I made may way to the San Dimas stage race in March, followed by the Redlands Classic.  Phil winning the uphill prologue at San Dimas seemed to make the race pretty straight forward, but things became a little blurry when we woke up the next day to pouring 45 degree rain.  Fortunately the road race that day is a tough one and the field shrunk down to about 50 riders pretty quickly.  I think everyone was relieved at that point but as soon as the madness subsided for a moment, everything went wrong.  We came into a sweeping right hand corner when I heard the squealing and metal-on-metal sounds of a crash about 10 places ahead of me.  Everyone slammed on the breaks, meaning everyone fell instantly on the slippery roads.  I attempted to ride over the pile in front of me but only succeeded in hitting the barricades and flipping over them.  My initial body check was pretty straight forward: left shoulder is dislocated, right calf is badly bruised.  My shoulder, fortunately, popped back in after about a minute.  Ok, it was probably 30 seconds but it sure felt like a minute.  I thought for a moment about continuing on in the race but when my calf made it unreasonable to even walk towards my bike I figured my day was done.

The team ended up keeping yellow that weekend with Andy Jacques-Maynes as well as taking the KOM jersey with Phil.  Not bad at all, but I was incredibly bummed out to have to sit and watch from the sidelines.  Determined to make it right at Redlands, I went out for a hard ride just two days after the crash, and actually felt decent.  I noticed some fleeting headaches the next morning but it was nothing to write home about.  I wrote it off as dehydration.  On Wednesday, the day before starting Redlands, the headaches were bad and becoming very persistent.  I figured I should tell someone.

Our team doctor, Dr. Jason Brayley, works as a sports medicine physician at his practice in California and he was at Redlands to help us out for the week.  After inspecting my helmet I let him know that it was certainly smashed in but didn’t seemed to be cracked.  That could be either a good thing or a bad thing.  After a few discussions and tests he and Frankie decided that it would be best if I sat out of Redlands to avoid further injury.  Definitely not news I wanted to hear but my common sense was telling me that they were probably right.  Plus, it allowed Jim Stemper to fill in for me so I didn’t have to worry, that guy’s an animal.

Phil and the team pulled off a huge victory that week and took home the yellow jersey.  I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t able to be out there with those guys, it was just a headache!  Cyclists are drilled to be able to withstand a huge amount of pain, from road rash to broken bones, it’s all part of the sport.  You crash, you get up, and you keep racing unless completely unable to pedal.  Well, I was able to pedal, I was fine, but Dr. Brayley was persistent in having me not touch my bike.

So I traveled home thinking that I would spend 4 or 5 days off the bike, a week at most, and would get right back to it in time for Battenkill.  Day after day went by with no improvement, just constant headaches.  Concussions are a tricky thing and can last from a few days to a few months.  There’s no cure but to rest, physically and mentally.  That meant no TV, no computer, no reading, nothing at all.  Just lying there trying to get better.

After 10 days off the bike it became clear that Battenkill wasn’t going to happen.  Even if I was better the very next day there was no way I would be in shape to race.  I did try to ride that day, however, but it didn’t go so well.  The headaches got worse and I was back off the bike.

At that point Dr. Brayley and I decided that I should get an MRI, just to rule out any serious issues.  He was somehow able to work his magic and get me in within a day, and the MRI checked out.  We then reached out to a neurologist in Florida, Dr. Daniel Stein, who was kind enough to do a Skype consultation with me.  This ended up being the turning point in this whole mess.  After explaining my symptoms he suggested that the headaches may be from a soft tissue injury, such as nerve damage similar to occipital neuralgia.  While I did have a concussion originally, it seemed the present symptoms were worsened by events that caused trauma to the neck, like bumpy road riding.  Riding hard didn’t make the headaches worse, but the potholes sure did.

With that information in hand I began physical therapy straight away.  Dr. Brayley immediately called a neurologist in the area and got me in for a possible nerve block shot in case the PT was ineffective.  I started with massage, then some acupuncture (not sure if it worked but I now hate needles even more than ever), stretching, and ultrasound.  Within two days the headaches were disappearing and the first thing I did was test myself on a ride.  After a few hours there was definitely some neck pain, but with the knowledge that I wasn’t actually damaging my brain, I couldn’t care less.

I ended up missing two weeks of training and a major goal for the season in Battenkill.  All the while I didn’t know if I would be better the next day or if my season was over.  It was, by far, the most frustrating injury I’ve ever dealt with.  The incredible support by everyone around me is the only thing that got me through.  Daily phone calls from team management, Dr. Brayley, and teammates were always full of reassurance and optimism.  And the daily neck massages from my wife were ok too, I guess.

