Bobbay and I got out for a good mtb ride on Saturday in Park City. Seemed everyone was out and about enjoying this thing called Summer that finally arrived. 4600 feet of climbing, 3 hours or so, one missed corner (me - stupid u turns!), one jammed ring finger later (Bob - dang rocks!), and almost 2 head on collisions later (me - my brakes/rotors ROCK) we had had a great day and called it quits while we were ahead.
On Sunday I got to go experience a little bit of Heber Valley that I have never ridden before. I decided to jump right out of my comfort zone (finally!) and hit some dirt roads on my mtb that are pretty off of the beaten path but start right in Heber Valley. Some of them get up to 8000 feet starting from out valley floor which is at 5600 feet. It was pretty fun exploring new territory and I have so much left still to explore! I am excited now to check it all out while I am still home for a little bit until nationals.
I missed this storm by seriously.....2 seconds today.
I have been completely MIA I know. Life has been interesting these last few weeks with my dad deciding that he wanted to finally be part of the action and head to the hospital too for just under a week. He is out now and is actually talking more than he has all year to the staff at his nursing home. Well.....talking is relative but he is saying some words again here and there.
As for mom......it was a great month for all of us having her infection free and feeling better but unfortunately as of just a few days ago she has the infection back again (for the 7th time) which means no Rheumatoid Arthritis treatments for a few more months and also being quarantined in her assisted living facility. She is super depressed and rightly so. It is so incredibly hard to watch a parent suffer.
Chris on the other hand started physical therapy this week. That doesn't mean he is walking but it does mean he is putting 25% of his weight on his foot again. He will be on crutches yet another month to make it a grand total of 3 months. Icky. He is finding the differences between therapists absolutely amazing with some saying "Go for it!!" and others saying "You won't be doing anything until November." I say to him go for the first therapist to keep you sane!
As for me, I have been sleeping about 10 hours a night along with napping daily. I think the stress of sick parents again combined with a rest week put me under and it taking it out of me some. It is hard but I will get through it all I promise.....I think I have to don't I? : )
I will get some stuff up from the last races in CO too. I have pictures and stories of all sorts I want to share but sleep and family had to come first in the meantime.
Amanda has done plenty of riding and racing on the trails around here in CO so she was kind enough to lead Heather and I around these last few days.
She kindly showed us the Colorado Trail from Frisco that meandered along a stream for a while as we made our way up, up and away in a blanket of trees.
The trail ended in Breckenridge and so we took a quick bike tour of the very cute town. It reminded me of Park City Main Street except it was flatter, longer and wider. After that we hit the bike path for a bit and then headed up the Gold Mine Trail which was a very uphill trail that lead back to the Colorado Trail. It was a great 3 hour fun ride.
Today I just chilled on the bike path spinning out all the nastiness from yesterday's ride.
The name of the game here in Frisco though is get out and ride before the rain hits. I have turned into a different person riding at 9am and 10am! It is definitely nice to have the whole day ahead of you after you are done though!
A lot of the trees here were hit by the pine beetle and are nothing but carcasses now.
But despite that, beautiful views are really everywhere you look.
It is amazing how far the bike path here goes and just how many ski resorts are around Frisco too.
Main Street Frisco
There is "Breckenfridge" (as we are now calling it because the high has been around 55 for about a week now), A-Basin, Copper Mountain, Vail, Beaver Creek and Keystone to name a few all just around the corner from each other off of I-70. And you can pretty much ride to most of them on a bike path too!
Tonight the 3 Amigas headed out for Sushi.
Amiga #1: Amanda
Amiga # 2: Heather - never give this girl chop sticks
Amiga #3: Moi
Heather prepares for our races on Friday and Saturday. But hey, we looked it up after, there are 65g of carbs in that puppy!
We are all looking forward to heading to Colorado Springs tomorrow to pre-ride the course. We are also looking forward to getting some proper sleep there as well. This 9000 feet of elevation we are sleeping at is a bit much even for us Park City folk.
It is always interesting when you go to order Hammer Products and you go to their main page and you see your own face and team staring back at you. (It rotates through a bunch of pics). I got super confused at first. Funny.
