Big News...

Alright so I've been putting off writing about this for awhile (I don't like to reveal my weaknesses), but here it goes:
This Wednesday I will be trading in my bicycle for this shiny new pair of crutches (the carbon fibre ones are still on order) in order to get surgery on my legs. I will be getting a relatively simple and somewhat gruesome outpatient procedure aimed to fix a reoccurring problem I've had on the bike for nearly a year and a half.
Ok, so imagine this delectable sausage is my calf muscle. The muscle, like the sausage, is made up of a meaty inside surrounded by a thin casing, in this case a connective tissue called fascia instead of pig intestine. Now image what happens if you put that sausage on the grill on boil it. If you heat it up enough, the insides expand and puts pressure against the casing, and this pressure is released when the sausage cracks and juices drain out. The same thing happens to my legs under high levels of exertion, say a time trial or breakaway, except for the fact that there is no way for the pressure to release as fascia doesn't easily expand and having it burst open like a cheddar wurst would be bad. As a result, I experience a numbness sensation that starts at my feet and intensifies to the point that a can barely pedal. The surgery I'm getting will be the equivalent of slicing the sausage casing right down the middle in order to allow the muscle to expand and allow better blood flow and nerve conduction. The medical term for this is Chronic Compartment Syndrome, and I will be undergoing a bilateral compartment release.
So how do I know I have this condition, and why is this surgery even necessary? True, I was able to win a national title while experiencing symptoms and I don't feel the usual amount of pain associated with compartment syndrome. Plus I have been riding pretty strong this season, having already finished top ten in a few Pro 1/2 fields. The fact is that I'm a time trialist, and my ability to win races relies on me being able to ride at high levels of exertion and wattage for long periods of time, something that simply cannot be done with legs that become, well, big sausages ten minutes into a 30k time trial. Sure, I could sit in for field sprints or ride kilo's on the track all day long, but that simply isn't where my true strength lies. And as I continue to grow the amount of power I produce will only increase, putting more pressure on my already constrained fascia tissues and making my symptoms more ins tense and quicker to onset. Sure, at Nationals last year I was able to pace myself and keep the numbness from overcoming my legs until the last few kilometers, but I was 10-15 pounds lighter then and required less of my calves to push my skinny butt down the road. Nowadays I'm heavier and my opponents have gotten faster, leaving me with few options unless I can fix this condition.
As for the diagnosis of compartment syndrome, it was quick and painful. After almost a year of MRI's, bike fits and shoe changes, my doctors finally got around to giving me compartment testing. This involves inserting a needle into the each of the 4 compartments in the lower leg in order to gauge the pressure between it and the surrounding tissue. Despite nearly passing out due to needle phobia, I was able to perform this test and the reading showed that my compartment pressures went from 10-15 mm Hg to nearly 40 mm Hg after doing spending 10 or minutes at 300 watts. As far as I know there is nothing that causes elevated compartment pressures besides compartment syndrome, so getting this surgery should be a good bet at curing my problems.

A fun afternoon at sports medicine

Anyways I'll be off the bike for 6 weeks or so, so I'll probably have plenty of time for future posts (I haven't decided if I'm going to write while on painkillers).

~Mike

Alright, so this pass weekend marked the end of back to back to back roubaix race weekends, so basically I've raced 100+ miles on dirt for the past month. Sure it's been great fun, but I'll be happy to return to some shorter races that don't leave a bad taste in your mouth.

The BH bears the scars of battle

The first of these was Rouge-Roubaix, probably the toughest terrain wise of them all and certainly the closest thing I've seen to a renegade bike race (in past years the payout was one deep, this year my friend got 5th and got a measly $50). The race was a big success on a team and personal level, and I got thrill out of participating in a few new aspects of bike racing that you don't see when you go solo: I got to wear a radio (though I couldn't understand 85% of what Nate said), help set tempo at the front of a field, take a musette bag and sacrifice my chances at the race by giving a teammate a wheel. Of course the last thing was thing big problem about the race, the fact anybody could've gotten a flat but Christian and we would have still won the race, but naturally it never works like that. So basically I got to drive 10-hours home all flustered with team spirit while being endowed with a new respect for how a mechanical can destroy a race.
The next weekend was Perry-Roubaix, which is probably the most baffling of all the Georgia Cup race with respect to why anyone would show up at it. For some reason the promoter can host three completely independent events over the weekend whose payout doesn't depend on your overall performance and call it an omnuim. Anyways I had a lackluster TT for a number of reasons, but the circuit race later that afternoon went very well. Yes, I was worked over by the TOSHIBA team multiple times in the course of lapping the field, but I still think it was pretty stellar to be trading pulls with Frank Travieso and to finish top ten in a race that was stacked by a pro team. As if the circuit race alone wasnt grueling enough for one weekend, the following road race was pure hell (at least for me). Between some wicked crosswinds and a small, yet big enough hill I was satisfied just to hang on for the full distance. I also took the honor of calling a pee-break on the last lap (14 guys were up the road, thus the field became a sunday ride). This race was probably the least Roubaix of them all, as the moist red Georgia sand did little more than make everyone look Ginger for the day.
The last race of the Roubaix "series" was held a mere 1.5 hours from my house in Webster, FL, and was probably my biggest result of the year so far. While the course was a piece of cake elevation wise, especially compared to Rouge, the dirt was bumpy and dusty and favored the riders off the front. After sitting in for the first 40 miles (my tactical masterpiece of the day) I moved my lethargic rear end to the front of the group and lead through the dirt a couple of time (12 nine mile laps), and soon afterwards I got into a break with the strongest guys in the race, namely the brothers Chaves and Bobby Sweeting of TOSHIBA-Santo. It's safe to say I probably did less then my fair share of work, but after being destroyed in the final K's it didn't really matter (I was in the break for 60 miles, which I believe is the longest allowed distance in a juniors road race). It was fifth for me, which is a big improvement of crashing in the cat 4's last year. I returned to my car looking not unlike the cow patties that infested the field where I was parked content and ready to not have to race any dirt for another year (baring entrance to the real Paris-Roubaix).

