Ice Ice Baby

Yes, I have used this title before. Probably multiple times. But there are only so many different titles that I can come up with when it comes to the word ice!

I have to admit that up until now I haven't been thinking about the Iceman that much, because I've been busy, busy, busy since I've gotten up off of the couch. However, it was impossible NOT to think about the Iceman since I turned on the computer yesterday. My entire FB page was filled with comments about the race. It was all iceman, iceman, iceman, iceman!!!!!

This will be my first time riding trail since Peak to Peak. My legs are ready...my shoulder is not. For instance, I still can't stand up while riding my bike. Normally the longer the race the better for me but not in this case. My goal is to get to the finish line as quickly as possible because that's one last minute my shoulder has to be bumping around :-)

It's going to be interesting. And it's going to be fast. The women's field is bigger and more competitive then it's ever been. Wish me luck....because I'm really, really, really going to need it!

I will be calling in the results here after the race!

So now I know

I finally got my MRI results Friday night. Unlike my previous visits during the day, the hospital was completely empty and spooky. Boo!

It was pouring rain outside and I had the squeaky shoe effect going on. I'm sure the film room heard me coming long before I actually got there. "Oh no, it's that shoulder girl again..." It totally reminded me one of the Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes, where Larry David was annoying everyone with his squeaky shoes. Except since the hallways were empty the only person I was annoying was myself!

Anyways, the official diagnosis from my MRI is that I have a nondisplaced linear fracture through the distal left clavicle with surrounding soft tissue edema. I think I would have been a little bit more bothered by this diagnosis if I would have gotten it right after my fall. But it's already been 2 weeks, so I'm well on the road to recovery. For instance, I can actually put a ponytail in my hair again. That's progress my friends, PROGRESS! Plus, my physical therapist friends said that having a fracture is much better then having anything displaced or torn....phew!

So, even though I'm happy that I only have a fracture, I still have to face the fact that I have a fracture. I can move my arm a lot more, but it still hurts a bit. Scott and I decided to test it out on dirt roads on Sunday to see how it would feel for Iceman....

I wanted to ride on trails, but figured that giving my shoulder more time to heal would be smart. Plus, Michigan roads have so many potholes that I got a little off-road action anyways.

On our way home we stopped for a little coffee. I figured that calcium in large quantities is probably a good idea right now. And yes, that's me justifying multiple vanilla and chai latte's a day!

Riding home I had to be careful not to hit any bumps. I was transporting very important cargo!
I won't be doing much riding for the rest of the week. Our field at Iceman is the most competitive I've ever seen it. We have close to 40 racers, including a former World Champion and the current National Champion. And countless other fast racers. To tell you the truth, I'm not nervous at all. I'm just so, so happy that I can race my bike. Ironically enough I'll be racing in Traverse City exactly 3 weeks to the day of my fall where I spent my afternoon in the Traverse City hospital. Go me :-)

Michigan being good

I think Michigan weather is like that nursery rhyme about the little girl with a curl in the middle of her forehead. When the weather is good, it's very good. And when it's bad, it's horrid. And yes, in the middle of the winter it is HORRID!

But no need to worry about winter yet. Yesterday was absolutely amazing. I'm not sure how many days we went without seeing the sun, but it was a lot.

The fall colors are amazing right now...

I took Naomi the wonder dog on lots of walks. She was on high squirrel alert every single time...

All I wanted to do was ride my bike outside, but I was good and stayed indoors. It was killing me to be on the trainer though. Mostly because I wanted to be riding trails, but also because I was doing 4 minute vo2 max intervals. It's weird, I always feel like I'm going to explode during the second minute of those intervals. But the rest of the time I'm OK.

But I was exactly 1 second away from a complete blow-up by the time my last interval was over. My legs just stopped moving, and I had to just sit there for a moment, gasping for breath. Fun times :-)

Still no word on my MRI results. I have a feeling that I'm going to be completely healed up by the time I find anything out!!!

A post NOT about my shoulder (voteforScott)

I've been getting a lot of e-mails asking about Iceman tires lately. I'm going with Kenda Karma's. Big surprise, I know. It's good in the snow and sand, and you never know which one you will get at Iceman.

Speaking of Iceman, there are 4,000 registrants this year. 4,000!!! That's pretty insane. The course is mostly doubletrack, but I remember there being A LOT of traffic in the few singletrack sections the years that I raced in the singlespeed division. The cool thing about the Iceman is that there are about 100 girl's and 150 boy's racing in the sno-cone (the littlest race). That's a lot of future cyclists!

Don't forget that the Velo City annual Chilly-Chili ride and chili contest is the day after Iceman! VoteforScott! November 8th at 2:00 p.m. to be exact. Scott'schilirocks! The ride is about 30-40 miles followed by the infamous chili contest. VoteforScott! And there is nothing better then coming back to a bike shop filled with steaming pots of chili after riding in the cold (especiallyScott'schili). Except maybe coming back to hot chocolate as well. And cookies. Hint, hint!

I don't want to start talking smack or anything, but Scott has won for the last 3 years and it's becoming an Iceman tradition of sorts. We'll see if he can do it for a fourth year in a row. I'm not going to start lobbying or anything, but Vote For Scott!!!