Heather starting the Time Trial yesterday in Vail Village
Yesterday I took Heather down to the Teva Games Road Hill Climb and while she was busy killing it for 8th place with a tail wind I went for a ride on the Vail Bike Path. I had no idea that thing makes its way all the way to Frisco and beyond!
The views were pretty nice along the way too!
Heather had an interesting way to change right in front of the guy sitting in the Element - using her dress!
After she was settled we decided to go check out some of the Teva Games. That is a first that I have actually gone and enjoyed an event after my own racing. There was kayaking, rock climbing, dog jumping, trail running, tight rope walking, slope style bmx, you name it to watch and it was so fun to go see other athletes doing their thing. The environment is fabulous and the event itself is so fun to be at and go to. I will definitely be hitting this one again next year.
Here are a bunch of people enjoying the dog jumping while sipping on some brew-hah and praying to god that the next storm burst only brings rain this time.
And on a fun note, I called Brandy whom I roomed with last year for the Teva Games and haven't seen since. She has been pretty busy though winning titles. But she happened to be 5 minutes away in Vail Village after just winning her 10k Trail Run yesterday so she and her hubby came down to hang out. She is also the current National Mountain Trails Champion and the current National Snow Shoe Champion. All while holding down a full time job. Impressive. You go girl! Read more on Brandy here and here.
As for today in Frisco, the name of the game was wander on over to the local breakfast place looking like a dirty unkempt cyclist and then get on the bike as soon as possible. The weather here is getting to be predictable in that you have to get your buns out the door before noon or else get snowed/rained/hailed on as you can see.
Amanda and I picked up the bike path up in Frisco and headed East for a while. The views were great looking back on Frisco, CO.
But we both are agreeing that sleeping at 9000 feet every night has its challenges. And that would be why its nap time right now. Need to catch up on some ZZZZ's.
More quick info on the Teva Games here too if you want.
It is amazing what a month of bliss without parental issues and without your hubby needing surgery can do. I felt like me again today officially for the first time this year racing. Usually I have this feeling at the beginning of March but being that my life seemed to be continually getting curve balls thrown at it since last November, it certainly didn't work out that way this year. But I seem to feel good now finally.
Still not stellar fast but I am feeling good which is something I was waiting for this whole time. I knew I hadn't been feeling myself forever now and to come away with feeling the way I did during the race today made me happy no matter where I placed!! Just to have the oomph, the power and the desire to bury yourself to stay with a group or pass someone was all I was waiting for and its back.....finally!!
As for the race I got the hole shot today off the line which was great but what wasn't great was how the first lap was not as good for me as the last two. Odd because I had a good solid warm up. But that aside all went super well today on the dry course. I was able to not float too far back on that first lap and then make my way back towards the front on the next two. I was actually looking forward to the climbs! I am a crazy cat sometimes.
I had no idea that I had placed 6th place when it was all said and done. That was a nice surprise. I guess I was too busy trying to get back up to the front to even think about it. Ah yes, back to being me again!!
(left to right) Pua, Georgia, Katie, Judy, some chick
As for Heather Holmes race, she rocked it the whole time dealing with some mechanicals issues that are just part of bike racing. The thing was that she didn't quit even though the mechancials started only 10 minutes into the race!! She kept going and rolled across the finish line in 15th. Now that is some determination!
And, Amanda after putting in endless hours in the saddle in preparation for her 100 mile races coming up, still had enough steam to come away with a Top 15 result also.
As for the boys race, Andy S. decided that what I did last year was so cool that he would do it too....in the EXACT spot I did. He picked up the one and only nail and flatted while duking it out up front. And, as another determined Kenda Tomac rider, he too, fixed the flat and carried on finishing the race out.
Colin decided that I wasn't going to be the only one to bring in 6th place so he rocked it hard and stayed on the heels of those boys up front and took that final podium spot also. Yes I said, final podium spot...you gotta love non sanctioned events because they did a podium and a great payout for Top 6. Cool beans.
Colin on the right with Sid, Adam, Sam and Todd
Vail Mountain Resort was pleasant today with mild temps.
Next up is lounging in Frisco until we head down to Colorado Springs later in the week.