I was able to get in close to three solid weeks of training before starting the Joe Martin Stage Race and Tour of the Gila.  I had a few good rides before heading out to the races but I knew it would be a rude awakening.  I’m currently at my host house, almost half way through Gila, and it certainly hasn’t been terrible.  It’s very frustrating to be racing below the level that I’m used to but somehow when a teammate needs you to be there for them you forget about being out of shape.  I’ve had to turn myself inside out more than a few times this week but it has always resulted in a podium spot for the team, so that’s helped quite a bit!

The plan is to take a short rest after Gila and come into USPRO back on form.  There’s plenty of racing left this year and my season definitely isn’t over yet.

Tonight they held a meet and greet function where I was able to talk with many of the new riders who weren’t around when I left Sarasota almost 6 years ago.  I always enjoy chatting with club riders and giving out a few training tips when possible, but there’s something special about getting to go back to where it all started in order to do it.

I hope that I was able to help or inspire a few people there tonight and that I can find a way to continually help this club grow in the future.  It’s an amazing group of people and I had a blast getting to catch up with some while meeting others for the first time.  Thanks for everything guys!

Now on to a more important topic: it was about this time last year when it started burning while I peed.  I wish it was a joke!  I started going often and getting some pretty serious pain during and after.  I figured the best way to not go as often was to limit my intake of fluids.  Surprise surprise, that made it worse.  I took a trip to the doctors office and he did some pretty thorough questioning.  It was my first winter spent in the northeast and I had been doing some long training hours outdoors.  When it’s 20 degrees and wet outside you tend not to drink as much, at least in my case.  When the doctor found out that I was going through about 20 oz of fluid every 2-2.5 hours he immediately determined that I was severely dehydrated.

It can sneak up on you if you live in the cold weather, since you’re losing most of your moisture through breathe and evaporation.  These losses don’t make you as thirty but they do remove just as much water from your body as you would experience in hotter weather.  I found it interesting that in Florida, when it was 95 degrees and humid, that I never had a problem with dehydration.  I was drinking a bottle every 45 minutes or so.

So for those of you in the frozen tundra these days, remember to drink20-24 oz every hour on those rare occasions when you get to ride outside.  Otherwise you may just feel the doctor’s cold finger of injustice on your insides.

• Don’t post your training on social media outlets like Twitter of Facebook.  Discussing a group ride or throwing out a general comment is perfectly acceptable, but I can promise nobody cares that you rode 90 miles today at 210 watts and burned 3800 kilojoules.  If you’re seeking approval by your peers you can do it in private (preferably with a coach), but it’s generally pathetic otherwise.  Just remember that no matter how good you are there is always someone better than you, so keep your arrogance to yourself.
• If you are a state champion (crit, road race, or tt) it does not give you the right to pretend that you are a national champion.  You know that jersey they give you during the podium presentation?  It’s a trophy and it belongs in your closet.  If you’re wearing a state champion jersey in a race (or even worse, a group ride) it should automatically give everyone else the right to put you into the curb.  Again, if you are seeking some sort of approval you will not get it with that jersey.  Everyone just thinks your a douche.
• If you live somewhere flat (i.e. Sarasota) it will not benefit you to do bridge repeats.  Nothing screams “I have no idea what I’m doing” like sprinting back and forth over the Ringling bridge.  There are a whole lot of drills that you can do on the flats to train for the hills but a 30 sec bridge sprint is not one of them.
• Please do not track stand at every red light.  If you’re rolling to a light that is about to turn green and want to do a slight pause I think that’s great, but when you’re doing 3min track stands at every light I want to push you over.  Yes, everyone can do it, so don’t be the person obnoxious enough to practice until you slowly roll into oncoming traffic.  Put a foot down, perhaps sit on the top tube, and maybe even chat with the guy next to you.
• If I see another triathlete training with an aero helmet I’m going straight into him and taking everyone down.

Fortunately there are quite a few preventative actions that you can take to help you train through the winter and come into March ready to race.  Here are some that I use every day:

