Yesterday I got a lot accomplished, I guess. I like to multi-task and that is pretty much what I did all day. The results didn’t turn out as good as I had hoped, but it could be worse.

First of all, I drove my Honda Insight over to downtown Denver to have a new hybrid battery installed. That part went pretty well. It was supposed to take around 2 hours and it took closer to 3, but that was fine. During the waiting period, I had my bike with me and I rode over to a coffee shop and tried to get a hip x-ray scheduled. That took a while. I had an order for an x-ray, but it seems that most places have rules about walk-ins. I finally got ahold of a nice woman over at Cherry Creek Imagines and she said no problem.

So, I rode over there and it didn’t take any time at all. Maybe 20 minutes total. I left with a disc of the x-rays. I then rode back to the car repair shop and they needed another hour, so I went for a ride. I just rode on a bike path up along the Platte River past Commerce City. I am really good at riding bike paths now. I’ve done it more here than I have ever in my life. The flat bike paths, along waterways, are very good for not climbing.

So, I had nearly 30 miles by the time the car was fixed. I drove the car back to Vincent’s in Arvada and got over 60 mpg, so the battery helped a ton. Then Vincent spent a half hour trying to open the x-ray. It takes special software, which I don’t understand. Eventually Vincent got the 3 images to open. It didn’t look so good to me. My hip seemed to be pretty healed, but there is a knob at the top of the hip that seemed to of moved. I remembered asking my doctor in Iowa about that a month ago and he said that they don’t mess with that and it would heal itself.

So I was stressed and sent off a few pictures to my Iowa guy, Matt, and Stacie from Louisville. I didn’t hear back for a little while, so Vincent and I rode over to Golden to spin. Eventually Matt texted me back and said what he had said before, that he wouldn’t fix it and that I’m going to limp around for a while longer because of it. My hip has hurt a lot recently. Like enough I can’t sleep again. That is why I got the x-ray to start with. I guess I’m glad it isn’t something worse, but am bummed that the knob, (officially tip of the greater trochanter) moved over. I guess it’s never going to be in the right place. Seems like there should be some bone glue to just stick it back into place.

Anyway, it is what it is. I’m broken still. I guess I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. The doctor said that my hip abductors insert in that area, but “the bone is NO way structural or compromises the integrity or repair of the hip”. That is good. It doesn’t help with the sleep, or walking, or riding, but it is good.

I’m going to drive up to Steamboat Springs pretty soon. Guess I’m going to try to ride with Kent and Katie. I hope they can find a flat road to ride on there. Hint, hint. I climb pitifully, at best now.

Original x-ray.

Picture now.

Close up.

Honda hybrid battery area.

Pretty good mileage so far.

Text from Matt.

Last weekend, I kind of just limped around friends as they did fun stuff around the state of Colorado. I ended up in Winter Park at the Colorado Freeride Festival. I thought I was just going up there to watch Bill and Vincent race an x-country MTB race from Frazier to Winter Park. Little did I know that there was a leg of the Enduro World Series being held, along with a ton of other stuff.

I realized when we got there, right around 7 am, that the race venue was way bigger than a local MTB race. There were way too many team support and factory trucks for a local event. The venue was sort of abandoned before 8 am, then guys started rolling by. I went over to a Redbull tent and they were starting a morning session of the enduro. Virtually all the guys there were speaking a foreign language. That is when I figured out that the race was big.

There are two events of the Enduro World Series held in North America. In Winter Park last weekend, and then in British Columbia in August. I really didn’t get to see any of the racing, it was all up on the mountain and definitely not accessable by a gimp like me.

Pretty soon, people started showing up. I knew a lot of guys there. I saw Scott Daubert, from Trek, Steve Blick, Oakley, Joe Parkin, Bike Magazine, Brad Cole, Niner, and a ton more. One of my favorite guys I ran into was Jesse Gascon, from Shimano. I hardly ever see Jesse anymore. He used to travel the MTB circuit when that was my full time gig, but now I think he’s flying back and forth to Asia more than attending races. It was nice catching up a little.

The best part of the day for me was watching those guys on Slopestyle. That sport is insane. I have no idea how you get to the point of being able to ride that course, but it would take me years to get to the point of just going down it, let alone throwing tricks off the jumps. It was amazing. Check out the video at the bottom of the page. It is from Martin Söderström, who finished 2nd. Nuts.