On Monday I packed my bike up in Alabama readying it for a flight home. I was outside in the sun doing this and the sweat was literally dripping off my nose. Perhaps it was the humidity or perhaps it was my body trying to digest the steak I ate last night at Ken and Linda's.
Oh yeah......
Then home for 2 whole entire days and off to the Teva Games in Vail, CO with Heather Holmes, my teammate. It's not a bad drive out there - about 7 hours. Got a good pre-ride in and things are looking quite the same as in years past. About 1100 feet of climbing per lap at Vail Resort and women are doing 3 laps. Fire road and singletrack climbing and a more rooty and semi technical singletrack descent.
Ran into Erika Powers from the big Salt Lake out there too pre-riding the course. It is great to see our local talent branching out!
The ground was mostly dry but I would say it is just slightly more than tacky right now. If it rains tonight we will be tire changing it up tomorrow! The parts that weren't mostly dry were pretty darn slimy. Those were only on the uphills but it seemed to be bypassed pretty easily as you could see the "dry" lines people were taking on the side of the ski slope in the grass.
We are back at our team Camp Colin in Frisco now where we will be until next Thursday when we head down to the next national race in Colorado Springs.
The course was at Oak Mountain State Park which is well known for great singletrack and it did not disappoint! As you drove into the park there was a very green golf course to enjoy some swings on and there were places to rent paddle boats too. The course was near a lake where plenty of people were enjoying what was to be a great weekend with low humidity and nice temps. Picnicking was what the doctor ordered apparently for all of Birmingham on this hot weekend. Glistening in the heat on race day.
The Lake
The golf course
The course itself only had about 500 feet elevation gain per lap but it was a turny 500 feet! You weren't going more than 7-10 seconds in a straight line the entire time....that is unless you were on the pavement which the course had plenty of too. It was a good mix of pavement ascents and descents along with the wicked fun singletrack that would make anyone happy. Everything was super dry and there were plenty of roots and rocks to go around.
One of the more technical ascents
And there were fast parts too!
But the fast parts were faster than me. I came in 9th which is a step in the right direction but I still want more. For now I need to be happy with a Top 10 placing.
Here is the reason I race. Check out the endorphin high I have right after finishing....
And the Women's race:
Got the hole shot but not for long. Watch that red jersey of mine get swallowed up!
What a fantastic race weekend. I sure hope we come back here because I will be back in a flash!
Thanks again to my wonderful and extremely enthusiastic hosts, Ken and Linda!
It has been a while since I have had to take my bike apart and load it up in a bike case. I think since cross season actually. And I will tell you what, putting ONE bike in the case seems like a cake walk compared to taking 2 apart, lugging 2 around and rebuilding 2 bikes! But I still love cross anyway!
But I forgot about the whole curiosity thing that I am kind of getting annoyed at now because so many people ask me what is in the box. I know they just wonder but it kind of gets old after doing this for 8 years. Plus who gives a rats??? I don't' ask them what is in their luggage but I don't care either I guess.
Gotta great seat partner on the way to St. Louis. The guy happened to be an Orthopedic surgeon so I drilled him about Chris's injury. Seems we are making the right choices although he was shocked when I told him that Chris was climbing the rock wall at the gym.
The doctor did have a secret though. He had ONE leg and was more than happy to show me his $102,000 prosthetic leg. He only had a very upper right thigh so it was quite the device he was showing off. He was able to click it behind the knee to enable it to swing at the knee joint in a huge circle. Pretty wild to have his right shoe in my face when I was sitting on the left side of him. And god, did I ever have a boatload of questions for him. Don't call me shy! Did you know that insurance companies consider that cosmetic and don't cover it? Wow, I didn't.
And the cool thing? He is doing a triathlon with his wife in July. He is doing the swim portion. And you think I am an athlete with a "go get em' attitude?" I don't think so. He takes the cake on that one and I wish him the best of luck.
The next flight onto Birmingham Geoff Kabush and I got to share a good moment that we both agreed we'd never have had happen on a flight before. The guy next to us whipped out his trumpet/bugel. I could help but wonder if he was going to play it or not and I kept seeing Geoff look over at the guy too wondering the same thing. And he did play it!!! But only with the flight attendants consent to play the Happy Birthday song. We still don't know who's birthday it was but I just pretended it was for me since mine was a few days ago.
