Poop

Just plain Poop.  (the more polite version of what I really think....)

Wrapping my head around not being able to race...  Again... this season.  And it basically sucks.  Rocking new race bike hanging forlornly on a hook.  Me not wanting to ride at all.  yuk.

Course,  racing goes on,  and while I was out of town for the Boulder Cup weekend,  life,  and racing went on.  Even have a video from the Colorado Cross Classic,  kindly shared by my teammate John Deibert.


CO Cross Classic 10-12-2013. Highlights from SM35+3 race from John Deibert on Vimeo.

Decided to go ahead & let the Docs snake & zap my heart.  No other real choice,  unless I want to take up X-Box instead of Cross.  Was THINKING I'd run in,  get it done,  recover,  and maybe get in the last few weeks of cross season.  NOT.   Have to wait till December 3rd to get snaked.  That plus a month of recovery makes it official.  I'm done for the year.   Looks like my only cross outlet is designing fiendishly nasty courses for the "pleasure" of others on our Wednesday "Not Boulder" CX training races.  It's ALL I have (Said in a plaintive tone....and sad face)

I CAN ride (at lower heart rates..),  and COULD start lifting weights,  doing Core,  and all that "Off-Season" kind of stuff bike racers CAN do.  Might even do it .  Right now I seem to prefer whining & complaining over pro-active activities.  Sure that will change as I work thru my stages of grief.

Next weekend,  the team gets to help put on one of the "big" races of the year,  the Without Limits episode at Xilinx.   Working with the WOL guys is great,  and we have some nice upgrades to the course in the works.  These guys are always looking to improve,  and are open to all kinds of suggestions.  Will be a pleasure to help them put that race on again.  Hope you ALL come down & race.  Love to see you there.

For now,  I'm back to my old rallying cry...  "Next Year!"

Back to Broken

Denial is an amazing thing.  You can block almost anything out of your mind,  and take what you KNOW is going to happen,  and thru the magical power of denial,  block it out,  and all is good.     I can do this with the best of them,  and managed over the last few weeks to pull off an incredible denial act.   Like always,  that ugly bitch reality eventually shows up and kicks you squarely in the nuts.

Normally,  on a Monday,  I'd be uploading some video,  and trying to write some (Semi) clever race report.  I would have been up in Frisco,  playing out my carefully planned Cup Points whoreing strategy (And with only 16 guys in the beer-loving-grandpas league up there,  it would have worked like a charm,  I might add...).  Even getting over the pounding that racing both days will put on your hide.  Instead,  I'm having to write about having most,  or maybe ALL my Cross season taken away from me.  Again.

Maybe I'll just hang myself.  Hmmm,   maybe Course tape is not the best option for that.

Courtesy of Bo Bickerstaff - http://bobickerstaff.com

Planned on racing Frisco,  and Primalpalooza.  Pre-registered,  room in Summit county friday night,  the works.  Instead,  a visit with one of my fleet of Doctors swept my denial out the window in one quick little consult.    Also might well have swept me racing this season out along with my denial.  Basically,  I'm broken.  Again.

All started back in February,  just as I was finishing up the Chemotherapy for my Hairy Cell Leukemia "outbreak".  As soon as I got on the bike,  and started to go hard,  I was feeling & seeing episodes of VERY high heart rates (More than 200 BPM) on some rides.  Quick jump,  then a recovery,  if I stopped the effort.  Usually happened if I was doing HARD efforts,  intervals or hill repeats and the like.  Tachycardia this kind of thing is called.  Sometimes can feel a bit funny when these start,  usually just see the high heart rates on the monitor.

Pretty unnerving.  Oncologist was not overly worried but thought a Cardiologist should give me a once over.   One "Stress" EKG and a Cardiac Ultrasound later,  I had no answers,  but did get my first warning that continuing to set these "events" off was "probably not good".  Hmm.  Denial Phase 1.  Was not just going to give up on training and racing after loosing last years cross season to the Hairy Cell,  and the opinion of a cardiologist who thought WALKING me on a tread mill would get my heart rate to his "Stress" target of 140 BPM (Mentioning that I WARM UP for efforts at higher rates than that had no effect...).  Was not impressed with his opinion,  so kept training and riding hard.

Sought out ANOTHER cardiologist,  and was able to find one who at least understood I was not a 75 Year old bon-bon-eating sloth.  He understood we would need to capture full EKG data DURING one of these events to figure out the problem.  Not all that easy to do when you need to be on a bike doing bleed-from-the-ear efforts.  Except that the medicos happen to have a cute,  portable,  recording 5 lead EKG,  kind of like your basic heart rate monitor on steroids.   Got one of these things,  and was able to catch a bunch of the Tachycaria events in the 24 hours they gave me the Holter Monitor for.   Nice,  svelte,  high tech packaging on this thing,  eh?  Maybe they should show Garmin how to package a heart rate monitor.