I realized how little I know about these aspects of the sport. I couldn’t even tell you which event a rider was competing in by looking at their bikes. That is disturbing to me. Really far removed. Most of the guys I listed above were at the event just checking it out, not working in a official capacity. They were just trying to get a read on what the sport is all about and where it might be heading. It didn’t have the vibe of a 90′s World Cup, but it was much better than any x-country race I’ve been to in the US the last decade.

Anyway, Vincent won the expert class of the x-country. Bill finished 11th, which was pretty good considering the altitude. Brian ended up 14th at Mt. Evans, riding 1:56, so that was a good race for him. He and Bill should be acclimated for Leadville in two weeks. Don Sutton finished Mt. Evan in 2:18 or so. Pretty good ride too.

I did get to ride 35 miles on Sunday with Bill and Vincent. My hip is feeling all weird, so I’m going to try to get a x-ray done today to put my mind at ease. I have to take my Insight over to downtown Denver to get a new IMA battery put in. I’m excited to see how much different it drives.

Lisa, Vincent’s wife, is 9 months pregnant, so she is due any day. She actually asked me yesterday to start my timer on my phone. I didn’t have any idea what she was timing until I looked over. She was timing contractions. They headed over to the hospital, but it was a false alarm. But, anytime now.

I’m going to head up to Steamboat Springs to hang with Kent Eriksen and Katie, either later today, or tomorrow. Kind of depends on the car and hip deal. They just rode the Laramie Enduro on Saturday. They rode a tandem, and won, of course. Kent is the most amazing athlete for a guy that doesn’t ride nearly as much as he’d like. I think he has less than 500 miles for the year, and that might be really generous. Katie must be fit and made up for his form.

The Tour? It’s over. I can’t say I really am going to miss it. I wasn’t that into it this year. I’m not sure why. Too many guys falling down I think. Whatever the reason, I didn’t wake up this morning missing the race like I have previous years.

Trudi drove to Park City yesterday and had dinner with Cadel Evans. He’s here just for Tour of Utah, not the Pro Challenge. I think he has been at altitude for a week, so I bet he rides pretty good in Utah. Trudi said he was super relaxed and very entertaining last night. Cadel can get pretty intense. I think he rides better when he is relaxed and carefree. Don’t we all.

These guys are super talented. Just another aspect of the sport.

Trudi took this picture of me taking a picture. It’s hard to show how high they are.

Vincent, Bill, Trent Newcomer and I sitting after the race. Adam Craig stopped by to talk a little.

I was dressed prefectly for the Slopestyle. This was the kit of choice, jeans and a t-shirt.

Joe Parkin.

This is Jesse from Shimano. A super nice guy and friend.

Bromont got tired by mid-day on Saturday. He used my shoe for a pillow.

I cleaned up my Insight for the new battery and then washed Lisa’s Element too.

Trying to use as little water as possible.

Lisa hanging on Sunday morning, me timing, Jack, the dog, being a loyal friend.

Tandem results. Pretty long time on the bike.

We got up at the crack today to head up to Winter Park for a MTB race. I’m not exactly sure what the race is, but Vincent and Bill are racing. It starts at 10 am, so we’re leaving in just a few minutes, 6:30 ish. Trent Newcomer, the vet I took Bromont to up in Fort Collins, is also doing the race, so we’re just gonna meet him up there.

Today is also the Mt. Evans Hillclimb. My other team mate, Brian Jensen, is doing that. He just won a road race in Salida, CO last weekend. He and Bill are staying out here until Leadville in a couple weeks. Brian works for our sponsor, TradeWind Energy, and can work remotely from here. Also, it turns out, my friend Don Sutton, from La Jolla, flew out yesterday and is going to race Mt. Evans. Then he’s going to do a credit card tour up to Breckenridge, then over to Winter Park, over Trail Ridge (the highest continuous paved road in the United States), then to Estes Park and back to Idaho Springs. I think that is what he told me. I wish I could ride with him some, but I’m not hardly up to it.

Hopefully we’ll all meet up later this afternoon in Idaho Springs and get a chance to catch up.

I’ve ridden everyday since I got out here, but am not bringing a bike today. I plan to get an x-ray soon, probably Monday. I’ve been hobbling around the last couple days and my hip is aching pretty good at night. It would put my mind at ease just knowing everything is aligned correctly and healing properly.

Thursday we did a urban ride around Denver. It was pretty fun and just about the only ride I can do. We rode 50 miles, mainly on bike paths. I am having a new IMA battery built to put into my Honday Insight and wanted to check out the shop that is doing it. It’s just a little North of downtown, on York Street, it a pretty industrial area. The guy there, Eric, seemed nice enough and he took Vincent, Bill and I back to his battery assembling place to see what they do.

