I was pushing for three hour rides multiple times a week now. February is a slower work month for me. Since I mostly fill in for people taking off at my physical therapy job there are often not many days where I'm needed. People tend to hold onto their vacation days between Christmas and Spring Break. My fundraiser job also is slower as we don't even start doing Spring semester fundraisers until the end of February. People are often strapped for cash after Chrsitmas so it is pointless to start a fundraiser right after Christmas as sales are always very low. We do about 2/3 of our fundraisers in the Fall semester, so the Spring is always going to be slower. And lastly, the farm is pretty quiet during the cold months. We are only mailing out a few bags of dried peppers and jars of jelly this time of year. With this slower time I pledged to exercise at least three hours on every day I didn't go to work for therapy or fundraising. It was tough to make it happen in January with the level of fitness I had, but I made it through and continued the streak into February. It wasn't always three hours of riding, but often a mix of time on the bike, treadmill and lifting weights.
Again, I felt like I was not ready to race when the second round of the Montgomery Bell Winter Time Trial Series rolled around. I had dropped nine pounds by the end of the first week of February, but I was still about 10 pounds more than the goal I set for myself before I returned to racing. I was riding well, but I felt like if I gave in and raced before I hit my goal I would end up not reaching the goal in the end. The end result was much more important. I spent my time on the road and trainer continuing to burn calories and build a solid base. I had a sore throat for a few days, but it didn't effect me very much. I just backed the ride pace down even slower and was able to continue my normal load for all but one day during the sickness. I saw the first daffodils of the year start to pop up during this time, which is always nice to see. It's like the light appearing at the end of the tunnel. Once you see flowers, warm weather usually follows in a month or so.
First daffodils of the year spotted on a road ride.
Plenty of yellow coming in this patch of woods
The cold weather was in full-swing for now though. I was unable to ride the trail several days because the garage door was so frozen I couldn't get it open to get my bike out. We had some rain, followed by a quick dip in temperatures that froze all the wet areas including the garage door and car doors. I had to thaw out our barn door latch with a heat gun one day just to be able to get inside. That's what sucks about winter in Tennessee. We don't get a lot of snow, but we seem to get plenty of ice each year. Cold without the scenery. I didn't miss a day of training because of the ice, I just moved things indoors and knocked out multiple 3+ hour trainer rides. This month it was supercross and last summer's motocross races that kept me entertained.
By the middle of the month, I was feeling good and thinking about racing in March. I had a good base in now and was ready to add in a little intensity on my rides and more weight to my strength workouts. My Dad finally has his shoulder rehabed to the point he can lift light weight regularly. The only exercise he can beat me at now is the bench press so that is his go-to exercise every time we work out together. He can't lift heavy yet, so he always wants to see how many times we can lift the 45 pound bar. I can give him a run right now, but he still beats me by a rep or two every time. It's amazing how light that bar is when you first start, but then how heavy it becomes after a couple of minutes. The last rep always feels like you have 200 pounds on there. I also added in some road race simulation efforts. They weren't at full race speed, but they were more difficult with some accelerations on climbs and a lot of sprinting like what I would encounter in a race. It's about the best I can do when training solo.
One cold day in the middle of the month I was not wanting to get on the trainer so I loaded up the mountain bike and went down to Montgomery Bell. I was a bit curious as to what kind of lap time I could turn right now on the winter TT course. I had three more weeks before the final race of the series so I wanted to gauge how close I was to being able to do that one. I felt a little sluggish at first, but by the time I hit North Slope just a few miles in, I was feeling strong. I was very pleased with how I was riding. I was strong on the flats and decent up the climbs. I would say I was at 80% of my best on the climbs, which isn't terrible considering my weight and lack of intense training prior to this week. I was only a couple of minutes off my normal race time at halfway even with starting a bit slower and it being very cold today. It was snowing lightly during most of my ride.
