Core Values

Rob displays his incredible ability to balance on a ball, teach and play catch at the same time. Talk about "Hard Core"!

The word “core” has become quite a buzz-word in the fitness world and bleeding out into the rest of mainstream culture. Not that it is a new word just that it currently enjoys quite a bit of cultural popularity at the moment. Some people (including certain GroveTribers) use the word but may not truly know what that term means. You can look the word up and get something like:  

“In anatomy, the core refers, in its most general of definitions, to the body minus the legs and arms. Functional movements are highly dependent on the core, and lack of core development can result in a predisposition to injury. The major muscles of the core reside in the area of the belly and the mid and lower back (not the shoulders), and peripherally include the hips, the shoulders and the neck.” (Thank you, Wiki, I’m sure we will be visiting you again soon.)

But reading a few sentences on a computer screen cannot come close to bringing you a true understanding of what your “core” is and how it affects your performance.  Once again, a visit to one of the Body Concepts classes for cyclists opens up a whole new world of understanding on a bit of a murky topic.

Linda also displays her core strength and control.

Last Thursday Rob Kopitzke -with an assist from his partner in crime/business partner/spouse Linda Bailey- brought a whole new level of understanding to the world of cycling and performance by presenting a “Core for Cyclists” class to an ever-growing crowd of students. At this class we noticed a marked increase in the number of folks taking advantage of these classes. Maybe the increased attendance was due in part to their finishing first in their category of the KCRA “A-List” or maybe the word is finally getting out about what gold can be mined at these sessions; either way we resolved to get there a little before seven so we can get front row seats next time. Kind of like a Gallagher show, these classes are the most fun viewed from the front row. (Rain slickers optional.)

Class opened with some basic anatomy of the core and with us realizing that we didn’t know nearly as much about the core as we thought. Rob went over some of the most important core muscles for cyclists (Abdominals, Multifidus, diaphragm, pelvic floor, etc.) and explained to us how these muscles make up the basic shape of a cylinder or “can” in shape, with the diaphragm as the top of the core “can”, the pelvic floor as it’s bottom and the abdominal and back muscles making up the round body of the “can” itself.  He explained how each of these muscles worked, specifically how they were essential in providing a strong foundation for cyclists and their “engines”  (the power and forward thrust provided by hips, glutes and thighs). The third part of the class discussed the various types of training and equipment that involved the core and making it as strong and as stable as possible to add to performance and prevent pain and injury.

Rob demonstrates more core exercises.

Again, we had pages and pages of notes and we won’t even try to impart to you all of the cool stuff we learned in the hour and a half of the class. I will say that finally having a good explanation for my back pain on rides was well worth the entire class and I have some more modifications to make to my training routine. Not to mention that my wife was very excited to be able to sneak in a couple of body mechanics questions to improve her Tai Chi workout sessions after class ended.  Linda announced that as a thank you to the community for voting them #1 on the KCRA A-List they will be hosting a free question and answer day coming in about a month or two. We will be sure to post and let you know when that will be.

This series of classes continue to impress and with the growing numbers of folks taking advantage it sounds like they will be hosting the series again in the fall. It was announced that the next class will be all about bike fitting and I know that one is going to be of particular interest to cyclists. After finding the “Core” class to be of such value, I will be sure to catch the next one. See you at BC!

Does Lance Have a Clue? MyPlate Follow Up.

The difference a few months makes when using the Livestrong.com MyPlate tool.

There is a lot of press lately about Lance Armstrong: "Did he or didn't he?" Well, on that I have no clue and the debate rages on but one thing I think Lance does have right is one of the best features of the Livestrong.com website. MyPlate.

Back in February I set a goal to lose 22 pounds using nothing but the MyPlate features and workout advice given to me from classes at Body Concepts. Three months later I figure I owe everyone an update on my progress.