Moving forward...

My weekend seemed super exciting after a week of barely moving from the couch. And when I say barely moving from the couch I mean it. I actually friended my 5th grade teacher on FaceBook. And poor Scott. I've been quoting cheesy 90210 lines to him all week.

Anyways, back to my weekend. Saturday I had to go down and get an MRI. It wasn't bad at all. I pretty much figured if I can mentally ride around the same course for 24 hours I could mentally handle laying in a small enclosed space for a half hour.

The guy doing my MRI happened to be a cyclist as well, so he made me my own disk with the images. It made for an exciting Saturday night as I analyzed every single picture and tried to diagnose myself even though I had no clue what I was looking at. Again, poor Scott. I think he got a little sick of me calling him over and asking, "what do you think this is?" And one of the frames taken had an uncanny resemblance to the steak that Scott was eating...ewwww!

Sunday was amazing simply because I actually was able to ride my bike on the road. I felt "just OK" at best, but you couldn't wipe the smile off of my face if you tried. It felt like the best ride I have ever done and all I did was an out and back on a flat road.

I think all of my workouts this week will be back on the trainer though. I don't want to push things and I think my arm needs more rest and recovery. Actually I don't think it, I know it. Plus, I still need to find out the official results of my MRI. Personally I think that I just have a really bad bone bruise. We'll see if I'm right...

Iceman is less then 2 weeks away. Incidentally this will be my last race on the Kenda-Tomac-Hayes team. Hopefully I won't have to do it one-handed :-)

Hello trainer...

Believe it or not, my shoulder feels best in this position. The only hard part is getting my left hand on my handlebars. But once it's there, it's there. Of course I'd rather be riding outside, but as long as I have intervals to do I'm fine. And let's face it. The weather isn't exactly great right now. I also think I'm done with my sling for good. My arm hurt the worst when it was in it, and my shoulder was becoming so stiff that I was getting muscle spasms all the way up my neck.

I have a MRI scheduled for this Saturday, which means my insurance OK'd it. But I'm still calling tomorrow to see just how much they are going to cover. I know it's smart to get one done, but I really, really, REALLY don't want to go. Someone from the hospital called with a few questions, the first being if I was claustrophobic or not. I answered no, but once they started to describe how I was going to be enclosed in a tight machine for 45 minutes I wanted to change my answer. "Wait, I just remembered, I AM claustrophobic!!!"

Tonight we went to see Race Across the Sky and it was a really good movie. Of course the race for the podium was exciting, but the best part of the movie was seeing and hearing the stories of people just racing to finish. I'm talking about the mid to back-of-the-pack racers. And the people who didn't make the cut off. Racing a 100 miler is hard, and it's inspiring to see how tough people can be. I think the movie was a one day event, but hopefully it will come out on DVD.

Another great thing about the movie was that I knew most of the people in the theater. That makes it so much better :-)

A little bumpy and a little green...

While Scott was out riding tonight I entertained myself by taking pictures of my shoulders. A fun and exciting night, I know. But there's only so much book reading I can do in a day, and hiking is out of the question because of the bumping action. And I can't believe that I'm saying this but I think I've OD'd on blogs and Facebook.

Anyways, this was the best picture that I could take since I could only raise my right arm. And for some reason the bruise doesn't show up very well. Oh well. I couldn't take many because I had to return my left arm to it's sling. I'm trying to be good!!! Like for the first time in my life I've actually been diligent about icing, and what do you know? It really does work. The swelling is WAY down and I no longer feel like my bones are creaking around every time I breathe!

Today was the first day where I started to feel like myself again. The last couple of days have been so painful that I've been seriously grumpy. For instance, yesterday I almost lost it in a restaurant bathroom. My sister took me out to breakfast and trying to put my arm into a shirt sleeve hurt so bad that I started crying. And then I couldn't get my jeans unbuttoned in the restroom after drinking a lot of coffee, and someone kept trying to open the door. Like the first and second attempt didn't clue them in that the bathroom was occupied. Things like that don't normally annoy me to where I want to scream. And trust me, I WANTED to scream!!!!!

I had an appointment with my regular Doctor today and after looking at my shoulder the first question she asked was if my bike was OK. Ha ha! She also asked when my next race was. I told her 3 weeks and she didn't say that I couldn't do it. So that's good...

However, my Doctor also ordered an MRI. She said if I wasn't an athlete, she would probably just tell me to keep it immobile for a few weeks and then reassess. However, she said that it's better for people with active lifestyle to be proactive so that further injuries don't occur. We shall see. The MRI has to get insurance approval, and who knows if that will happen. Plus my Doctor told me that I could cancel the MRI if I start to feel better...and I hope that's the case!

Scott has been pretty awesome these last couple of days and has finally mastered putting my hair in a ponytail! Which means I can finally walk around without looking like Cousin Itt. And he set up my bike in the living room so that I can work out. Today I did a 1 hour easy spin, and tomorrow I'm going to attempt some hard intervals.

Our new living room furniture is ready to race...