Cardiologist number 2 looks at my data,  kinda like downloading to Strava,  and basically lets me know that "yep,  your heart rate goes abnormally high"  and I have "some kind of Tachycardia/Arryhmia".    Wow.  Since that is why I went to Both First and Second Cardiologist,  THAT was some useful information.  Turns out there are 2 kinds of Cardiologists.  Mechanical/Plumber-type Cardiologists,  and the Electrical kind of Cardiologist.  Now Cardiologist number 2 (Mechanical) sends me to even MORE specialized Cardiologist (Pardon me,  Electrophisiologist...) Number 3,  the electrical malfunction guy.  Also Mentions it was "probably not a good idea" to ride hard or race.  (Where have I heard that?)

Meanwhile,  with my denial in FULL swing,  I continue to train and race.  Doing pretty well for me,  getting 6th place in Zero Gravel Cross,  WHILE having the Tachycardia events for a good chunk of the race.  Denial again,  including ignoring and/or telling my beeping "high Heart rate alarm" to F&%K off,  I'm in a race.

Pretty strange with the level-shift on that heart rate.  Did not really slow me down much.  Feeds the Denial.  Keep riding,  riding hard,  and racing.  Then I get to Number 3's office last Thursday.  He has at least a diagnosis.  Atrial Tachycardia.  The "better" kind,  originating in the upper chambers of the heart,  and NOT the kind that just randomly kills you.  So THAT'S good.    BUT (they always have a but...),  it will probably NOT go away,  and continuing to trigger these events (remember,  little things like RIDING MY BIKE) has a significant chance of leading to permanent Heart damage and or a Heart attack.

Well,   OK then.  NOW denial is having a bit of a problem.   Kinda well beyond the "Bad Idea" advice,  and right into the this is going to REALLY hurt you phase.    Denial comes crashing down.  Reality takes it's place.  Ouch.

Well.  So riding hard is pretty much out.  Can you treat this?  The now terminally depressed patient asks.    Three treatment options,  Number Three says.

1 - Stop doing what triggers it.  (NOT my favorite option)
2 - Drugs.  Ones that permanently limit your heart rate,  even with exercise,  AND make you feel like shit.  (Wow,  getting better & better here.....)
3 - Radiofrequency Ablation.  Threading a catheter from your thigh,  into your heart.  Triggering the event WHILE the sensor probes are in the heart,  then "Burning Out" the offending nerves,  etc. that cause the "misfire"  (neat...)

There is even a video on the Boulder Community Hospital website of my favorite Number Three talking about this stuff.


 Well Gee.  That all sounds GREAT.   Don't really want to quit riding & take up video games.  Not liking drugs that would make me suck MORE while riding AND feel like crap.  Not real thrilled with another "Invasive Procedure",  but sure not looking like a lot of choices.

For now,  It seems as if I am OUT of the cross season AGAIN.  At least for now.  Am off to LosAngeles for a wedding this week,  so that will be the time to think,  zero in & decide what to do.  Seems like I'll get snaked.  That leads to a month of "No High Heart Rate" recovery.  Yea.  Great.  Lovely.

I DID transition from denial to whining and heavy drinking.  Neither seemed to fix the issue either.  Damn.

Feel like I'm whining here,  but I really needed the venting.  It sucked ENOUGH to loose cross last year.  was JUST getting fully fired up for THIS season.  Thanks for listening,  and stay tuned.  This medical shit makes for GREAT stories.

Back to The Reality

Reality bites.    After a couple of "unusually" good races for this slow old guy,  started to think I was BACK.  You know,  able to race,  to get in there.  

And then came Flatirons.  Oh,  Yea.  NOW I remember.  I ain't much of a bike racer after all.

LONG,  sucking hills in velcro grass.   STEEP run ups (oh,  yea,  and TWO of them a lap....).  Yep,  everything I can't really do in a Cross race.   Nothing like that to put one back right in their place.

Really,  it was not THAT bad,  I had a crappy start,  and really could not move up too much because of  my inability to put out enough watts on the hills,  but all in all,  not a complete disaster.  27th place is not the end all of suckitude by any means,  but sure not where the last 2 weeks had left me.  