At first, I was using MyPlate’s free version and I was pretty happy with it. Basically it is a quick and easy way to track what you eat, especially calories and nutrients, along with options to track your fitness efforts and water intake. Then I was gifted with a Gold Membership level ($40 per year) which was to open up a whole new world of features for me. Eh… not so much.

I am still very happy with the free version of Livestrong’s MyPlate. As far as the Golden Membership goes, at this point save your money. If you are the average person then the free version is more than useful and the price is right. They claim that people using the membership level lose 25% more weight but I am not sure how they qualify that.  My weight loss is still steady but it decelerated. I cannot say that the deceleration is due to the different membership level or some other factor. For instance, it becomes harder to lose the pounds as you become leaner and leaner. The bottom line is; I was not impressed with what I got for the higher (paid) membership level. On the whole I LOVE MyPlate (did you know they have a nifty iPhone App?) and I continue to use it.

To be honest, I have had a couple of “THUD!!” periods where I stopped tracking for a few days and I know I took in more calories than I was allowed. The great thing is that I have become so accustomed to a certain calorie level that my “binge” days still stayed well under 2,000 calories. I think I approached 2,000 calories once in the past several months and 1,800 a few times. My cheats were also pretty tame: an extra cup of milk or orange juice or a larger portion at dinner. I never ate a candy bar, drank a soda or went for something “bad”.  (Those kinds of foods are no longer in my vocabulary.) At most I gained back two pounds during this time and the next week they came right back off.

Weight loss so far? When I wrote the initial MyPlate article I set a goal to lose 22 pounds. So far I have lost 13 pounds which is right along my weight loss goals I set on the MyPlate calculator (one pound per week). It may seem like slow weight loss but with CFS I have to be careful not to do anything too radical with my health. A slow, steady loss has been great! I am also very pleased that I have been able to lose that much weight in cold weather (I always seem a lot more hungry when it is cold or rainy!) and not being able to exercise very much (weather, kids, life, you know).

My total weight loss since beginning my journey -when I was diagnosed with CFS a year ago this week- is 43 pounds. My strategies were simple: watching the calories, sensible work-out advice from Body Concepts to accommodate for my specific health issues and changing how I view food -making sure the food I eat is FUEL and not used for comfort, rewards, etc. MyPlate has become a vital part of watching my diet and has taught me how to live differently. The thing is, you have to do it and be honest about what, when and how much you eat. Not just honest, be down-right meticulous!  

So right now we all seem to be asking ourselves if Lance is being honest? We may never know for sure. At this point it seems like every cyclist of his generation was on something so it seems to me that if he did, then the playing field was pretty level.

What matters to me now is what impact he is using his fame for: he has been fighting for so many good causes (AIDS and cancer research, help for impoverished youth, health awareness campaigns and so on) and -selfishly- what impact his contributions have had for me.  For my part, I figure I will get off my fat butt and make good use of one of the contributions. Off to go log what I had for dinner on MyPlate and to put my toddler -and the Lance doping controversy- to bed.

- Dawn Grove

If any of you decide to start using MyPlate please feel free to share your experiences in our comments section.

Golden State Race Series (Maybe Not My Smartest Decision)

Feeling pretty nervous lining up in a field of over 50 riders in my first race since the crash.

A while back, before my crash, I had signed up for the Golden State Race Series as my first races as a Cat 4.  I intended to use the time between Sea Otter and this race to improve my abilities riding flat courses.  All was going according to plan until I decided to also start getting into mountain bike racing shape.  I took my mtb out for a high-intensity ride on easy trails to get me back into racing.  As I am sure you have seen in previous blogs, that didn’t end so well.  On top of that, I caught a cold a week later.  This trashed the two weeks of training leading up to the race.

I was alone my first race back, my fellow BCers
rode in other race categories so I was on my own.

As I talked to my wife about this, our first thoughts were to have me skip the races that weekend. With it being just two weeks after the big crash my shoulder was still fragile and could easily be re-injured if something went wrong that -along with having a nasty, nose-dripping, throat-scourging cold virus- was hampering my ability to get out for good training rides. 