Once into a very pleasant Birmingham on a quick flight I went to pick up my rental car and quickly discovered "southern hospitality". I had 3 guys taking my bags to the car, putting the seats down to accommodate the bike box, explaining every last detail of what I was signing, etc. Impressive.....remember this was a rental car company after all.
Once at host housing in the most beautiful area I have been in with my hosts Ken and Linda, whom I just met today, I unpacked and went for a ride. And I once again discovered more southern hospitality. The cars when going around me were practically going up and over the other side of the road! The pavement was precious too but with my knobbies I didn't quite get the full effect of the smoothness.
I even ran into another road cyclist who was more than happy to completely turn around and chat it up with me. When has that ever happened in Heber Valley to me!?
Lush green
Thick woods everywhere.
All in all, it was an easy travel day and I will be looking forward to pre-riding the course tomorrow.
It has been a good long while since I have gotten up at 5 am for a race but that is what duty called for on this Memorial Day.
It was looking to be a nice day out there with sun and warm temps but the fact that the rain came in yesterday and overnight stirred things up a bit. The trails we were to race on are pristine but they were now muddy from all the recent weather. And sending 500 racers on muddy trails through there wasn't gonna fly so the race was going to be completely re-routed at the very last second.
When I got to the race, there was an hour delay on the 9am start. No biggie, I can waste an hours time like nobodys business. But by the time I had completely warmed up along with everyone else, we all found out that the race had been delayed even longer another 3 hours and the course was going to be very short with 30 minute laps.
Wow, what is one to do now given that scenario? Most people thought they were going to be home and showered by the time we were to start the race today! At this point too, most people were getting super hungry because we had all eaten our last meal at 6am in preps for a 9 am start. So depending on what needed to get done, some people went to the local coffee and bagel shop, some went to wash their bikes and most just hung out under the tents.
Here is Ty enjoying a mid morning race breakfast of a raspberry tart bar.
All these things other people did were probably way better than what I did. I don't think in all my years racing I have ever come across this scenario so it was uncharted waters. I chose to pass some of my time goofing around some.
But I learned what NOT to do and what NOT to do the week leading up to a race.... if you want to feel good during the race that is.
1. Don't hammer yourself with nothing but intervals with very few recovery days all week long. 2. Don't just drink water during a delay even if that is all you feel like drinking! 3. Don't ride the day before up hill in the sluggy mud while its raining. 4. Eat more than just a Hammer Bar while waiting in between races...that is 4 hours after all! 5. Try getting more than 6 hours sleep in the nights leading up to the race. 6. Don't spend 1 hour the night before the race cleaning "pottery mud" off every single part of your bike. Who glued that stuff on there anyway?
Needless to say that when the race did start, I suffered like a dog. I felt sooooo bad. By the time we started the race most were already done mentally which just added to the misery. But seriously my body was not happy with whatever choices I made today and the last week but I fought through every miserable pedal stroke for the win.
But the race wasn't without a catapult into the river as I was crossing it for the 4th time. My hands never came off the bars even as my gloves didn't get wet. I think as I was trying to maintain speed through the river I was bucked off my bike by a river rock lurking below. I definitely got wet and it actually felt good under the warm temps.
I also almost got my leg ripped off by a snake. I was on the wheel of another rider and all of the sudden it was him vs. the snake that was wanting to cross the singletrack. But that only alarmed the snake and as I came through a second later it lifted itself up about 8 inches right by my ankle. I thought oh great that is all I need right now! Plus I didn't want to hurt it! But somehow all 3 of us came away without incident.
After the race, since I didn't do well by my body I felt so sick (until about 9pm actually). But I wasn't the only one that felt sick out there. Gordy, Shannon and Jen's dog, was on bored with that one too. We all sat around it for a while too just laughing and not really caring it was there (only bike racers right!?) but Jen decided to clean it up. Check out the video.
Wow.....where have I been?! Well it obviously wasn't the computer as you can tell but I am still home in Utah although I am chomping at the bit to leave again for racing.
