could have done better getting a better starting position and better race strategy.

Mike, my teammate finished 6th riding very strong. Congrats, Mike.

One request for the officials... please consider giving instructions for lapped riders at the beginning of the race. Most lapped riders were very good about staying out of the way, but there were a select few that didn't pay attention and placed themselves in the turns opening up gaps as riders further back in the pack were unable to get around them and had to spend energy to bridge those gaps. Yeah, I know, I can fix that by staying near the front, but in my opinion, the field should not be broken up due to lapped riders.

Next up, Winfield ABR Championship.