Todd (BC teammate) chills with my son Jax.



Monday before the races I started to have a change of heart. My shoulder was improving rapidly and I was anxious to finish off the recovery phase by getting into a race.  I still had some self testing to do on the bike to see what type of riding I could do.  If nothing else, I can mix it up a little and then drop off the back if my shoulder and legs aren’t up to it.  It turns out that my shoulder was doing great with the hard efforts on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I wasn’t sure about my legs since I was riding by myself, but winning a crit and circuit isn’t about who has the strongest legs.  If I can keep up, I have a chance at winning or placing in the top ten.



Looking more confident than I felt.



On race day I was nervous…  It was almost like it was my first race all over again.  In many ways it was.  It was my first race as a newly minted Cat 4 rider and my first race since the crash. Racing as a Cat 4 meant that larger field sizes were now allowed.  Doing a crit against 30 people was already a challenge.  On Saturday's race there were over 50 riders on the track and on Sunday we had over 65!

 

While I dealt with a large field at Sea Otter, this is different in that there weren’t any hills to create separation in the field.  At times I was stunned to see the long train of riders in front of me.  How do I work my way up to the front without totally exhausting myself?  I managed this two ways:  first was to try and grab a wheel of someone charging up to get to the front; the other way was to make up ground going through turns.  While there weren’t any major turns, they still caused enough separation to create opportunities to move up quickly. 



My finish did not make me a happy camper.

The results for the day?  Not so good.  I can safely say that I am not in my comfort zone when trying to do a sprint finish in a massive pack of 50 or more riders all crammed together like sardines.  On the first day I was cut-off by a rider who unexpectedly swerved while I was making my way to the front for the final sprint.  On the second day I was nearly taken out by another racer on one of the final laps which shook my nerves a bit and caused me to fall back in the pack.  I had one last shot to make something of the race, but hesitated for a moment, and in that hesitation my window closed and the race was lost (as my wife always says: “He who hesitates is lost”). 



Race results, at least I finished in
front of 35 other guys.

While I was upset for much of the weekend -I was moping around because I feel like I didn’t perform well- my wife put it into perspective when she said that I wasn’t even supposed to race that weekend. I still wish I had performed better however with that new perspective I was able to focus on the positive: I am excited to be racing again.  I am back on the bike, training hard, with continued full support from my wife.  Sooner or later I will get this flat crit/circuit thing figured out. 




So in the end, I didn't even finish top ten in my first Cat 4 race but, looking back, I would have made the decision to race all over again. There just isn't any other way to simulate the intensity of a race ride and I needed the competition to guage where I am at in my recovery. And it was still a hell of a lot of fun.

As usual, my son goes to my races to pick up girls.

Side note:  It is good to have friends out there looking out for me even if they are on another team.  At one point Morgan, from the Bicycles Plus Race Team, was giving me good advice during the race.  What a great sport to be involved in!  Thanks Morgan!

Morgan took some video of this race:

http://wordpress.ncncaracing.com/2011/05/22/road/may-22-golden-state-circuit-race

The Road to Recovery

Injury Day 4, back on the bike.

Two weeks ago today I suffered the worst injury I have ever had in my life and I have learned at least two things: I do not take being disabled well and I now truly know the value of a helmet. I had managed to beat up my left shoulder pretty bad in the crash with deep road rash and a lot of bruising but what concerned my wife and I the most in the first couple of days was the head injury. I’ve never suffered a concussion and just wasn’t sure what to look for.  My wife watched me closely those first couple of days mumbling to herself things like; “Well, his eyes are focused.” or “He seems to be thinking straight.” I’m not sure if I should have gone to a doctor or not but I have never claimed to be the wisest of men.

I remember riding out of the single track right after the crash and heading over to Body Concepts to have Rob look at my shoulder. My first thoughts were “How long until I can get back on the bike”?  (Is that an indication of cycling addiction?) I was relieved when Rob said he did not believe there was any “major” damage but I was still left wondering how long it would take to recover.  The crash rendered my left arm pretty much useless.  I couldn’t support any weight with it and a lot of motions were restricted.  I was immediately frustrated at the limitations that I now had to deal with.