So a bit of a recap...Chris had his check up just under 2 weeks ago and things were looking as good as they could be only 2 weeks out from surgery. The doctor was pleased with what he saw.
Yep, some swelling
Nice franken - stitch
And bruising
Chris was given this black boot to wear now that stretches out his Achilles and calf muscle so that it isn't permanently shortened. I guess if you don't do that you end up walking on the ball of your foot the rest of your life. That is no good! Thank heavens they know about these things!! So Chris is still on crutches until the end of June when he can start weight bearing 25%. That is also when ankle therapy will start.
Then onto my family situation......the next day after feeling like life was getting back on track after getting a good report from Chris's doctor, my mom went to the ER again. She was having extreme pain on her right side but they ended up letting her go saying it was undiagnosed pain.
I tell you what....the second I ever start feeling good or tell someone I am doing well, stuff like this happens to my poor mom that just doesn't need anymore happening to her. The phone call sadly didn't affect me much either because it's happening so often that I am becoming numb to it! How horrible is that? When my brother called to let me know what was happening with mom he could have just been telling me mom was going to the store by my reaction. But that doesn't mean I didn't think and worry about her all day!!! But she is out of the ER now and back in assisted living for the moment.
The next day was my turn at the doctors. Went to the Dermatologist for a weird red mark on my lip that appeared about 6 months ago. It would randomly flake and then not flake so I decided to be safe about it since I am in the sun training every day. And my choices he gave me??? Freeze it or wait until it declares itself as cancer. Hmmmmm....let me think about this....choose between my life...... or just dealing with what was going to look like Herpes simplex 14 after he froze it for a few weeks???? Yeah, not rocket science here, freeze the sucker.
I have been able to get in some Heber groups rides too.
Being home has been so good in so many ways. We were supposed to be gone all month but obviously with Chris's injury plans changed. And it has allowed us to enjoy Heber during the Spring which is a first, we have met neighbors that have lived next to us for 4 years that we never have spoken to, I have been able to go to Pilates, Yoga, relax at home, get stuff done, catch up with buddies and even get the patio furniture out before the first winter freeze! I feel so caught up with it all because normally I have time to get the deck furniture out sometime at the end of July! Home has been good, peaceful and relaxing. Oh and we would have gotten evacuated in Santa Barbara because our friends that we were staying with did! How random is life? Not really so at all.
With all this free time we even got some pets....you know....the best kind of pets. The ones that feed themselves, bathe themselves, make their own bed, are in charge of their own activities. Gotta love Robins. They are right next to our front door too. 3 babies and mom. We think mom was born here a few years ago and has come back with these little nuggets to raise.
I have even gotten Chris into Pilates with me too!! He is eager to build his upper body and burn calories as much as possible since he has gone from 100 mph to a halt. He has been hitting the gym, rock climbing (using one leg!!) and is joining us gals in the Pilates studio twice a week. It has been fun to introduce him to all my Pilates buddies that have been hearing about him for years now but never met him.
So don't you worry about Chris because he is just a busy little guy getting around the house and area like rock star. We had an amazing friend loan us an automatic car that he can use to get away from me when he wants even! Freedom!! Chris is getting a ton of work done on the computer too which is just awesome. He has been extremely busy with all kinds of things and is holding up super well really. I am amazed at how well he has been able to adapt to life on one leg.
Onto the Soldier Hollow race: before the local Soldier Hollow race my teammate Amanda Carey came into town to race it. I decided to not race which was sucky because it's only 10 minutes from my house but the way my body had been feeling made the decision a super easy one! My body came to a crashing halt when I got home from CA and I had to listen to everything it had to say because I have had so much stress on my shoulders for an entire winter. So I decided to listen to it one more week and do support instead for Amanda and Heather Holmes if she wanted since they were representing the team this weekend. I almost didn't make my post though as I ran into a mass of loose bulls and cows on the dirt roads I was taking on my bike to get to Soldier Hollow the day of the race and I had to unexpectedly turn around! That left me potentially late to pick up the feeds from those guys and I ended up having to time trial it out there to Soldier Hollow. That DID not feel good not warmed up at all but I made it just in the knick of time. It was fun to watch the race and catch up with everyone while cheering for my speedy teammates. Amanda won and Heather rocked a second place!!
