Ankle Allows Road Cycling, But Little Else

What else do I need? Well, I first needed to overcome a pneumonia I caught while laid-up with the injured joint. Then I needed to get back condition I had before I wrenched the thing. The good news is, road cycling is not very stressful to an ankle. So, as I got over the lung infection, and when the weather allowed, I started rebuilding the base of fitness I had lost by riding on the road. However, it was like losing two to three months of training and starting over from that point.

Base miles without intervals were done on the Lemond cyclocross bike at first. With Donna and solo, I did rides of 20 to 30 miles. Due to work commitments, much (too much) of the riding had to come on weekends. So, at first a 50-mile weekend, followed by a 65-mile weekend, etc. I did manage to get in a least one ride of 20 to 40 miles in the middle of the weeks.

Riders passing horse farms in Saratoga Springs, NY. McMahon's is the birthplace of Funnycide and a good Cargill customer.

With early season racing out of the question, I focused on training for my annual Team Guerrilla Road Ride Alternate Plan B (TGRRAPB) ride, which occurs every Memorial Weekend Saturday. Eventually I worked into longer rides and did some interval training on hills and long tempo runs. A 53-mile, 3500 feet of elevation gain Bruce Ride, "Balloon Festival Preview," was a good warm-up the weekend before. There were a dozen riders and I was one of the slowest, especially on the climbs. My ankle swelled up the last half of the ride, so much so, that Art and Bruce noticed it readily.

Copious icing and continued therapy with Keith Donato resulted in a good recovery. In fact, I think the stress it was placed under force greater progress. I did one good 30-miler during the week out in Cazanovia Lake, which included a great 9 mile climb from Cheenego to Cazanovia on little-traveled Route 13. The short stretch past the Falls is steep. I am packing the Lemond in the back of the Subaru as a travel bike these days to save my Cannondale from getting dinged and it makes a better training ride on the heavier bike. Since I have put the Cane Creek wheels on the Lemond, it is great fun to ride on the road.

Saturday of the big ride and I felt ready to not be too embarrassed. It was a glorious Adirondack day with temperatures in the high 50's, some clouds and a good 15 MPH breeze from the north, which would provide a tailwind on the last half of the 65-mile, 5000-foot ride. Twenty people showed up and we were off to do the most serious climbs, which come in the first third of the ride. Before the first real climb comes the screaming descent down to Diamond Point on Lake George. I hit 51 MPH and passed nearly all the riders that dropped me on the first little climb. I think I passed Bruce going 20 to 30 MPH faster than he was going.

I was not totally embarrassed on the big climbs, but was definitely towards the back of the pack. It was fun to get into the rhythm of the climbs that I now know so well. After the long and fast decent down to Schroon River (50 MPH), it was paceline time on the flat section along the river. I kept into the line-up for most of the long paceline, coming to the front towards the junction of Rt. 8. After the rollers and the stop at Adirondack, it was an easy ride toward the back of the group the rest of the way home. The tailwind helped and my base building paid off. No cramps or fatigue and my ankle held up very well.

Little to no swelling of the ankle and a rapid recovery of the legs were signs that I am ready to start riding like I want to now. Bruce is leading a Tour-paced ride the next day and Donna and I decide to do it. This is a joint club ride with a group from Long Island that Bruce does every year. We will have the option of going slower if needed, since the LI riders are more used to flat lands and a slower 16 MPH pace. Turned out we did not need to have the company of the slow riders. We felt good enough to go faster and there were enough local riders that usually go with Bruce and keep the pace at 18 to 19 MPH to keep us company. The ride was from Saratoga Springs to the Battlefield - one loop of the Battlefield (10.5 miles) and then back. I paced a group back from the Battlefield and it was fun to pick off riders that started ahead of us, or took short cuts around the climbs. My paceline always had Donna on my wheel and we picked up and dropped riders as we made our way back past the scenic, rolling horse and dairy farm scenes that make Saratoga the destination it is.

The Sunday of Memorial Day weekend found us ready to take an easy day. So, we drove up to Newcomb in the Adirondacks and rode the mountain bikes into Camp Santanoni. It was a short 5 mile ride into the Camp on a dirt road. The Great Camp is being restored and is on a beautiful setting next to the lake. We were chased out by some rain and took a nap at a Tauhus trailhead on the way home.

Long post, but it has been awhile since I felt like writing. The ankle still hampers walking and hiking. Too much time has been spent on the recliner with ice on my ankle, but now I am ready to get into better shape and do the riding I love to do.

Ankle Becomes Anchor

Ankle is not recovering as quickly as anticipated. Great weather and opportunities for riding and racing are passing by while I am immobilized.