The day after the crash I felt that if I had been able to ride home right after the crash had happened, then I could probably get back on the bike and ride the next day. Right? However as I thought about it more I realized there were some problems.  If I couldn’t get dressed on my own, how would I manage to change a tire if I got a flat?  What if something went wrong and I needed to get my arm(s) out to catch me?  I risked even further damage to my already vulnerable arm (or head!). In either case my left arm would be useless in trying to catch my fall and I may be stranded. With that in mind, I spent the next three days in the gym. 

My wife changed the bandages on the wounds several times a day; slathering it with Neosporin so the skin would never dry out and harden. She was concerned that it the skin scabbed and hardened that it would tear open again and slow the healing process and cause unnecessary scarring. Even with finding a great sale on bandages at Walgreens we spent over $120 in medical supplies (gauze pads, medical tape and Neosporin). By the time we were done with bandaging (which we stopped doing on about day ten) we had already gone through all of our tape and had to buy more. By the way, after a couple of days, you have to get creative in where you place the tape as the skin gets raw and sensitive. My wife would alternate the types of tape we used; tape at different angles and use different sizes and shapes of bandages to move around which areas of skin had to endure the sticky torture. It finally got to the point where the rawness of the skin from that tape hurt worse than the road rash itself.

Each morning I would wake up hoping that my arm would feel well enough to get out on the road and each morning was a disappointment.  However, during those three days at the gym I progressively got more and more movement out of my left arm.  Initially I only road the gym’s stationary bike but as the days went on I started to integrate the elliptical trainer as well to get my arms moving.  While the shoulder still wasn’t that strong, I woke up on the fourth day determined to give the bike a try.

As I got on the bike I realized that I was okay as long as I didn’t pull on the handle bars which would force me to leave out doing sprints and hard climbs, but I could still get some quality rides in the flats.  The first day I kept things at a recovery pace.  The next day I cranked it up to see what I could do and had impressive results:  I was able to get my heart rate up in the 95% (of max) range. For me it proved that I could still put out a strong effort without my shoulder complaining.  However, while I could still ride pretty strong, I knew that if I had to race I wouldn’t be able to do it because I just couldn’t get out of the saddle to sprint.



My shoulder at 6 days out.



On the sixth day I had another setback as I caught a cold that was going through the family which meant back to more frustrating recovery paced rides.  All the while my shoulder was only getting mildly better from day to day.  I remember thinking on Saturday morning that if I don’t turn a corner soon, I should probably go see a doctor to see if anything is wrong.  I was depressed that I wasn’t getting better as fast as I thought I should. I wasn’t able to lift or hold my son and cuddling with my wife took on an edge of danger.  At first we tried to sleep apart but neither of us could handle that so we had to be inventive in our positioning. I was more than ready for this ordeal to end.

By Saturday afternoon I went to the gym to do another easy-paced workout when my frustration reached a boiling point.  I was tired of being injured, I was done with it.  After I dropped the kids off in the kids club I decided to hit the weights.  (I wasn’t sure if I could handle free weights, so I stuck with the machines.)  On each exercise I would start with the lowest possible weight to test the motion and then I would move up to a higher (but still light for me) weight and do high rep sets.  As I worked my way through I was finding that I was able to do every exercise and by the end of the workout my arm felt GREAT! 

I was waiting for repercussions the next day from my frustrations, but it never came.  Yes, my arms were a little sore from the workout, however I had a decent range of motion and I found myself being able to start lifting things with my left arm again. My road rash wounds were looking a lot better as well and I spent some time without bandages to give my skin a break from the medical tape.