• Sinus rinse.  The neti pot is an old favorite for a lot of people but the most effective rinse comes from the NeilMed spray bottle.  It uses pressure to drive salt water through the nasal cavity, instead of just gravity, and works much better.  Be sure to use it only once or twice a week, not twice daily as the box suggests.  Your nose has a natural mucus that protects against infection and completely removing it is actually counter productive.  You can use the nasal rinse every day if you do get sick, which usually helps quite a bit.
• Salt water.  Gargle warm salt water before bed every night, regardless of how you feel.  Salt water is one of the best preventatives on the market and it’s basically free (except for the little packets that come with the sinus rinse).  One glass provides 3 or 4 gargles and it only take a minute, so no excuses.
• Listerine.  You should probably be using some form of mouth wash anyways, but I’m usually more conscious of it during winter.  The alcohol kills a lot of bacteria that harbors itself in your throat and sinus cavity.  That means you can’t use the less intense  versions, you want the harsh alcohol filled kind.  Just man up and gargle it, it only hurts for a second.
• Anti-Oxidant Drink.  Yes, they taste like crap.  Yes, they are good for you.  I have been using Orac Energy Greens for quite a while and you can see the description here: http://paradiseherbs.com/products/orac-energy-greens/.  Click on Supplement Facts to see the laundry list of things that they’ve ground into powder.  You would be much better off saving your money on those multivitamins and investing in a “super food” mix such as this.  You are already getting plenty of vitamins from your diet, I promise.
• Airborne or Emergen-C.  This isn’t an every day supplement for me but I thought I would add it to the list anyways.  If a lot of co-workers are sick, or my wife is sick, or I feel something coming on, then I’ll add this to my daily routine.  It’s not good to consume so much extra vitamin C for an extended period, but a few days will help when you’re immune system is being attacked.

If you do get sick it is important to take the necessary time away from your schedule training.  Riding very easy for one hour a day until you are 100% better is usually a good plan of action.  Do not dig yourself a hole by trying to train hard through a bad cold.  That usually results in spreading the illness to your chest, taking antibiotics, and being off the bike for weeks.  So just relax and let yourself get better, you won’t lose that much fitness in a week.  By the time race season comes around you’ll be motivated, strong, and healthy with a strong base to build from.

I get to do all of the house projects that I’ve been telling Lindsay I’d get around to for the last year.  Our weekends are actually spent together and could even be called relaxing at times.  Today’s agenda includes relaxing on the deck, sipping coconut water, and going to watch our friends Christina and Alan tie the knot.  They have become great friends of our since moving up to Connecticut and I’m so happy for them!

I have another two weeks of sitting around before I need to get serious again.  I’m usually pacing around the house in anticipation by that point anyways, so it should be fun to get my heart rate up and check that I haven’t reached a comatose state.  I think Lindsay and I are planning to drive down to Florida sometime in December, which is most likely where I’ll stay for some part of the winter.  I can’t wait to visit friends and family, and to be out of the snow for a while.  I’m sure the Connecticut February will give me a rude awakening though!

This year I was back to racing in the pro field with Kenda/5-Hour Energy p/b Geargrinder, with the management and support that lets a rider focus on, well, riding.  It was a ton of fun riding with these guys, and I can say without a doubt that boring moments were few and far between.  From our rousing games of bicycle-horse in a random New Mexican gym to blindly following children through the totallyeasyandstraightforward path through the jungle in order to soak in the Deschutes River, it was always a blast.  We managed to find time for some bike racing too, which was nice!

I was on and off for much of the season, with some good form enabling me to work hard and get into a few breaks.  There were a few decent results here and there until I found myself in the winning move during the final stage of the Cascade Classic.  Winning my first NRC race was a big step for me this year and definitely gave me more confidence going into the end of the season.  It was déjà vu when I found myself in a similar situation two weeks later at the UCI 2.2 Tour of Elk Grove, taking out the win in the road race and placing second overall.  Two big late season wins were the least we could do to pay back our sponsors for all of their support, and I have a feeling that it’s just the beginning for us.

Now the future is looking pretty exciting, as I’ll be leaving my design engineering job at Cannondale to pursue cycling full time.  It’s been an unbelievably hard decision to leave what is possibly the best job in the world, but I simply can’t pass up the opportunity to live my dream.  It also helps that the management team at Cannondale is totally supportive and realizes that I will eventually be back to pick up where I left off.  Whether that’s in 2, 6, or 10 years, they know that I loved being there and I hope that they can find room for me in the future!  Although I wouldn’t be too bummed if it was 10 years from now, since bike racing isn’t a bad gig either!

As of now, I’m taking my off season break a bit earlier than usual.  I took a spill a couple of days ago during training when my chain fell off mid-sprint.  It wasn’t pretty, and it’s left me with a bum shoulder, strained hip flexor, and plenty of road rash.  Instead of trying to fight through it all for a few more weeks of riding, my coach and I decided to pull the plug early and let my body heal normally.  I’ll pick it back up in a month with more motivation than ever, and a long winter of base training ahead of me.  That will give me plenty of time to get ready for 2012, and if I had to pick a goal for next season I think it would be to refocus on my time trialing.  I was stronger than ever this year but it seemed like I could never pull it all together on race day like I did in 2010.  With a bit more time on my hands I fully intend to improve my time trialing more than ever.  Beyond that, I’m sure that racing full time will allow for so many new opportunities, and I can’t wait to take advantage of them as they come.

