Monday, August 30, 2010

Not such a great weekend.

So I'll start with the race, everything went off like normal. Good prep, good breakfast, easy spin around the park to soften the legs up. Nothing different. Could feel the heat kicking in early so opted to carry a bottle of water in the back of the jersey for hosing myself down. Was feeling good, HR was lower than normal standing in the starting pack, the reason, wasn't nervous stressed excited etc. Things were good.

And were off, started a little farther back than normal and kept it pretty chill, didn't take long for Tristan and I to hook up on the course and made that truce, keep it sane battle it out on the last lap. Hopefully we can try it again another time because it wasn't going to happen today. Came through the timing tent 1st and 2nd. Things felt good. Lap 2 was about the same but backed it down just a little on the hills. This was my plan from the start and I was sticking with it. Save the legs. Tristan being a climber was off. Long race, no worries and besides this is a ride not a race I told myself.

Lap 3 was the same, felt good. Was spraying myself down from time to time. It was hot, it was awesome. Came through the feed feeling good, riding my pace, having fun. Then came lap 4, slowed up, a lot. Ok not slowed up but started to lose some horsepower. It was subtle enough to even me at first, then I did something I was shocked I did. I clicked into the granny gear on a climb. It wasn't even a big climb, not good. A short time later I felt a little tingle. Told myself it would go away.

Lap 5 told me that it wouldn't. Climbing power was gone, got my first round of cramps midway through the lap. One so bad that I was forced off the bike after a climb. Walked it out and did my first good cyclocross remount of the season. Came into my pits and got off the bike for a few. Had ice packs wedge in my legs and would have stood on my head if it would have helped. Spent about 10 minutes on my back trying to get the body feeling better. Of course I was in a bit of a grumpy mood at this point. Cramping has a tendency to hurt, I do like pain but not like this.

Lap 6 seemed to be better, back to sub hour lap which I was content with. Spun the climbs and figured I would take it easy until the heat of the day went away and would try to pick it up in the evening. It was a good plan but my body had other plans. Lap 7 had my body start to shut down on me. Got a few dizzy spells, stomach went crazy, and of course the cramping came back. Every climb was a battle. Not good. Came in to the pits again and tried to feel good again. It took about 25 minutes of debating with myself on what to do before pulling the plug. Frustrated very much so. Pretty much confirmed that it was heat stroke because I'm still feeling like absolute shit this morning after lots of fluids, food, rest etc. Legs are sore, feel like they could cramp any time. Still have a slight headache which for me is a sign of something really wrong. Headaches for me are usually alcohol induced. Of course there were a few bouts of vomiting in the evening. Pretty much all the symptoms. I don't do anything half assed, if you're going to blow up, blow up real good.

So that was the better part of the weekend. That evening the crap side of it came around. Molly got clipped by a car. I wasn't with her when it happened, she was up at Mom's place. Won't get into the details on the idiot that was driving that could have easily stopped if he was paying attention. I was already crashed but when I woke in the morning and saw that Mom had called i should have known something was wrong. It was a few minutes later she called and filled me in. Let's just say that it was a really long morning and then waiting till 3 before I could pick her up was hard to deal with. I'm not a patient person sometimes, most times, and this was hard for me. For those that have met Molly, you know that she is my kid.

Down to the ER vets with Mom. Things ended up being better than the first update. Still not great though. She has lots of bruising, a whole new collection of scraps, they have said that scares are sexy, and a broken leg. It's a non weight bearing bone that is broken and the er vet said it won't need surgery. The break is just above what would be your wrist. Just watching the clock to call my vet this morning to get her in.

So it's looking like things will be pretty low key for the Molly Monster and myself for the next few weeks. She is pretty sore right now, rightly so. Once the worst of the swelling and bruising is gone I bet she will start working the sympathy to the max. She is a smart girl. Will also be using the ray gun on her once it returns from the Worlds. It's helped a race organizer, a world cup racer, an endurance racer, now it's on to helping my training partner.

2 comments:

Tommy said...

Good to hear she is going to be alright.

Unknown said...

I'm thinking of your girl!! Healing vibes. Glad to hear she's going to be okay. What a trooper.