Shoulder Update

Posted August 30th, 2010 by mike

Well, things haven’t gotten much better around here lately.

I went to the Doctor on Friday for annual physical, and while i Was there, told him to poke around on the arm to see what he thinks. After a little of the “ok, do this, lift that, push on this” type stuff, and a little movement tests, he feels like it is a rotator cuff that has gone bad.

My options: rest it for a week then either do some solid physical therapy or head right to the orthopedic surgeon and see what he has to say. He feels that if I get myself all hopped up on some cortisone shots, I could make the rest of the racing with it the way it is..

So, that was on Friday. I did a nice, easy mtb ride on Friday night and all went well. No major pains, I was able to ride and things went well. Then I took the rest of the weekend off. I tried to go for a road ride on Saturday night, but 1.5 miles in, I slashed a tired pretty badly, used a zip lock baggy to patch the hole in the tire and limped home. I figured with all that nonsense, no need to head back out. Obviously, I wasn’t “supposed” to be out riding.

Then this morning. With things feeling good and a 12 hour race coming up quick, I felt it was time to start pushing the pedals, so I commuted to work. After about 15 minutes, the shoulder really would hurt when resting my weight on my arms, so pretty much all the time on a road bike. I would take my arm off and ride 1 armed for a couple minutes, then ride 2 armed until the pain was there again.

So that is where I am at….a bunch of pain every time I ride and now, sitting at my desk, worse pain than I has before. Plus, I just sneezed and I almost cried. So with that in mind, I will be calling the ortho surgeon and see what he has to say. And for my legs…..I hate to say this out loud, but it looks like it will be trainerville (shudders) to keep the legs going….ugh.

Philly’s Sports fan’s are spot on.

Posted August 27th, 2010 by mike

This is a Philly Flyers blogger talking about Twitter:

“It’s weird. Athletes on Twitter just say what they do and we gobble it up (@CamJanssen55 being the exception). If you’re no one like us you have to be witty, funny, clever, or at least provide some
news. If I was listing off my activities for the day no one would follow us – sitting at my desk, sitting at my desk, just got a forward from a friend, sitting at my desk, thinking about pooping but need to charge my iPhone so I can play solitaire, sitting at my desk, Tweeting (which = pooping), back at my desk, thinking about leaving but it’s only 11AM, watching YouTube, ???.”

Heh. That really about sums it up.

Still out of commission

Posted August 25th, 2010 by mike

Well, this shoulder has been more of a pain than I ever anticipated it to be. I thought after a couple days, I would wake up and all would be good….Not the case. Actually, the morning is when it hurts the worst.

Usually, I am a side sleeper, or somehow twisted around, but with a bum wing, it has forced me to sleep either 100% flat on my back or 100% flat on my stomach. Not a fan of either. So, even though I am falling asleep on my back or stomach, I must be rolling around like a mad man while in deep slumber, cause it hurts like hell when I wake up. Through out the day, it mellows down, but flairs up from time to time depending on what I am doing.

I was going to head over to the hospital yesterday to get it checked out, but I have a doctor’s appointment for Friday, so I decided to just suck it up and deal with it till then. My thought “no need to spend 2 co-pays at the doctor if I can just get away with one”. I don’t need to stuff the Dr.’s pocket with any more money….

That’s where I am at. Not able to do much, including ride. But, it has been pretty crappy weather, mostly raining, so I am really not missing out on that much. I thought about digging out my trainer, but uttering those words just doesn’t sound right. I figure after this weekend, I should, keeping my fingers crossed, be good to go, depending on what the dr says….If he says no go, then its trainerville…. YAY!!!! because I have 1 more 12 hour race to go and then…..BAM, cross season…..

24 Hours of Great Glen Race Recap

Posted August 17th, 2010 by mike

The 24 Hours of Great Glen…boy where do I start with this race? It’s probably one of my favorites just because of how close it is to my house (about a 30 minute drive) and the fact that my lovely fiance is one of the event coordinators for the race…

Leading up to the race, I really wasn’t as concerned about it as I have been in other years. I am certainly not the most seasoned veteran of 24 hour racing, but I have 5 of them under my belt, so I am no rookie either.. Instead of taking all week to get my gear organized, I waited until Thursday night, checked over my check list and got all my gear piled up in the middle of my living room.

