Rough night

So I'm getting ready to leave work a few minutes after five last night, when I get the phone call from Penny that AB was at Y-care and got his left pinky finger smashed in a door and blew the tip off. I made some calls, got Kieran taken care of, and headed down to Children's Mercy South.

Penny and AB got there, and he had bled a good bit, but was doing ok all things considered. It was hurting him a good bit, but he kept his brave face on and watched some TV while we had nearly every doctor in the building looked at his finger. In the end, I had to take him to downtown Children's Mercy at 10:00pm to meet an Orthopedic surgeon for a consult. His bone was too close to the surface of the wound, so they had to nibble off some bone to keep the infection risk at a minimum. He then folded the pulp of his finger (meaty part) around to protect that, put a few stitches on, and cut the nail off. If you were going to have the tip of a finger blown off, this was the one to have blown off and in the right manner.

During the operation, I had to leave the room since a) I hadn't eaten in 12 hours, b) I slept like crap the night before, and wasn't going to do any better last night, and c) it was tough watching him in a dazed state while the surgeon was working on his pinky.

The surgery went well, and I was glad to be done with doctor's and hospitals and for AB to get some rest. We got home about 2:30am, and everyone is pretty tired (except Kieran, of course). AB got some good meds, and he's doing ok, just watching some TV and chillin' today.

He has a big ol' wrap around his fingers for the next week, and hopefully within a month or so, it should be all healed up and eventually you shouldn't be able to tell other than the fact his left pinky will be about 2-3mm shorter than the other one.

I raise 'em tough, I'll tell you that. All the nurses and doctors were impressed with AB's fortitude and toughness. The only time he got really sad was when the RN did a mediocre job with his first IV. That hurt him pretty bad, but another RN came in and nailed it. Everything was smooth sailing after that.

That's all the detail I have for now, and hopefully the healing process will be non-eventful and he can show off some cool scars at Christmas.

Blah! Arg! I want a refund!

So I REALLY wanted to race this weekend, and had a tentative plan to carry it out, but I just couldn't shake the sickness until Sunday morning, and I hadn't prepped or anything, so I missed the Leavenworth race too. Looking at all the pics it looked like so much fun, so I'm super bummed. The race season is coming to close quickly, although I have 6 opportunities left, that's it until next September. Maybe I can get in some criterium racing this spring/early summer.

I'm still hacking stuff out of my lungs, but at least I feel better. I went up to Lifetime yesterday and lifted/rowed and felt good. I got my body fat tested too, and I was at 15%. Pretty thick for a good cyclist, but I was definitely excited to look at where I was on the graph and I was on the lean average of optimum. Optimum for normal people, but I race in a skinny man's sport, for better or worse. Besides, I don't see that six-pack yet. I'm not losing weight very fast, but not adding it on either. Could be several years before I get down to a fighting weight. The rate of weight loss is starting to agitate me, but I have to remember that I measure success on race performance. They don't just weigh everyone and hand out medals (thankfully).

My team is putting on another race on Sunday, and so I'm going to up the ante and race the 3/4 (three/four) race. In sum, that's the slower half of the Cat3's with the faster half of the Cat4's. The fast 3's race Open (1/2/3). It's kind of a screwy way to do categories, but it's a nice way to see how you stack up against 3's without having to actually upgrade. That'll be next season. After Manion's I have a week off, and then the next weekend is both State Championships. I might just do both races, since I need as much experience as I can get before next year.

After the championships, I'm planning on switching my bike over to a singlespeed and racing Singlespeed the last few races. We'll see if my knees can take it. I plan on having my ass handed to me in those races since there are some real hammerheads in those categories. That which doesn't kill me...

Sickness is not fun

My malaise won't decide if it's coming or leaving. But instead of complaining about that, I'll simply ask you, what are you doing this weekend?

Here is what I'm doing!

Shut up legs

I've been riding lots (comparatively speaking), and even doing yoga, all in preparation to hopefully peak for the Kansas State Championships on Dec 5th.

Saturday: Hard 90 minute ride. Felt good, and had a decent (for me) avg speed.
Sunday: Yoga. Killed me. Sweating like a fat man in a donut shop 20 minutes into the session. Legs super sore, but at least my back felt good.
Monday: "Recovery" ride at Volker. 1 hour of cruising through midtown with some of the guys on the team. That was great fun, and ended up at McCoy's for a delicious black bean burger and craft root beer. Yea, that was still a 2k calorie dinner, but oh-so-worth-it.
Tuesday (tonight): Tabatas. 3 sets of 8 intervals. 20 seconds max effort, 10 seconds recovery. If you want to lose weight, do intervals. Fo realz.
Wednesday (tomorrow): Probably 30 minutes of recovery spinning, but commuting to work too, so that's 40 minutes each way of good, hard riding, dodging cars, and sprinting from the lights. Love it. Except for the DBs in Lexus'.
Thursday: 2x20 intervals. 20 minutes as hard as you can, spin for 5 minutes. Do it again.
Friday: rest!
Saturday: start over, rinse and repeat.

This is a seriously great video

1950's Cyclocross...ok so the video isn't *that* great, but it's still cool to watch. Those were the original hard men, that all of us fancy lycra-ed up cyclists wish we were.

Smithville CX

Race pics from yesterday...



I made the wicked-long-haul up to Smithville Lake for what was a really great race. We had a lot of Colavita presence up there, and it was fun to see everyone.

The course was setup with a little bit of everything, with a nice run-up immediately followed by a money tree (tree with money clipped onto branches, which you tried to grab when you went past). There was some beach riding, and lots of twisting around trees as well. Some good little climbs here and there, and I enjoyed the course.

There was one particular 120 degree corner that gave me some difficulty on lap 2. You came in pretty hot to it, and then there was some really rough ground, a sharp bend/climb up to the right, and then around a tree, and up a climb. Well, I came in way too hot, lost control on the rough ground, and crashed hard enough to peel about eight inches of my tubular off the rim. I started riding again before I noticed it, and then stopped and hammered it back onto the rim. I wasn't able to corner nearly as hard as I liked, and the crash took a lot out of me, although I didn't notice it until late in the race when I was whooped.

I let a few guys by while I was fixing my bike, but still took 18th out of 41. Not great, but definitely things are getting better. It was nice getting the pre-registration bonus of lining up at the front, that makes such a nice difference when you can put some space in between yourself and everyone else (people who crash on the first corner).

I finished pretty slowly as I had a big gap on 19th, and he tried hard to get me, but I played it smart and had a 100' gap at the finish. Great race, and wish I could have stayed longer cheering everyone on, but it was time to get home and enjoy the day with the fam. Next race is a night race in Topeka, Nov 13th. I can't wait, although it'll be good to get some training and more core strengthening in.

Smithville showdown

Race is tomorrow, leaving way too early to make the long haul to my hometown-but-not-really. I should get to bed!

http://www.kansascitycross.com/images/stories/Smithvillecx10.pdf