Pictures in the previous blog entry show the ankle the day after the event. One week later and it still looked and felt the same. The week following the injury I drove Donna's car across NY doing customer meetings until returning on Friday. I sat down in front of most audiences, so I minimized the swelling as much as possible. But, it was not looking good at the end of the week. On the weekend I had it elevated and iced both days. By Sunday night it was still looking pretty much as it was the day after. I decided to cancel a scheduled trip to Maine. The 6+ hour ride in the car each way, plus doing the meetings on a farm, was not going to help.

I got an appointment with a orthopedic PA and after his exam and more X-Rays, I was in a removable walking cast. He said it would take about six weeks to get the significant soft tissue (ligaments, tendons, muscle) to heal properly. With the cast I can walk (gimp) around without doing more damage. I still need to elevate and ice as much as possible. So, I sent out notice that I will not be going to farms and traveling as little as possible to do meetings and then only in hotel meeting rooms.

Around this same time I got an eMail from the organizers of the Tour of Battenkill race. My waiting list status for the Cat 5 +45 division has been elevated, so I can now register for the race. Great! Just as I became eligible to ride in the largest bicycle race in the US, held right outside my door in just a few weeks, I became UNABLE to ride! Also, the weather has been clear and sunny and warmer so both the snowboarding conditions on Killington and the road riding conditions at home have become spectacular.

Training for, and riding in, California in February was supposed to get and keep me fitter over the winter, along with regular spinning and snowboarding. It worked, I am in good shape. But now the challenge is to maintain the condition I have as best I can. I have been doing callistetics, weights and even rode on the mountain bike while Donna ran. It will not be ideal, but I will work at it so when the anchor comes off, I will be ready to set sail and ride.

Easter Sunday Snowboard Session Turns Ugly

With family away for the Holiday, Easter was a day Donna and I could enjoy snowboarding together at Killington and take advantage of my Season Pass reduced price for her ticket. Besides, it was a wintery beautiful day - cold but bright sunshine and no wind, so what better way to have fun? We packed early and suited up for a cold day on the mountain. The temperature at the top of Killington, after the ride up K-1 Gondola, was 9 above, but absolutely no wind. The snow conditions were hard-packed and fast, some ice, but not where they had groomed -- and they had groomed over 80 trails the night before.

I guided us over to Bear Mountain where the morning sun would be softening up the hard-packed, groomed trails. We followed Great Eastern over which was a good way to warm up and then headed down some blue trails towards the lodge. The crowds were thin, the snow and weather good - it was going to be a great day. We rode the chair up to the top of Skye and started down. I got into making hard, on-my-edge turns and was loving it. Donna was a little nervous about going down this one as it was steeper at the top. So, I started to think about coming to a stop to check on her and all of a sudden - as I transitioned from a heel-side turn to a toe-side turn, the back of my board hit a bump I did not see. I tipped forward as I was coming down on my toe side edge. I did not think it was going to be a big deal, but my front foot and ankle was being jammed forward inside my snug boots with unbelievable pressure. I felt pain on both sides of my ankle and heard crunching noises coming out of my front boot! I rolled over to take the pressure off my ankle and came to a sliding stop on the hill.

Donna rode by me and slowed down. She saw me fall, but it didn't look like anything. I took a few minutes to gather myself, then stood and tested the front foot. Not good. I knew it was going to be bad. I was still in disbelief, though. I made my way down the rest of the run going very carefully, especially on the toe side turns. I didn't say anything to Donna, so we rode back up to the top of Skye. I knew I had to get back over to the car at the base of Killington. We were both cold already, so I said let's go back to the Killington Lodge. We took the runs that got us there, and I was hurting more and more. We went down an icy, ungroomed trail and got to the lodge.

As we walked into the Lodge, I said to Donna - here's the deal: I am done! I explained briefly my problem and she went outside to bring back a baggy of snow and I started to take my boots off. Once the boot was off - which was the most pain I have felt in awhile, I propped the foot up and iced it down while Donna went to get the car. I hobbled into the car and we went straight to the Emergency Room at Rutland Hospital. They are experienced in this sort of thing, and even on Easter Sunday, had my under an X-Ray in about 30 minutes. Nothing broken, so home I went with an Ace Bandage, Ibuprofen and ice.

Did I mention, Ugly! --->

Monday I had to take off for a week of doing talks across the state that would end on Friday near Niagara Falls. Needless to say, it was not easy to keep it Rested Iced Compressed and Elevated. But I did the best I could. Donna and I switched vehicles since I could not depress the clutch of the Subaru.

Today I am making up for the mistreatment of the week and heating and icing as well as resting and elevating. Hopefully, I can get it recovered and still get in another day or two of snowboarding and also get a good start to the biking season. It is killing me today, as conditions up on the mountain are ideal again. We had 8 inches of snow! Also, the conditioning I had gained by training for and riding in California in February will whither away as I recover. Part of the price of getting out there and pushing the limits is having to spend some time recovering.