Chris was able to make it out too. This was a funny picture that Theresa C took. The kid behind Chris had no idea what to make of Chris's walking sticks! He kept looking at Chris and following him around. Pretty funny.
It was great to see everyone again too!
Afterwards there was a Team Revolution BBQ. These kids brought a snake in that they had caught on their own somehow. It looked like a rattler but it wasn't. They had been hanging with the snake for most of the race too!
The next day Heather, myself, Ron Prue, The Chad, Carolyn Popovic and Sarah Kaufmann all went for a ride on the Flying Dog Trail in Park City. Carolyn and Sarah were just here quick for the weekend to race and were heading back to CA promptly after the ride. Life on the road! On the trail there were some wet spots that still existed but it was nothing that should keep you off it at this point. We BBQed it up at the Chads later that night and tried to get him to repeat his made up word "Stumpifide". It was originally used in a sentence by The Chad such as this....."Scientists were stumpifide as to where it came from". Then he looked at us weird and said, is that a word? Oh The Chad......Oh The Chad (shaking my head).
As for this week, it has been a normal one for me so far. I hate to say that actually because I feel like that jinxes me some. But I said it anyway. Pretty stupid that if life is without crazy phone calls hearing about my sick parents for 10 whole entire days that I think life is wonderful. It is all perspective I guess and I am happy that all seems to be well with them at the moment. I know mom is eating more at this point and actually has an appetite again which is a godsend. She also seems to be holding off the infection as well......
Next up is a race on a course this weekend that has plenty of this. Do you know how fun it is to race when you have this to look forward too? Can't wait.
But yeah, training normal, feeling normal, recovering normal, haven't had a big blow out cry session in almost 3 weeks....life is good! Getting ready to head to Alabama at the end of next week for the next race with the help of my fantastic sponsors. I hadn't planed on doing it so I didn't have quite the tire selection I needed and as for setting the new tires up on my SunRingle rims....well let's just say that I am glad our AWESOME mechanic CMag lives in SLC.
These last two weeks with Chris fresh out of surgery have gone pretty darn well. Chris is getting along better than anyone had hoped. He is in a limited amount of pain and is getting around the house like a super star which involves a staircase too. It has definitely taken some adjustment on both our parts but such is life right? I do have to be careful not to leave things laying around the house that would impede his progression from one area of the house to the other....unless I want to be evil that is!
Chris has done everything he should according to the doctors orders. That included elevating his leg for an entire 4 days right out of surgery with trips off the couch only limited to extremely necessary trips. Those 4 days weren't hunky dory for either of us but we got through it. We have given him a little backpack too that he gets to carry around on his back so that he can transport things around the house. It is hard to transport stuff when you are holding on for dear life to crutches!
But for whatever reason, I have been absolutely exhausted lately and have been taking some serious down time to let my body catch up with my ever changing life. That doesn't mean I haven't been riding though!
Oh and I had a first today on my bike. There was this little cute white dog with a tee shirt on in the middle of the road and when he saw me he was the happiest dog ever. It was as though I were its owner getting home finally. Then after he ran up to me all cute like, he started running along side me. He was so happy and so cute. But to not get attacked and barked at by a dog and instead have a happy little one be so excited to see me was a true first!
It has been nice weather wise around here but it's weird because I have never been here during the spring because I am always gone racing. So to hear rain hitting the roof of the house I am in shock! I didn't know it rained that much here ever and had to ask Chris what that noise was!
Windy day in Heber. Deer Creek Reservoir looked like it had white caps in it!!
Good news with my mom too. She has SO far been able to fight off this last bout of the infection that keeps returning. Keep crossing your fingers on this one because if she can keep this infection at bay and not let it come back a 6th time she will get to go back on her rheumatoid arthritis treatments which will give her her life back. But despite that, my tough ole mom sounds better and is better. She is still a tiny little thing but she is eating and has an appetite again thank heavens.
Oh and I finally got the car unpacked from our CA/Santa Barbara trip just yesterday. It was filled to the brim with things stuffed under the seats and I had to unload it all myself since Chris couldn't help. So I picked at it over these last few weeks and finally took the last thing out of there yesterday if you can believe that.