While I was happy I was making progress off the bike, I was still a little uncertain on the bike.  On Monday of this week I went out to do some time trial intervals.  I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to stay in the drops for the entire interval and that I would be really slow because of the crash and cold I had caught.  To my surprise the shoulder didn’t give me any problems and I turned out a decent time!  The next thing to test would be sprinting, but I didn’t feel like pushing my luck that day, so I saved that for Wednesday (On Tuesday I watched the Tour of California and winter weather blow through Folsom).

As I headed out on Wednesday I was nervous again.  Initially I rode towards the flats so that I could focus solely on sprinting but as I thought about it I realized that I need to see if I can handle all aspects of the bike normally.  That meant not only testing sprinting but testing to see if I could climb up steep hills as well.  I pulled a U-turn and started heading towards the hills instead. Today I would try hill repeats and a sprint interval workout. 

The first several climbs went well but then, as I was following my workout plan, the climbs didn’t call for all-out efforts yet.  When I got to the interval that required me to be standing all the way up while staying in my drops I took off cautiously at first, gingerly testing to see if the shoulder would complain.  As I made my way up I started riding more and more aggressively but I held back and didn’t push myself to the limits.  The final interval required that I ride like I was trying to drop the (pretend) guy behind me.  While I did hit that interval hard, I did it all within the saddle, being cautious again.  As I got to the final part of the climb, I decided that it was now or never.   I stopped thinking and convinced myself to hop out of the saddle and take off as hard as I could towards the finish line.  I was thrilled that I made it to the top without a problem!  Even more exciting is that I was totally amped up for the sprint intervals on the way home.

The first two sprints I took off like a bat out of hell.  The shoulder was holding up great and I felt fast.  On the third interval I was getting a little tired from my first two efforts.  I still put up a good show and didn’t have any pain in the shoulder.  For the first time, I felt like I was ready to race again and felt good about my progress.

With some races coming up I am not sure if I have recovered enough to hang in all the way and compete.  My numbers are looking good but between the injury, getting sick, and scheduling issues, I haven’t been able to ride with anyone to gauge my progress since the day before the crash.  I don’t have a power meter so at times the numbers can be deceptive depending on wind conditions.  Still, I am looking forwards to getting back out to the races to compete and to try and start moving up from top 10 finishes to making it on the podium. 

My shoulder this morning.

I am almost all healed now and I have learned that I such at being injured. Luckily I had a wife that took good care of me and helped to temper my impatience with her caution. (I am not sure if it was because she loves me so much or she was just sick and tired of having to do all the heavy lifting, diaper changes, shoulder massages and bandage changing so she wanted me healed FAST. Maybe it was both.) I have also learned that you can be the most accomplished rider in the world -skilled, cautious and observant- and still get nailed and thrown to the ground by something you never saw coming. I may complain about what I had to deal with injury-wise but I also realize that the impact to my helmet could have been a life-altering injury if I had not had my melon protected. Buy a helmet, make sure it fits you and wear the darned thing. The world already has enough morons in it, we need to preserve every precious brain cell the human race has!

Day 1 of the injury.

Amgen Tour of California makes a Splash in Folsom

Herbalife Sprint winner Jan Barta at the "finish line" for the $1,000 prize. Fans cheer from under the Bicycles Plus tents.

It's a wet, rainy Tuesday morning in Folsom, what do we do for fun? Pack up the toddler, bake some goodies and head out to Old Folsom to watch the Amgen Tour of California!

The big decision for us was where to go to watch? We had narrowed it down to two locations: Bicycle Planet was having a BBQ and Chili shindig that was incredibly tempting -more so was the assurance of easy access and parking- but when we found out that Body Concepts would have a booth in Old Folsom right at center stage (no really, they were right next to the actual stage) we decided to harass them instead.

Rob works the stretch while Dawn passes out the goodies.

We were initially concerned about parking but arrived just before 9 am and found plenty of space to park. Just as we began unpacking it seemed like people and cars started swarming out of nowhere and Old Folsom began filling quickly. The skies looked menacing and the clouds and wind didn't make it the most ideal of conditions. Despite this, Folsom showed just how strong of a cycling community it is when hundreds arrived to brave the weather and cheer the racers on.