The new battery is going to be 8 amp/hours and much lesss resistance that the original battery. I sort of kicked around taking it apart myself and repairing it, but decided that I’m going to keep the car for a long while and might as well put in a much better and stronger battery. It is nice having a car to do errands in around town that gets close to 60 mpg. The original battery is completely dead and I still got 41 mpg coming out here, but the engine is only 1000 cc, so it lags pretty seriously without the electric assist.

We watched the 30 on 30 thing last night on the duel between LeMond and Hinault in ’85 and ’86. Slaying the Badger was its name. You can get it on Apple TV is you missed it last week. It was pretty good. I should probably do a post on it. I was just one degree of separation away from that whole mess. It didn’t seem like such a big deal at the time. A few weeks later, at the Coor’s Classic, it didn’t seem like LeMond had any trouble helping Bernard win.

Okay, I’m bikeless today. Hopefully my hip will quit hurting so badly. I plan to walk with a cane, all day, to take some pressure off of it. I’m getting pretty sick of the whole thing. I realize that it is going super fast for an injury like this, but it’s not nearly fast enough for my liking.

It’s been raining for an hour or so every night here in Arvada. Yesterday, this was the result. Super beautiful.

We rode over to Golden yesterday for coffee. Then headed up the bike path. Lots of people tubing and using the creek for recreation.

These guys stopped this girl for letting her dog walk into creek without its leash. There are signs everywhere, but the one ranger was super rude. I saw them approach here and the first thing he said to her before anything else was, “We are you going?” I’m sure she had no idea what they wanted. They they said they needed her ID. I didn’t like it at all.

Bill, Vincent and Trudi riding on Thursday.

Bike path by an amusement park somewhere near downtown Denver.

A Honday Insight battery at the shop.

We went over and drove some Sprinter vans in Westminister yesterday. Really quiet. Pretty exactly opposite of a Honda Insight. About 10X more than I paid for my Ford diesel van, but it is very much nicer.

If you watched today’s stage of the Tour de France you’d see how many riders flatted in the rain. This is a pretty common occurrence in the sport. On the road, and off-road.

I used to think that the flats were more prevalent because that the water allowed small pieces of sand, glass, etc., to stick to the tire and it got driven into the tread/casing by the pressures between the tire and the road.

But, that isn’t the case. I was talking to Steve White, the head guy from Michlein tires a few years ago and Steve told me that the reason there are so many flats in the rain is that the water acts as a lubricate and allows the slicing of the tire.

He told me a story about working at a race track and that they used to cut car tires in half to use as protection barriers in the corners. He said that if you took a super sharp blade and tried to cut through a dry tire, you’d get nowhere, but if you added water, it would slice through like butter.

I’d never thought about that, but it instantly made sense. I tried it a little while later with an old, worn out, MTB tire and he was exactly right. No wonder it is so easy to get a sidewall cut on a MTB tire on rocks when it is mucky and wet out.

I tend to wipe my tires off with my hands when I’m racing tubulars in the rain. A small piece of sand can cause a flat in no time.

Anyway, just a little fun fact for the day.

Michlein patented this to test the grip capacity of their tires in the wet. I would like this job. I could give them some pointers about corning in the wet. This picture makes it look like they could use some help.

I’ve been thinking a bit about breaking my hip from falling at 12 mph in a wet corner. I honestly didn’t think it was possible for that to happen. I’ve fallen on my hips more times than I’d like to think about and nearly every one of those other times I was going more than twice, to three times, as fast.

Honestly, I think the lack of speed and abruptness of the fall was the reason it broke. It’s not like I hit my hip on the road. The bone is way deep in my upper thigh. It is that my lower leg hit the ground and leveraged that force on my bone and it broke above the femur. The speed I hit the pavement, because of the lack of fiction from water, really added to the whole outcome. The same as the first week in the Tour, lots of crashes and broken things because of water.

I used to think that collarbones and separated shoulder were the most common injuries in cycling. After crashing and posting it here, I couldn’t believe how many different people contacted me and sent me x-rays of their breaks. I’m rethinking it now.

One reason that I think more bones are breaking in the sport is because our bikes aren’t connected to us when we hit the ground. When we were securely connected to our bikes, thru toe straps, our bikes took a certain amount of the force. I have lots of recent videos of myself crashing and in everyone, I’ve twisted my feet, trying to avoid the crash, enough, to unclip my pedals. So, my bike get launched away from me before I hit the pave.