Outside of the 2 run ups and the seemingly endless climb up boggy grass,  the race was a full on hoot.  LOTS of off camber and twisty bits to make it a challenge.  Sweet drop off the start drag on the grass,  with a mildly scary looping drop to the bottom that seemed to give a lot of folks a hard time.  Killer hard uphill switchback,  and some ROUGH,  fast descents almost made up for the gagging,  tounge dragging climb.  All in all a good time.

The RaceRite lap timing is pretty cool,  besides being able to watch your friends & teammates times WHILE THEY RACE on your phone,  seeing each lap time on all the races lets you see when you had "problems" during the race.  Mine showed a solid,  consistent 3 laps while I struggled to stay on the back of a group.  After that group broke up,  and I sagged off the back,  I had 2 laps that were almost 20 seconds a lap slower,  before getting woken up on the last lap by a hard chase behind me.  Got back up to my first lap times on that last one.  Stupid lap times let you see when you "drift off" and start slacking a little bit.  It takes just a HINT of backing off to start loosing a LOT of time.

This weekend brings a return of the joy that is Frisco.  Cross at 9K.  Again,  not really my course,  but thinking I'll do the double this coming weekend,  since I have to miss the Boulder Cup/Colorado Cross classic weekend the next.  Have to skip 2 good races,  all for the joys of a visit to wonderful Los Angeles.  However,  Frisco might put enough hurt on me to last that 2 weeks.

This week My seat-cam is a bit short.  Some idiot forgot to clear the memory card prior to the race,  so he ended up with only about 4 minutes of the race.  At least it was not one to loose any sleep over.  Have at it.

Cyclo-X Flatirons - Men 45+ cat 4 - 9/28/13 from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

Back to the Bubble

Once again,  it was back to the stairs & berms at Valmont.  The First real Cyclo-X (renamed Boulder CX Series) race went down Saturday.  Surprisingly,  the fields were not HUGE,  but looks like still over 600 riders.   The Jr. Men 10-12 field had 39 riders,  one more than my 45+ 4 field.  GREAT to see all the kids,  and the level of skill,  aggression,  and bike handling of the kids is just off the charts.  Really fun to watch these days.  Women 4 is also pulling big numbers.  Looking good for another busy and packed cross season.

For the Morning races,  it was hero dirt,  milking the last of last week's "biblical" rainfall moisture out before it got dry and dusty later in the afternoon.  After coming off a VERY surprising result in last weeks "Grand Return" to racing after a year of health-driven sloth,  I was quite curious if the previous weeks result was a fluke,  or strictly driven by the muddy,  "driving" oriented course.  While I like the Valmont courses (Except for that F&*&%^ double set of stairs...),  It's never been the best course for me.  The vertical and stairs were never kind to my scrawny,  no power self.

In the end it seems that I have come back with more fitness than I ever expected.  Had a good race,  managing to move up into 4th place in the first lap after a second row call up (THANK you points from Zero Gravel Cross...) before fading back in the second lap,  then going back and forth in a HARD race to finish in 14th place.   Pretty good for me,  and FAR better than my last pre-Chemo season.  Good to see I can still get over the chemo nonsense and still be able to get back in shape.  

Right now I am pretty psyched about racing again.  I had a lot of trepidation going in,  which manifested as not much motivation.  That is changing quick.  Between the sudden and total demise of local mountain biking availability and decent results might well lead to a neurotic fixation on cross here.  Time will tell.

Did run the GoPro this week   and here is the first lap.  Lots of fun racing,  and was cool to be up front, even if just for that one lap.   Sadly will not make the John Hailey driven,  Without Limits production in Castle Rock next week,   I am planning on the grassy sidehills at Flatiron Cyclo-X.   Here we go.... 

Cyclo-X Valmont 2013 - 45+ cat 4 from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

The Return

I managed my "triumphant" return to racing Cyclocross this last weekend.  Returning to the insanity that is cross after a long absence brought home a couple of points with startling clarity.

Racing Cross is a blast.

Racing Cross in the mud is even MORE of a blast.

Racing Cross still hurts.  

A Lot.

So after a week of virtual inactivity from the monsoonal rain we had,  and a pretty hit or miss ability to actually leave my neighborhood due to closed roads,

I was able to evacuate SouthWest "Not-Boulder" last Saturday on roads that JUST re-opened after the INSANE flooding up here in the north.  Pretty strange to weave thru closed roads,  hunting for bridges that remained intact,  looking at flooded fields and houses half underwater,  then heading off a few miles later into what seemed totally unaffected and normal.  Very strange,  to say the least.  Hooked up with a teammate & headed down to Littleton for the "Zero Gravel Cross",  which actually lived up to it's name.