John Crews (Bicycles Plus) gave his approval of the treats.

Dawn had decided to bake a couple of her new recipes that morning to get locals to taste test. (Special thanks to Rob and Linda of Body Concepts for offering to share their table space and shelter with us.) Nothing like hot, fresh from the oven goodies to get people warmed up and smiling. I was on toddler duty most of the time and Dawn and I shared photography duty, things were so busy that two hours flew by and it was already time for the racers to sprint to win the $1,000 award for the "Folsom Herbalife Sprint" at Sutter and Riley Streets.

Linda of BC finds a good viewing spot.

The rain began to fall and winds gust as the racers approached Sutter Street. The announcer called out that there had been a 7 rider break-away from the peloton and they were quickly headed our way. Folks crowded along either side of the street, hoisting children and clutching cameras in breathless anticipation. You could hear a surge in the cheering race through the crowd ahead of the sprinters, warning us they were near.



The crowds go crazy as the first racer (Jan Barta) arrives.


Climbing the steep hill into Old Folsom a lone rider in blue that had broken away and was leaving the pack of six behind. His monstrous effort was etched on his face, pain and a need to suck in as much air as possible opened his mouth in an extended gasp. Rain fell and the crowd screamed encouragements and their joy at being part of such a momentous effort. All too quickly, the winner of the sprint was gone with his pack of break-away brethren surging to catch him. Congratulations to 25 year old Czech Jan Barta of Team NetApp for winning the sprint! (Congrats as well to Greg Henderson of Team Sky for winning today's overall leg.)


The "Break-Away 6" trying to catch Barta.



The peloton in hot pursuit of Jan Barta and his "Break-Away 6".

The peloton was soon to follow and we could not help but be amazed that these two-wheeled warriors battled pouring rain, shrieking winds and a steep uphill grade and still managed to whiz by at incredible speeds. Watching a race on television is one thing but you can never quite simulate the surge of adrenaline and excitement you get from being right there. Another thing that you never seem to notice when watching it on TV is the sheer massive numbers of support vehicles that travel along with these guys. Car after car loaded with bicycles, gear, crews (all waving and taking their own pictures of the crowds) interspersed with dozens of motorcycles laden with Folsom PD's finest, California Highway Patrol, photographers and officials. 

Steve is serious about his Amgen!

With the rain and wind driving ever harder and a toddler at the end of his tolerance we started packing up. Of course this is when we start running in to more cool people we really wished we had more time to talk to. We loitered around for a few more minutes while the raffle prize winners were called out, the last of Dawn's baked goods were distributed and we chatted with fellow MyFolsomite Steve Heard (who just dropped off his computer with Dave at IT Solutions for what sounds like the same nasty virus that got us. Side Note: Dave did a great job and charged an incredibly good rate for his work. We highly recommend him). Yet again, we are struck by the real sense of community here in Folsom and even the rain couldn't dampen the high spirits. We left tired, soggy and with big smiles on our faces. What a great way to spend the day with your family.

(For more pictures of this event, be sure to check our website for our full gallery coverage coming soon.)

Dawn with Jax watching Amgen.

Nothing like a race to put a smile on my face!

Bicycles Plus Diva Night 2011 Gallery

Howdy gang! Usually when we have photos of an event we post them directly onto our website but as our computer with all of our nifty files is still at the IT Solutions emergency room we will be posting them here on our blog and hopefully get them onto the website in a more comprehensive gallery at a later time. So here are a few words about my (Dawn's) experience at the event and a lot of pictures to help give you a feel of what the event was like.

When I was dropped off at the event I was in awe at the sheer crush of people already there. I was only there for a few minutes when I ran into John Crews as he was arriving. He graciously talked with me a few minutes and informed me that around 1,200 women (one thousand two hundred!) had registered for the event. I could well believe it because despite of the rain and hail at this largely outdoor event there were easily hundreds of women already in attendance. 2011 marked the 7th year for this event, which John also informed me was a completely viral effort. The only "advertising" being online through Facebook, website and virtual word-of-mouth. It certainly was a testament to the power of the web as I looked around at the many vendors being swarmed.