The daffers at Montgomery Bell were up too
And then the mood of the ride shifted. I was rolling down a small downhill just after the halfway point, between the Mogul Climb and Tommy's Revenge, when suddenly I went over the bars and straight into a rocky bank with my face. I had no idea what happened. I was about at the bottom of the descent and not riding out of control. My face hurt immediately, along with my neck and right quad. I drove my whole head into the bank and compressed my neck pretty hard. I laid on the ground for a few minutes to gather myself and assess my injuries. The neck seemed to be sore, but ok. Next, I had to see if all my teeth were still in place. They were, but my lips were pretty mangled, mainly on the inside of my mouth. Thanfully, I had glasses on. The lens had three large gashes across it. That could have been my eyes. I used my phone to take a picture of my face to see just how bad it was. It was hard to tell what I was feeling since my face was about half-numb anyway from the cold air. It looked good enough to continue so I assessed my head, then my shoulder and quad. They were sore, but no apparent serious issues. I knew I didn't black out and I figured that with the way I was methodically going through my injuries I was with it enough to get myself out of the woods. I knew what day it was and where I lived. My bike was in a heap off the side of the trail, the bars twisted and brake levers crammed full of mud. I did the kind of bank withdrawal you don't want to do. There were some large rocks dislodged from the bank. My face did that. Before I got back on the bike, I investigated the cause of the crash. My right pedal was full of bark. I went back up the bank and found a root missing a chunk. I must have hung my pedal just as I started off the final five-foot tall bank. It launched me up and to the left, where I found that rocky bank face-first. A small mistake at a very bad spot. I hit the bank on the left, but it was the right side of my face that took the hit. I must have spun in the air. That was one serious pedal hang.
Once I got on the bike, I felt that my left knee was also tore up pretty good. I was missing a chunk just below my patella and was bleeding pretty good. It was already swollen, but riding made it feel better. After a few minutes of light spinning, I started to feel ok and the bleeding stopped. The way to the car from that point was to continue on the course. By the time I reached the point where those two routes separated from one another, I felt like I was good enough to continue. I rode steady the rest of the loop, finishing it in 1:52 ride time. Not a top time, but also not a super slow time considering it was freezing cold and I rode the second half slow after one of the hardest crashes I have ever had. That time would have put me 5th in the Pro/1 Open class in the most recent race.
Upon reaching the car, I was able to clean my wounds and really look at the damage in the car mirror. My face looked like I took a swipe from a bear. The rocks cut in straight lines up my face from my chin, across my lips and up my cheek. My main concern now was my mouth. I had three big gashes on the inside of my lips, one being quite big and more like a hole. I think my tooth punctured through my lip there. The glasses wers shoved into my nose so hard that I also lost a chunk of the bridge of my nose and had more scratches scarily close to my eyes.
This was after I got cleaned up and changed
I was pretty sore in all the injury spots for a few days, but I kept on riding as time on the bike made everything feel better except my lips. Those internal gashes were very tender and wanted to stick together when I closed my mouth. Chapstick and anitbiotic ointment were my friend, but they don't stay on very well when it's inside you mouth...nor do they taste well at all. It was also fun explaining to everyone at work what happened to my face. Fortunately, I didn't have to work too many days until the outside scratches were healed over.
The interal lip wounds continued to be a problem the rest of the month. After two weeks with little signs of healing and an increase in tenderness, Shannon called her mom, who works for an oral surgeon. He was able to prescribe me a medicated liquid to swish in my mouth that would promote healing and reduced the sensitivity. Her mom called it into our local pharmacy, but when we got there they did not have it ready for us. Turns out my name was not in their system, so instead of holding on to it until I arrived, they deleted the order. They added me to the system while we waited, but now the prescription was lost. We were there after work just before the pharmacy closed. The surgeon's office was closed too, but we called Shannon's mom and she was able to remember the specifics of the prescription. Saved! The medication made a difference overnight. I had almost no pain and could already see a color change to the wound.
The only good thing about having pain in your lips is that it makes you want to eat less. It's easy to say no to food when it puts you in pain. By the end of February, I was down 15 pounds since I cracked down in January. I even went back to Montgomery Bell for another run before the March race that I was now definitely leaning toward doing. My Mom went with me this time as I think everybody is afraid to let me go by myself now. I don't mind though as I like it when she goes. I will do multiple laps on sections and try to catch back up to her. It makes me ride harder. It was much warmer this time, so much so that even my Mom had on shorts and no arm warmers. That is rare for her anytime outside of the heat of summer. I didn't keep up with my time as I rode some spots multiple times, but I knew the legs were feeling good. No pedal hangs this time.
My Mom rolling into a group of daffodils along the trail at Montgomery Bell. There were a lot more that had sprouted by the end of the month.
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