Friday morning, got it all loaded up and drove up to the venue to get settled in. I was about 95% set by noon or so, which is the earliest I have ever been. A quick food fun, some lunch and a nice relaxed lap around the course and then the rest of the day to relax and enjoy some peace and quiet.

Once the cannon fired for the start of the race, it was business as usual with the traditional walk around the pond with the TWAF team instead of running the lemans start. With some expert advice from the TWAF guys a few years ago, they found that walking the lap puts you in the same exact situation as running it and then walking the first hill, which we pretty much did anyway.

The first 5 or so laps were pretty uneventful. Some light cramping around lap 2 or 3 from the extreme heat, but that wasn’t too bad. The next 4 laps were pretty status quo with a quick break for dinner. Everything was going according to plan in terms of my nutrition plan and hydration, except for the heat. By lap 9, I had about 15 bottles of liquid in me, roughly one a lap and one between laps, yet it took me more than 18 hours to have to pee. That was a bit of a concern, but there was nothing much I could do about it. I hung around the pits for a little while to celebrate the completion of Robert’s, my pit-mate, first 12 hour race and a sip of champagne.

The problem with having no pit crew, is once the mind breaks down, the body will soon follow ans thats a tough one to over turn. I had made up my mind, I was done for the night, and there was really no one to push me out of the pits to keep riding my night laps. So, I slept….kinda. Unfortunately, the neutral support crew for the race was quite loud and didn’t really follow the “quiet hours” rule, even after been asked to quiet down on more than one occasion, so I just drifted in and out of sleep listening to loud mouths talk and compressors run all night…not a good time. I guess when the boss of the shop is out racing, the shops rats are free to do as they wish and don’t have to follow the rules.

I finally got out of bed around 6, got some breakfast in me, some dry shorts and I was out on the bike again for more laps. After the little rest, I was turning some quicker times on the laps. I got through about 3 and actually felt good. I was riding more overall and walked less than the previous night and made up well over 45 minutes on the person in front of me pulling myself back into 11. Then it happened. I went down….hard. I laid in the woods for about 5 minutes thinking I broke my collarbone..but I could still move it. I figured if I could still move it, then it wasn’t broken. I haven’t broken many bones in my life, but from all I have read and seen, if you break a collarbone, there is no if, ands, or buts about it, you know it happened. No questions asked. So, I got up after a little, dusted myself off, and continued on my way. My thought was if I can make the rest of the lap, I should be ok, at least enough to walk the entire last lap. Surprisingly, I rode the rest, with some pain.

I got back to the pits, waited for about 30 minutes and knew I had to go out again for my last lap and be on course at noon. If not, I knew I would DNF. Carl, from the Red Jersey was coming through for his last lap, so we went out together, both expecting to take it wicked slow. We had 1.5 hours to complete the lap, and we were going to make sure it would take us that 1.5 hours…

By about 11:50, we rolled back to the start line, stood around for the 10 or so minutes until the cannon went off and strolled across the line.

Over all, I did 13 laps in the 24 hours, a bit shy of what I wanted. My original goal was to just ride for the 24 hours hours, not caring on lap total. But, with out a pit crew to just push me out the door, I was weak mentally and slept. Its pretty amazing how once the mind quits, the body quickly follows. Over all, I give my physical prep about a B, B+, as there weren’t any issues there, but mentally, about a C-. It is tough to turn it around mentally once you shift in one direction…Either way, a good showing and time to start thinking about next year.

Some images from the race:

Pre Race smiles

Racing Hard

Dropping into the Plunge

Laying the smack down on Sven, racing for the dismount area.  Ok, we weren’t really racing, just soft pedaling that section, but I still beat him.

Fueling up between laps

Leaving on the last lap

Finishing up the race with beer in hand

What’s on tap now??  Just recovering up, especially my shoulder, and then the Bradbury 12 followed up by some cross racing…

**Photos were taken by both Dennis Morgan and The Vines

Nutrition Store Front

Posted July 7th, 2010 by mike

So, what to we have here? A new page on the side?? You betcha..

As part of Precision Endurance, the coaching company I am in the middle of forming, I have also become a nutritional supply company for said athletes. Along with those athletes, I am opening up the sales to everyone and anyone. So, feel free to take a gander at what I have going on and purchase some stuff up..

