This past week was a good week.
I turned 47 years old on Tuesday and my birthday present to myself was a 47 mile-for-every-year-old ride…..ON THE ROAD! It was just my third ride on the road since surgery eight weeks ago.
As many of you know I fractured my femur while in Spain back in September. I broke it on the very first ride that I did after arriving in Spain for the pre-World Championships training camp that USA Cycling was conducting in Miraflores de la Sierra. I had been named as the US Junior Women’s Director for the World Championships. A group of us containing all the junior men and women, myself and the junior men’s director and a few of the U23 men went out on an easy 40 km spin. Both myself and the junior women had all arrived the night before so the plan was to just head out with some of the guys that had already been there and knew the area to loosen the legs. I wanted to make sure that I was riding with the girls in case the guys wanted to go a little harder than was necessary for them. I also feel very strongly that the best way to get to know your athletes is to go out and ride with them. The roads were wet from a soaking rain that morning and as we were to find out, also very slick. About 3 km into the ride one of the junior men slid out in a corner and the next thing I knew I was down too (along with the junior men’s director and one of the other athletes). It was like I had hit a patch of ice. I was down immediately and I immediately knew that something was wrong. Fortunately the U23 director was following in a car so I hobbled into it. A few hours later I was in a Madrid hospital getting X-rays, hoping that it was just a very large hematoma but finding out it was actually a non-displaced femoral fracture that required immediate surgery. The accident happened on the morning of Wednesday, September 17. I had surgery on Friday, September 19 and was on a plane home on the morning of Tuesday, September 23. The surgery involved placing a nail and screw into my femur to stabilize the non-displaced fracture and allow it to mend over time.
As far as all of the fractures/ surgeries/ shit happens that I have had over the years this was one of the “easiest” in terms of mobility. No cast, very little bed time and able to get around on crutches almost immediately. I was doing physical therapy the very next day after the surgery. The doctors weren’t thrilled about my insistence on being on a plane four days following surgery but I was able to make it happen (armed with custom compression socks that went thigh high, oral pain killers and 2 injections of blood thinners I administered to myself). In terms of mood however, this one hit pretty hard. I was not a joy to be around once I got home. I had spent 65 days in Europe working with some great young athletes alongside the fantastic staff of USA Cycling’s European Development Program. It was one of the most rewarding experiences that I have ever had. I then had the honor of being asked to work at the World Championships. In terms of what I do (coach cyclists) I don’t believe that you can get much higher than being named a coach for your country at a World Championship. Then in the blink of an eye I was on the deck, broken, and unable to work with some really talented athletes in the biggest race of their career (fortunately it was me and not one of them who got injured). Knowing that other staff would have to pick up the slack left by my vacancy didn’t contribute to a positive outlook. Even though what happened was beyond my control I still felt bad for the other staff and the athletes knowing that I was unable to do my job.
So…I was a bit of a bastard for a while at home. Not all the time. But enough. Maybe a contributing factor was I just wasn’t getting my typical hit of endorphins to detoxify myself. Over time though I was able to push myself a little more and a little more from one week to the next. I was getting pretty aggressive massage twice a week, doing some rehab exercises, trying to stretch and get some ROM back. I was also riding my trainer with a little more volume and a little more intensity from week to week to week (it was kind of cool to be able to quantify the improvement looking at my power data from ride to ride). A few weeks ago I sensed that I was starting to come around (and, you know, be less of a bastard).
Then a week ago last Friday I decided to try rollers. This meant actually having to balance. I was able to do an hour on my track bike, not fall over and even get clipped out of my pedals. Initially I was going to ride rollers for a few more times and then aim to get out on the road on Tuesday for my birthday. But the next day was just too damn sunny and nice so I figured fuck it, I’m going out on the road. It was slow, really slow, but it was fantastic.
That steamrolled into this past week.
I turned a big corner this past week. I was able to ride outside every day except one and the weather was spectacular. A little cold, but sunny. Super sunny.
More importantly I was finally mobile enough to be able to do some one-on-one with a few of my clients. I was able to cover some basic supplemental strength techniques with one of the local guys I coach and this weekend I was able to ride with two of my other clients. This evening an 11 year old that I am starting to work with came over with his dad and we spent an hour trying to get him comfortable riding rollers (still a work in progress). It is this one on one interaction which can really lead to some breakthroughs and that I find very rewarding. You can accomplish quite a bit with good communication (phone, email, etc) and specific workouts planned in such a way to enable your athletes to hit peak fitness at just the right time. But the real breakthroughs often come from just getting together and doing the activity no matter if it is picking up heavy shit or just going for a ride.
So yeah, this past week, it’s been a good one and it feels good to be “back”.
It’s good to be back on the road.
It’s good to once again feel the type of fatigue that only comes after spending a few hours pushing yourself.
And it’s good to be able to get back out there working hands on, connecting and hopefully being a positive influence on someone else.
Instead of just being a bastard.