Fortunately I was motivated to get through January without missing a minute, which meant a lot of 25-30 hours weeks done completely inside.  I remember being devastated if I had to do a rest day inside, for fear of getting stuck in one of Florida’s afternoon flash floods.  As the end of January approached I didn’t know how much more I could take.  At just the right time I found out that Kenda received an invitation to the Tour of California, which gave me more than enough motivation to keep up the long trainer days.  We don’t know who will make up the eight rider selection yet but you better believe that I’ll be training like I’m a shoo-in.

The interesting thing about all of this time on the trainer is that it seems to be working better for me that my winters spent outside.  For the most part it’s an uninterrupted effort, the unnecessary-for-winter anaerobic climbs don’t exist, and the high gear intervals are agonizingly consistent.  On the days where I actually can get outside for a long ride I’ve noticed that the trainer has actually been great for my strength and endurance.  I guess the moral of the story is that if you live in the north you need to suck it up, get on the trainer, hit the weights, and keep up with your training regardless of the weather.  It’ll pay off in the end with mental toughness and probably your best season ever.

Training (assuming you have no follow car to hand you anything fresh or perishable)

• Peanut butter/Nutella/banana on whole wheat toast, quartered and wrapped in foil
• Peanut butter/honey/banana on whole wheat toast, quartered and wrapped in foil
• Whole wheat Fig Newtons
• Oatmeal pies, preferably from a sketchy gas station in the middle of nowhere
• Homemade granola bars with dried fruit.  It’s easier than you think and there are a lot of great recipes online.
• Nature Valley peanut butter granola bars
• Homemade oatmeal cookies with dried cranberries
• Sunbelt granola bars, also from the sketchy gas station for 25 cents a piece

Racing(assuming you have a follow car or a bored spouse in the feed zone)

• Both sandwiches listed above
• Dinner roll with cream cheese jelly
• Cream cheese and ham on whole wheat toast, quartered and wrapped in foil
• Fresh fruit
• Enervit Power Sport bars
• Enervitene Gel
• Enervit GT tablets
• Enervitene Cheer Pack.  Take one 30-45 minutes from the finish and have an out of body experience.

As you can probably tell, race food has much more to do with maximizing nutritional gain and ease of consumption.  There have been plenty of races where all I could get down was a mountain of gels and tablets, which will work well if you don’t have the stomach for solid foods.  Just remember, take food into a race that you enjoy and want to eat.  That super charged energy bar won’t do a thing if it tastes like crap and stays in your pocket.

1. Eat a more while you train. I know this sounds counter intuitive, but hear me out.  How many times have you gone on a long ride, eaten a granola bar about half way through, and then returned home and ripped your kitchen apart while eating everything in sight?  Most likely this has happened at least once.  Binge eating is not only bad for digestion but it’s also bad for your metabolism.  On your next long ride be sure to eat some sort of solid food about 45 minutes in, and then consume something small every 30 minutes or so.  Be sure to take items that you enjoy, not just bland energy bars that you won’t be excited to eat.  If you eat a bite of food often throughout your ride you will not only feel stronger but you will finish your ride without feeling ravenous.  You can then have a recovery drink or something small to eat without putting yourself into a food coma.  I will always remember what a European pro told me when I was 18 and in way over my head: Americans eat half as much as they should on the bike and twice as much as they should off the bike.

2. Eat small and often. This goes hand in hand with the first tip in terms of helping digestion and speeding up metabolism.  As a human being your body is programmed to go into starvation mode after 3 hours without any caloric intake.  That means that if you eat breakfast at 7 AM, by 10AM your body is storing fat for energy use because it doesn’t know how long it will have to dip into those reserves in order to stay alive.  By the time lunch comes around you are so hungry that you eat another large meal and the cycle continues.  Instead, try eating something small every 2 hours in between meals.  Maybe it’s an apple, some carrot sticks, or a granola bar.  Even something small will curb your appetite, allowing you to eat less food at meal times and keep your metabolism running strong throughout the day.  You will most likely not experience the hungry and overly full feelings that you get at meal times, instead being replaced by a consistently satisfied feeling throughout the day.

These tricks will help minimize your body fat throughout winter, but if you still aren’t down to “race weight” by mid February, don’t panic.  You should be cutting the strength training out just prior to your first race, causing you to lose the bulk while keeping most of the strength.  You will be back down to race weight in a few weeks and stronger than ever.