You might not think that rubbing your pedal quil on the ground would take that much force, but they did. Also our handlebars. Any force that our bikes absorb hitting the ground is energy that doesn’t go into our bodies, thus it is less likely to get injured as badly.

Anyway, I’m not trading in my clipless pedals for the sake of safety. But, it might take me a while to get comfortable again, taking a left hand corner in the rain.

I’m hopefully going to get another x-ray today or tomorrow to see how this is healing. It’s been 8 weeks now.

Toe clips and straps worked pretty well back in the day. I snagged this picture off eBay. I wonder if the guy selling these knows he put the straps on in reverse.

Kind of in a rush here. I have a 5 pm appointment in Ft. Collins for Bromont with Trent Newcomer. Bromont is now in an arthritis study for the next month, so he’s gonna have to be doing periodical visits there. He doesn’t have super bad arthritis, but I want to make sure he’s doing as well as possible. He’s 11 now.

It is about time to get the hell out of Dodge. It is super hot here in Kansas. I’m not sure what the official high was yesterday here in Topeka, but my Garmin was reading up to 107 when I rode yesterday afternoon.

And yesterday afternoon, I pulled “a Catherine” and completely fell apart. I rode 20 something miles feeling alright, but when I got back to Topeka, the last three miles, I could only ride about 13mph. It was super ugly.

I finally made it to town and went by a local hospital to visit Dennis Weinbeck, a local that crashed last week and broke himself up pretty good. 8 broken ribs, collapsed lung, and broken scapula or something like that. He was doing alright until a couple days ago when he had to check back with blood clots in his lungs. I have no idea why they didn’t give him blood thinner when he was brought in so smashed? Anyway, Dennis was doing way better and it was a good visit.

Trudi is flying into Denver this afternoon, so she’ll be at Vincent’s tonight. Bill is driving later and picking her up at the airport, since Bromont’s appointment is at the same time she lands.

Okay, I need to get going.

Dennis feeling a lot better in the hospital.

Pretty crazy hot yesterday here in Kansas.

Bromont likes to find the shade on his “walks”.

Yesterday was the normal Monday night group ride from our house. I think there were about 10 people. It was the first real group ride I’ve went on since breaking my hip. I am not good at changing pace. I don’t have any ability to do it, for one, and it hurts to make the transition from sitting to standing. And in reality, every hill is a change of pace if the speed stays constant.

Anyway, this isn’t about me and my very slow road to recovery. It is about riding in the heat. I’ve written about how I don’t like heat. I’ve been having some luck dealing with it the last couple years, but going out and mid-day and riding super slow in it for hours. But, when the needle is above 95 or so, I need to pay special attention to it for sure.

Catherine (Walberg) came back to Topeka over the weekend, so she was on the ride. She is living on Bainbridge Island, in Washington, where the high temperatures, until just very recently, are in the mid 60′s, at best. So, yesterday, when it was nearly 100 degrees, she was worried about it. And rightfully so. It was 40 degrees, or more, than any temperature she has trained in this year.

We started out and she took just a couple pulls and then sat on. She said that her legs and lungs felt fine, she was just super hot and her heart rate was really high. She wore a heart rate monitor and her heart rate was off the charts for how hard we were going. I really couldn’t believe it until she downloaded her Garmin to Strava. She spent 66% of the ride at thershold or above. And 92% at tempo or above. I don’t wear a heart rate strap, but those numbers are off the charts, considering how hard we were going.

I think I’m going to try to dig up my heart rate strap for my Garmin and wear it the next few days and see if mine is as high proportionally as her’s is. I know that dissipating heat takes a lot of energy. It surprised me it takes that much.

I think aging has something to do with it too. Older athletes tend to complain and have a harder time dealing with heat than younger ones. I’m not sure the reason for that? I wonder what a human “looses” as it ages to make it have a harder time compensating for big temperature swings? I’m interested in that.

Anyway, it is going to be over 100 today. I guess I should go out and ride mid-afternoon. The only problem with that is, I only have a couple hours in me before I’m done nowadays. I don’t think that is enough time to reap the benefits or start the acclimation process. Maybe I’m wrong, I’ve been known to be occasionally.

Catherine’s numbers from the ride.

It is super nice around Northeastern Kansas right now. It seems like we got a lot of hay this year.

Trudi went by the Marin Museum of Bicycling yesterday on her way back from Bend to Santa Rosa. It houses the MTB Hall of Fame. It isn’t open yet.