On that note, it may have been a real good thing that we had to leave Santa Barbara (4 weeks early!) because Chris needed surgery. Those fires there sound terrible and I know that our buddies house where we were staying was SUPER close to the northern evacuation line. That would not have been pleasant time and we may have found ourselves evacuated and drivng to Heber anyway right now!
So the Sherwin's are coming along and getting along and I am going to leave this post at that.
Checking in. Man, this place looks all too familiar! Chris just had to copy me didn't he?
And with Chris being the Chris that he is.....he decided to lay UPSIDE down in the bed. All the nurses and doctors that came in were like "WHAT!?" Apparently they have never had a patient do that. Chris was only trying to elevate his leg while waiting for all the pin pricks, stabs and questions.
Chris in his OR gown ready to rumble. I think that style of wear looks great on him!
Once they wheeled him into surgery I headed to Costco to load up on the fruits and veggies. All the doctors and nurses were surprised by that too; they assumed I was going to be waiting outside the OR for him. Or not!! I gots things to do people! Plus when Chris dumped me off for surgery back in July he went and a taught a Spanish class. Payback is rough sometimes! Ha ha!
The surgery was short and sweet. Think the doctor knocked it out in about an hour and everything went super well and as expected. The deltoid ligament did NOT have to be sewn back on either as it went into place on its own.
Chris was pretty out of it afterwards as you can see from the placement of the straw. : )
Afterwards Chris hoarded all the Fig Newtons they offered him as he had not eaten since the night before and it was now 5pm. He was super psyched to go to Cafe Rio and get a big ole gut bomb burrito and all the nurses begged us not to do that. They said that it was a bad idea as the stomach can suddenly revolt. Whatever, we did it anyway and Chris was fine. Hells bells, I walked out of surgery and went to freaking Quiznos for goodness sake. Ate the whole thing too and was hungry later even.
Everything was fine and dandy with his surgery and now........let the healing begin.
After the race yesterday I went back to our buddies place in Santa Barbara and prepared myself for the lovely task of packing our entire car up full of 2 bikes, 3 boards, cooler, 4 kites and what seemed like 1000's of other items to include luggage - all IN the car. We had enough stuff for the 4-5 weeks we were going to be gone and after 2 hours of packing I still wasn't done. Eeek.
I left the rest of the packing for the morning, hit Trader Joes on the way out and started my journey back to Utah.
Chris had his consult today and they scheduled his surgery for tomorrow which meant I really needed to boogie home.
Turns out Chris did more than everyone thought he did after the Ankle Surgeon took more x-rays. Isn't that always the case though? We kind of expected the doctor to find more actually. So he has one good break in his fibula (NOT your shin bone) a piece of bone that popped off near the deltoid ligament (near ankle) and a deltoid ligament that was all wrapped and bundled up disattached from the bone (part of the reason Chris's ankle was just hanging there). Ooooooh yuck!!!
The outlook for Chris is 4 days after surgery to elevate, ice and move only if the house is on fire. Then 2 months of non weight bearing where he will be on crutches. Then at 3.5 months have another surgery to remove the screw that they will stick across the tib/fib bone tomorrow. Plates and screws for the fibula are necessary as well. The doctor is hoping that by getting all the bones back in place and essentially pulling traction on them that the deltoid ligament will snap back into its spot and that he won't have to suture that onto the bone. Ooooooh yuck!!
Chris is looking at 6 months until he is back on the water and/or snow as his strong self again. Wow, that is not a short amount of time but we will work through it.
I got home from Santa Barbara in 11 hours and 8 minutes total including stops. Things are always a race for me...googlemaps said it would take me 11hr 45 minutes with no stops so I had to beat that time of course!. And my time was even with 25 minutes stuck in Vegas construction on I-15 going 20 mph! Yeah, I wasn't going slow but I made it home safe.
Thought this semi that I saw today was pretty funny. After driving so long it kind of messed with my head when I saw it.
Welcome to the wonderful world of being a pro cyclist. Well, I take that back...sometimes it is a wonderful world but sometimes it's not so much and that is what this blog is about: The good, the bad and the just plain ugly of being a pro cyclist.