John created the event to reach out to women who have historically been a minority in the cycling world. With events like these being mirrored by other bicycle shops all over the area it seems the tide may change and women may quickly overtake men as sought after customers in the industry. If nothing else, Diva Night certainly seems to help more women feel empowered and welcomed into the cycling community. (It certainly doesn't hurt to add good looking men serving fantastic food and wine to the mix! Thanks, John!)

I could write pages more about the event but I think pictures can communicate it far better than mere written words. So, without further ado, please enjoy these images from Bicycles Plus 2011 Diva Night... (Note: many more images will be shown in our website gallery. Coming soon!) 



Good food with great service makes a great start.



Bicycles Plus Owner John Crews arrives at Diva Night.

Storms and hail pause long enough for everyone to enjoy the event.





Nothing says "Diva" like high art nails at the Reg tent!



Vendors can be Divas too! (And enjoy some of the perks)

The caption here is so obvious I will let you figure it out for yourself.



The Pedal Diva herself is in attendance. (More on PedalDiva in an upcoming blog.)

 

Garneau was well represented (thanks for the handy bag guys!)

The folks at Liberty Tattoo fit right in with the fun.



Byke N Bling brings art to cycling in a fun, wearable form.

The crowds indoors were jovial but left me feeling a bit claustrophobic.

As is tradition, we like to photograph the photographer of the event.

Plenty of "wining" (and shopping!) inside Bicycles Plus.



BP resident Diva (aka Erin) working hard with all those
Diva Night discounts keeping her busy. 



GroveTribe voted these two the "Prettiest Divas 2011"

I go "Diva" in my new BP Diva night shirt.

Well, that's it for now! I had a great time but I agree with another fellow Diva who went solo to this shindig; Diva night is fun but it would be so much more fun with a few girlfriends. Next year, I am bringing a GroveTribe Girl Posse! BP Diva Night BEWARE!!!

There are many more pics to share so be sure to check back soon when we will link to the full Bicycles Plus Diva Night Gallery and you can see the entire event.

When it rains....

... it pours.

Rain is back in Folsom and that is the least of our worries here at GroveTribe. You read about my crash -which still has my left shoulder all but useless and is making me think that I need to get it looked at- and I FB'd about the fact that I have a cold virus. To add further injury to injury (the insult is the rain returning just as I am getting back on the bike) now our computer is infected with a major virus that has deleted all of our files!!!!

After fighting with it for a couple of days I decided to have an expert take a look so I dropped our CPU off with Dave at IT Solutions. We hope that he will be able to recover at least some of the files and get up and running again. We apologize to our many readers for the interruption in service and we hope Dave can get us back up and running soon.

Injury! (Sucks)

So you may have noticed that things have been a bit quiet here for the past couples of days. I have to say that it is tough to blog when you don’t have all of your limbs in full working order. It is pretty eye-opening how in a split second you can find yourself flying through the air and end up with a dramatic change to how you live your day to day life.

Last Thursday I was out on a mountain bike ride and had an unexpected surprise:  I was cruising along a nice single track, one that I have been on many times before, having a great time when suddenly I hear my front suspension bottom out.  Before I have time to even look down I am going over the handle bars.  My left shoulder and then the left side of my head plowed into the trail while my right foot is still clipped into the bike.  As I work my foot free I find myself sitting on the trail and I am in a whole lot of pain. My left shoulder felt like it was on fire and my head was throbbing with pain.  I sit for a few minutes trying to take inventory of my injuries. My left shoulder hurts every time I tried to move it around but at least I could get some movement. I felt around the bones, comparing it to my right side as I move my shoulder around but I couldn’t feel anything too hideous like a bone poking through the skin.