Just so everyone knows, that is the rough, and I say EXTREMELY rough store front that I have going right now. It is all the products that I am stocking and able to stock. I am currently working on making an actual, usable store front, but that will take some time. What this is, Google makes for you super quick, and allows it to just be placed in spots. So, feel free to use it at is it 100% functional and I am working around the clock to get things updated a more professional store front…

As for shipping, 75 bucks and under is 5.95, over 75 is free…not a bad deal there at all. Feel free to use the coupon code “blogatron” for a 10% discount on your first purchase…

For groups and teams out there, feel free to contact me, as there are group/team discounts available.

I’m outta here

Posted June 22nd, 2010 by mike

Tomorrow is as big day. I’m headed out to Seattle for the Full Speed Ahead’s distributors meeting. It should be a good time as I get to see all of their new product. You know what that means? A big wish list for next year. Plus, I have never been to Seattle, so I’m pretty excited about that.

I’m going to try and take as many photos as I possibly can, so pay close attention to my twitter account as that its where I’m going to post them.

Any one actually remember this blog?

Posted June 21st, 2010 by mike

Wow, it seems as if this thing still works. Who would have thunk it?

Sure, I still want to post to this blog, but there have been times I have been busy, VERY busy.

First and foremost, training. That always takes first priority when I have free time. Things have been going just ok on that side. I had a SUPER strong April. I believe that had to do with only having 1 car in the family, and it was much easier for me to commute by bike than it is for the Misses…So, I racked up a ton of miles and killer training time.

Then May came and things dwindled down a little. I went and did 2 races, one hill climb and one time trial and feel things were progressing as well as they needed to be for this time of the year. With both races, it was pretty much an all out effort for about an hours worth of time. Something that will matter later come cyclocross season, but doesn’t do much for the endurance season. Then, a few injuries came about. A pretty torn up ankle (that I am still having problems with) and also a mysterious leg pain. The Dr thought it had something to do with some exploding veins pooling in muscle compartments and such.

Now June is here and I feel like I am a tad behind where I need to be. It is really hard to tell though due to the duration of my events. It is hard to go out and test run a 24 hour race.. BUT, with Pat’s Peak 24 hour race coming up, that is something that I might be able to do.

I did the Pat’s Peak race last year, and it was a tough one, mostly because of my single speed. It pretty much went up the ski slope, down, across, then up and down again. I think with gears, I would be all set. The nice part about this race is I can do a 6, 12 or 24 hour event…not sure which one I will pick. Only about 3 weeks till race time, so I better get to figuring it out..

The other thing that has kept me busy has been the formation of my coaching/nutritional supply company, Precision Endurance. Currently, I am still working on all the logistics of everything (insurance, logos, graphics, websites, blah blah blah), but it is keeping me busy. Hopefully, things should be up and fully running my mid July..

Thats about all. Hopefully with this post, I can get myself out of the funk of not updating and things can get rolling again. Later this week,I travel to Seattle to check out some new FSA products….so hopefully I should have some pictures of new and good things to come…

Downhill video

Posted April 28th, 2010 by mike

A pretty sweet downhill video I found while out seeing what the interwebs has to offer…


Mondial Du VTT Descente de Venosc caméra embarquée
Uploaded by 103TuRtLe.

Wasting some time..

Posted April 22nd, 2010 by mike

If you are looking to waste about a minute forty today and get a good chuckle out of it…I would suggest watching this clip.

Ahh….the memories of a Saturday football game at college

Who wants to see what I got in my pocket??

Posted April 15th, 2010 by mike

Now that I am full blown commuter mode, I can only carry things to and from work that fit in my back pockets.  Sure, I could carry a pack, but they bother my lower back.  Plus, while trying to do a hard workout, the last thing you want flopping around is a pack.  So, this morning, as I unloaded my pockets, I thought it was kinda odd what I found.

Let’s take a look at the picture..

Ok, what do we have here?  Some of the normal things, my keys to the office, wallet (the little black “Jimi Wallet“), my blackberry, which I used to take the picture, 2 ipods (I was bringing my backup to work in case my battery on my main one dies), bag of oatmeal for breakfast, a bag of fig newtons, and what is that strange brown thing?  Well, stored at work, I have a tiny grill.  The aforementioned bag of brown mass is a raw steak.  Yep, I carry around raw meat with me.  Hey, I need the protein for recovery.  Come lunch time, that baby was cooked perfectly on the grill….now that is some good eating.

Is that the strangest thing I carried with me??  Nope.  Yesterday, I had some raw chicken and a can of creamed corn.

Man, this commuting thing is making me weird…