Half Wheeling

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling on by .

I hate getting half wheeled. It doesn’t really matter by who, but the stronger the rider, the more I dislike it. That being said, I do, on rare occasion, half wheel myself. I’m not sure that I actually half wheel because I am cognoscente of the action. To truly be half wheeled, or to be half wheeling, the half wheeler has to be oblivious to the action.

If you don’t understand the definition of half wheeling, it is the action by an individual, when he or she rides beside you, when you are riding two by two, and is always just enough ahead of you that you feel like you are always trying to catch up or get back even with them. If a rider is a true half wheeler, they don’t have a clue that they are doing it.

The funny thing about the whole situation is that the rider that is “behind” is actually controlling the speed, so there really should be less mental stress.

I’ve been unfortunate to be half wheeled by some pretty great riders. Like I said above, the better the rider, the more stress it causes the rider on the receiving end. The most famous rider I was half wheeled by was Bernard Hinault. I didn’t train with Hinault enough to know if he is really a half wheeler, all I know is that I was riding with him, before a time trial in Colombia, and he definitely half wheeled me for 30 minutes or so.

Michael Engleman half wheeled. Nearly always. And he was strong enough, more than strong enough, that you should have been stressed. Micheal was so strong that he could keep nearly any pace, virtually all day.

I didn’t mind it so much from him. He and I lived together in Boulder and I rode with him a ton. I like training hard and once you get used to the situation, it really isn’t much of an issue. It’s only when you’re having a really bad day that it wears on you. Before the Tour of the Americas, back in 1988, we were training in Florida and I’d do some pulls with him at the front of a group of 10 for over 30 minutes at 25 mph +. Sometimes for an hour. Alan McCormick, Broz, and most of the other guys on the team would purposely not ride beside Micheal because of the high chance that was going to occur. I finished 2nd overall in that stage race and the reason was because of getting half wheeled for weeks.

I really hate to be half wheeled by guys I don’t know. Getting half wheeled by complete strangers is worse than getting half wheeled by Tour de France winners. When you have no knowledge of how strong a rider is next to you, it just stresses you out that much more. It’s like you’re going up a huge climb, but you have no idea where the top is. This usually occurs when I’m really tired. Usually on a Monday, after a weekend stage race when I’ve stayed around a city to do the local group ride. Everyone that didn’t race on the weekend shows up and the Monday ride eventually turns into a pseudo race. I don’t mind it turning into a race, I just hate the pulling at the front, 2 x 2, at 28 mph.

The same thing can happen on a MTB. When you go to someone’s local course/trails, and they are so excited that they take you out and ride at race pace on trails you’ve never rode on. It is a drag. Tom Ritchey had a reputation of doing that. Thomas Frischknecht would say that he needed to rest up to ride with Tom, if Thomas was heading out to San Francisco after a race. He say that Tom would take him out and just hammer him. I always felt for him, getting hammered after a Norba National or World Cup, by your sponsor. That is a pretty weird situation.

Anyway, everyone that has ridden much has experienced being half wheeled. If you haven’t then you most likely are a half wheeler and just don’t know it.

Half wheeling observation from behind.

Half wheeling observation from behind.

We pretty much always ride 2 x 2 until the end of the ride. We've been having pretty good turn out on the evening rides, 15-20 guys.

We pretty much always ride 2 x 2 until the end of the ride. We’ve been having pretty good turn out on the evening rides, 15-20 guys.

X-Ray Irregularities?

This entry was posted in Just Life on by .

Yesterday I spent the majority of the afternoon waiting at, what seemed to be, an empty Urgent Care Center. I made a deal with myself if my chest hurt as bad on Monday as it did over the weekend that I’d go to get it checked out. I really hate going to the doctor for rib injuries, but this time it feels different that previous injuries. With a couple friends having problems with a pneumothorax (collapsed lung), I thought maybe I should make an exception of skipping the doctor.

I went to the Urgent Care because I knew they had the ability to do everything I needed. They also have an ultrasound and my leg that had a blood clot last season is aching, so I figured I should kill two birds with one stone. The problem is that they didn’t have a radiology around, so actually reading an x-ray or ultrasound correctly was impossible. At least impossible for a physician assistant with limited x-ray skills.

The wait was my main issue with the service yesterday. I was pretty much the only person waiting there and I sat forever. I sat forever in the waiting room, the patient room before and after finally getting an x-ray. The highlight of the day was having a resting pulse rate of 38 after drinking a cup of coffee waiting. I’m not sure why my resting daytime pulse rate is so low nowadays, but I had the same number when I donated blood a couple months ago.

Anyway, the x-ray machine was archaic. The building was built just a couple years ago, but when I asked the x-ray technician about the old machine, she said that the building was new, but machines were old. I never got to see what quality of images the machine produced, but I have my doubts they are going to be top notch.

Anyway, when the physican assistant finally came back in he said something about he couldn’t really see anything indicating a pneumothorax, but followed that with asking if I’d broken ribs before. I said yes (I’d told him that already). He said that he say some irregularities in the x-rays and was just going to let the radiologist read them today.

I’ve had a ton of x-rays taken in my life and I’ve never heard the word irregularities as the adjective describing the outcome. What does the even mean? I have no idea if I’ve broken my ribs on my left side before. I don’t know if old rib injuries look like new rib injuries on a x-ray. They don’t do anything about broken/fractured ribs anyway, so it isn’t really a big deal, but it would be nice to know after waiting so long.

A girl came into the waiting room about 45 minutes after I arrived. It took her about 3 hours to get a blood test done. That is completely unacceptable.

So, this morning, I’m heading back over there to have an ultrasound done on my leg. I’m hoping that the guy that is going to read the ultrasound is the same guy that is supposed to look at the chest x-rays. I very much doubt I’ll get the opportunity to talk to the guy, but you never know.

This was the waiting room virtually the whole time I was there.

This was the waiting room virtually the whole time I was there.

Not really the leading edge of technology here.

Not really the leading edge of technology here.