Next I move to inspect my head.  I unfasten my helmet and take a look at it.  The first thing I notice is that the yellow parts of my helmet appear to be vibrating.  My vision was distorted and that worried me. As I continued with an inspection of the helmet, I couldn’t detect any breaks or cracks in it.  While I hit my head pretty hard at least it had been on dirt and not asphalt.  

While I think I am overall “okay”, I am concerned about the hit to my head.  At that point, I decide to call my wife to let her know I just got into a crash and hit my head.  (I figure it is best that someone knows what is going on in case I run into trouble coming back home.)  I can tell my call has her shaken; I am usually pretty macho when it comes to injury and I have come home bloody from crashes before without ever calling her. As I call her we arrange for her to pick me up in old Folsom a relatively short distance from where I was.  She mentions that I should call Rob, from Body Concepts, to let him know what is going on in case she can’t make it in a timely manner or I run into further trouble.  I call Rob and he suggests that when I get up to Old Folsom that I swing by his office and have him check me out to see what kind of damage we are dealing with.

As I start riding back my shoulder appears to be worse than I initially thought:  I can stay in a biking position without pain just fine however it can’t handle rough terrain or me pulling on the bars as I apply power to the pedals.  It takes me a while to make it off of the single track but I finally make it to the smooth, paved, bike trail.  From there, the rest of the ride is easy.  I almost feel like an accident never happened until I have to stop and get off the bike and my adrenalin stops flowing.  As I get off the bike I can feel a lot of pain in the shoulder again and it is difficult to raise my arm in any direction and it cannot bear any weight at all.

Just a few holes and dirt hide
what is really underneath.

As I get inside Body Concepts, Rob has me lay on one of his tables and then he starts doing all sorts of checks (poking around the shoulder joints, checking my vision and cognitive abilities). He finds a dent in my helmet that I had earlier missed and shows it to my wife. He talks about watching me to make sure I am talking and acting coherently. She hides her concern over my head impact by cracking a joke about not knowing whether or not I am making sense when I talk as I don’t usually anyway.

Rob places an ice pack on my shoulder and lets me rest for about 20 minutes while my wife takes the kids to get some lunch. When it is time to go my wife loads up my bike into the van – she was very proud of herself that she was able to get the front wheel off herself- and we head for home.

Luckily Jax fell asleep on the way home so my wife laid him down for a nap while she helped me take off my jersey. She exclaimed in surprise as she saw what was hidden beneath my jersey. My shoulder was chewed up and bloody and my whole back was covered in dirt and small bits of gravel. Rob’s checks were based on if there was any bone, muscle, or ligament damage.  With the shoulder part of my jersey intact, we didn’t really look underneath it.

I had bad road rash on the top of my shoulder along with some heavy bruising starting to come in.  Somehow tons of dirt and tiny rocks had been ground through the fabric of my jersey and into my skin. It took my wife a long time to carefully clean the wound the way Rob had taught us in the last class we took from him on cycling injuries. (Oh, the irony…) Getting it cleaned out was torture but Rob had made it very clear that it was important to get the wound as clean as possible to prevent infection.

It was a long process and my wife wanted to get ice back on my shoulder as soon as we were finished. She was getting concerned about the large purple, crescent shaped bruise that was developing around the shoulder joint. She soon had three bags of frozen veggies (two on my shoulder and one on a bruised area on my lower back) packed on me, some Advil in me and enough bandaging on me to second as a Halloween mummy costume.

So there I was; in just a single afternoon I went from the strongest, most able-bodied member of the family to someone who needs help carrying things, unable to hold my son or even drive. I wasn’t even able to dress myself and any movement of my left arm was downright scary. Not a position I am used to being in. So much more of the burden has fallen to my wife, she cares for our little one all day and usually I give her a break in the evenings when I get home. Now not only is she taking care of Jax but of me as well. I had better heal fast before my limitations drive me nuts. 

(To Be Continued in Part Two: Recovery)