Compact & twisty course around a big church.  Dry,  it might have been a bit on the short & boring side,  but racing in the muddy morning got us "Beer-Drinking-Grand-Dads"  (Not sure what to call a 45+ cat 4....) prime muddy-tacky-gloppy-slimy-rutted goodness.  My kind of course,  pretty flat and twisty,  and with the goo,  EXACTLY what I do well on.    Given all my recent issues,  not racing for a year,  and general aging,  I had no expectations or goals.  I did not even put the Go-Pro on,  thinking I might well be so far out of it as to be boring and/or embarrassing to have video of my "glorious return"

Turns out it went REALLY well,  the conditions playing well into my strengths,  the driving,  not power/go fast stuff.   Ended up FAR ahead of where I thought I might be,  in 6th place.  Keeping it steady and smooth,  I just seemed to wear people down,  and along with noticing and jumping on a less obvious line early in the race when you could pass a lot of people with less effort got me up there.  I did not even realize I was that far up,  spending the whole race thinking I was back in the teens.  Not racing and the effort to stay upright kept me from any awareness of where I was in the line.  Strange.

Good result or not,  I can tell you that after you have had one of your passions taken away from you,  when lousy diseases keep you from going out and doing what you love,  coming back to it is so very,  VERY sweet.  Hearing Larry G notice I was back out racing & welcome me back to the fold just about made me cry mid race.  The suffering was sweet,  the racing fun,  the atmosphere even better than I remembered.  

It's good to be back.  

These are not the droids you are looking for.....

I know it is cross season.  But it really is still mountain bike season,  maybe even the BEST part of that gig.  Having a bit of trouble switching modes just now.   It's just been SO.  DAMN.  GOOD. this year. The damp trails,  the long days.  Just plain off the hook.

Now,  if you DO ride mountain bikes,  I have to tell you that you need to add one thing to your list of things to do.  Even if it's just once,  or once a year.  Go over to the dark side.

Yep,  go rent a big ass,  slack-o-rama,  eight inches of squish mad max Downhill rig,  a Storm trooper suit,  full-face helmet

 

and a lift ticket.   Don't worry,  16,000 feet of downhilling will still leave you beat to a pulp.  It is FAR from "easy" and more fun than it should be.

Even an old geezer like me can learn to get (a little) air,  and come to love it.  Go do it.  You might like it.

As usual,  there is plenty of room for learning.  Always something to "try later" (Or never...)  This old dude is not really up for EVERYTHING on offer in this knuckle-dragger-huck-it world.  Sometimes a man has to know his limitations,  and just say no.

Get out there & Ride,  whatever it is.  We will return you to the normally scheduled Cyclocross obsession soon.          

Maybe.

Gravity Sucks

Crashing.  Falling off.  Sliding Out.  Biffing. Over the Bars.  How many ways can you think of to unexpectedly exit your Mountain Bike?

It all Hurts.  Some of those versions more than others.

For some reason,  it seems that gravity has been a bit on the "high" side in the last few weeks.     Well,  maybe just for me.  Your results may vary.  No warranty expressed or implied.   Nothing TOO serious for myself or the others around me who have been subject to "Gravity Gusts" lately.  Just the garden variety mountain bike fall down go boom kind of stuff.  (except maybe the example above....)

Dropping a front tire just a bit off a narrow,  soft,  pine-needle covered trail,  The uphill,  gravelly,  step-up,  spin out,  stall & tippy over,  or even the full blown over the bars tuck and roll.  SO many ways to get a bit dirty on the mountain bike,  maybe even a little bloody.  Usually these things just involve a bit of cursing,  spraying it down from your camelback hose,  and a bit of scrubby-scrubby in the shower.

Why the reflection on hitting the ground?  Managed to fall on the SAME spot on the SAME knee 2 weeks running.  Nothing like ripping the freshly formed scabs off your knee on a different rock in just a few days.  Nothing major,  but sure can make you say some bad words.   Especially after aborting what was looking like a nice,  easy,  controlled crash,  all just to avoid landing in a full patch of Prickly Pear.    I'll take the ungainly landing on the ragged,  pointy rocks over another cheek full of Cactus spines every time.

Then there are the "Maytag" kind of events.  You know,  those where you look at the dirt,  blood trails and where the bikes & bodies come to rest and go....  "HOW the HELL did I get here?"  and "how did THAT happen?"

At least pointy,  ragged rocks are softer than pavement.  I'll take that any day.  May you keep the shiny side up,  and watch out for those High Gravity days.