This weekend there are a couple races that I would normally be doing.  I’m missing it.  But I understand that it isn’t quite the right time to be doing them.

The first one is the Gravelluer’s Raid, a 100 mile gravel race in Lawrence Kansas.  I’ve done the race the past two years and ridden the whole day with my friend and team mate, Brian Jensen.  We’ve always had pretty tough conditions, either from storms with wind or just plain wind.  So it is an effort.

My highest wattage reading has been from this race.  Plus it has been good mileage.  After I finish, I eat a piece of pizza, drink a beer and do the 30 miles home on gravel.

The 2nd race, which is conflicting with Gravelluer’s is Joe Martin.  It is the 40th year for Joe Martin and I really enjoy that race.  I haven’t done the race every year, but I’ve ridden it a lot.   I did it maybe 38 years ago, when Joe was still around, so that kind of dates me.  Last year I rode just the 1/2 race, not making up my mind to go until last minute.  I really enjoyed that race.  It is much less controlled than the Pro race, thus more interesting.  At least to me.  Plus, it gives you a big boost in form early season.

Anyway, I knew I probably wouldn’t be racing much by now, even though I have already done one race.  I’ve been riding okay recently and feeling better day by day  Not necessarily feeling better riding, but feeling better in general.  The symptoms from this TBI are slowly, but surely going away, which is sort of a relief.  You never know how it is going to turn out.

My shoulder MRI could have been worse.  I have a tear, I think 6 mm, in my supraspinatus tendon.  At least it isn’t severed.  I have to go back to the doctor, here in California, after he sees the MRI himself.  He suggests I try to rehab it and if I can’t stand the pain sleeping or doing everyday activities, then get it fixed surgically in a few months.  I have no intention of doing that.

LIke I said originally, I’m going to miss being in Lawrence Saturday.  Brian is coming back from Colorado.  Bill is racing.  Even Catherine Walberg signed up for the 100 mile adventure.  She is apprehensive, but will be great.   I wish them all good luck.

Yep, it is a fact, that if you race bikes long enough then you are going to be injured.  How injured depends on a long list of things.  On the top of that list I would say luck would have to reside. Having good luck when it comes to getting injured is key.  No question I have hurt myself in the sport, but by far, the most hurt I’ve been are situations out of my control, for the most part.

Both Bicycling and Outside have done articles that “feature” me with some relation to being hurt.  The Bicycling article was a photo pointing to places, mainly broken bones I’ve had, then trying to equalize the risk with the rewards, like a resting pulse rate of 35.  The Outside article was just a story about how I stitch myself up sometimes after falling MTB racing.   Both were okay, correct, but didn’t really address why riders get hurt.

I have been hurt a ton, but it comes in streaks.  I broke my collarbone at Superweek, the first year I left the state of Kansas to race, when I was 14.   I drove home, saw an orthopedic doctor and asked him if I could still race Nationals the next week.  He said yes, so we loaded back up and went back to race Nationals.  Man, doctoring has changed a bunch since then.

I have broken both my collarbones a few times.  All those breaks were before clipless pedals.  Since then, I haven’t broken one.  I’ve separated my shoulders, but no broken collarbones.

I think I was hurt a lot just because of the load of racing.  Nearly all the huge injuries I’ve had are in races.   I was doing over 100 races days a year, for a long time, and during that time is when I was hurt the most.  When I switched over to MTB racing in the 90’s, I had a long duration of relatively injury free competition.  Sure, a few big cuts that needed stitching, but no broken bones, etc.

That lasted a long time, until about 5 years ago.  Kind of since I started writing here.  Since then I’ve had 4 major injuries.  And all could have not happened without bad luck.

I don’t learn much from getting hurt racing.  I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not.  I take it as what it really is, just a part of the sport.  I accept this.  When you start weighing the risks involved in cycling, you don’t want to dwell on them too long or you might just scare yourself too much to enjoy it fully.

Anyway, I have a shoulder issue, that, I hope, isn’t going to turn into a major issue.  I did an MRI and have torn something like 1 cm or my rotator cuff.  On my “good arm”.  The orthopedic guy that Stacie found here at Scripps, is super.  He called me last night at close to 10 o’clock and talked to me for a while about his thoughts.  He is going to look at the MRI scan himself, not just the radiologists’ report and then call me later today.

I have no intention of doing surgery on this shoulder.  I did the other one a few years ago and it is a nightmare.  Plus, it really still doesn’t work that great.   I’m going to try to do rehab and see if I can live with the outcome.  If not, then I’ll address that later.

Here are a couple drawings Stacie made for me yesterday, trying to explain what was the matter.  I liked them, even though they seemed complicated.

My left shoulder has a 3’rd degree separation. That isn’t the problem.

Laying around, broken, in a small hospital in England after crashing into a car at the British Milk Race.