I wonder why my bike has been creaking ever since Webster?

Ok so it's been a while since I've posted, and I'm way too tired tonight to write anything, but I did add a sweet new picture of me at the Perry-Roubaix TT (no I didn't actually go that fast). Anyways I'll try to post something worthwhile in the next few days.

Alright so it's been awhile since my obligatory blog post, but I wrote a 2 and half page Valley of the Sun story for the website last week so I figure I'm covered. Since it's been so long I've got a couple of race weekends to write about, even though about 1 day of all of them was significant.

A couple of weekends ago I went down to Orlando to do the Sanford and Lake Mary criteriums, the route of the former resembling a drunk stagger through the lakefront downtown and the latter a wide open circle in the heart of overdeveloped Orlando. While I would traditionally think that the wide open course would favor me the most, but it was in fact the technical course that gave me a better shot. Not to mention that from about 6 in the morning I woke up till about half an hour after my race was over it was pouring rain. While a lot of riders forfeited their 28 dollars instead of reducing the surface area of their epidermis, I bravely saddled up for the 70 or so minute swim around lakefront Sanford. Remarkably, there were alot of people who cornered worse then me, and I didn't have much of a problem getting to and riding on the front (except when it actually mattered at the end of the race). I did, however, have a problem with team Herbalife, who has decided this year to sign just about every bike racer in the state of Florida, resulting in nothing short of ridiculous domination. To make a long story short I ended up about 14th place.

There's not much to say about Lake Mary, mostly that junior gears suck on tailwind finishing straights.

Now for the much more thrilling Georgia Cup race in Albany, GA, a city that despite being larger than Gainesville, I've never heard of in my life. The two day three day format is usually better suited for an omnium, but the race organizers decided it would be much for fun to see everyone battle it out for 2 second time bonuses and made it a stage race. Anyways there was a 3.3k prologue, 60 min crit, and an 85 mile road race. I had a decent ride in the TT, less than 20 seconds down on the leader and I felt I could have pulled off much better. It was particularly impressive considering I missed my start time by about a minute or so, but luckily the transponders didn't seem to care and I got my normal time (or I'm really just that fast). I figure the fact that I had to pass a guy in the first 15 seconds cost me a place in the top 20. As for the crit, it was my worst performance of the weekend. Instead of being aggressive in the first few laps and working my way up, I got stuck at the back and spent my time just trying not to get dropped as I dealt with the exponentially increasing degree of difficulty as I slipped farther back. I consoled myself a little bit considering that I haven't had much practice in 8 turn crits with big fields and that there were a couple professionals attacking up front, but this type of racing defiantly need some work on my part.

As for the road race, it was probably the highest result I've had in a field that had a few big names (certainly more than the local Florida competition). I started out the day in near the back of the field, chatting with some friends while the group let a couple of guys get off in an early move. Being a little envious and wanting to get some fresh air, I half-jokingly remarked that I should go make a move myself. To my surprise I suggested that it wouldn't be a half bad idea, so I did something uncharacteristic of my wimpy riding style and moved up the sketchy shoulder on the right. I made a quick move and got a little ego boost when I was pulled back in by a Jittery Joe's rider. A couple more attacks followed, and I ended up riding up alone to another group of two. Feeling sore in the legs from they day before, I wondered what kind of suffering was in story if I was starting the day like this. The two up the road waited for me to bridge and we started working gradually to the lead couple even further up the road. With the leaders in sight, one of my companions broke a shift cable and for some reason didn't want to ride in his 11 for 70 miles. The other member of my group followed suit, and I was left to bridge on my own. Once I finally reached the two on the front, a rider from Tri-Star and a 40+ master, our chances looked grim. The field had stepped it up a notch and an attack of the front had made them hungry for blood. Miraculously, they sat up within about 200 meters and the three of us made a last ditch effort to establish a gap. It paid off, and within no time the group was well out of sight. After about 10 miles a pack finally appeared in the distance, but this time it was much smaller. To my surprise and joy it was a group of about 11 guys rotating like a well oiled machine and captained by de facto leader Tim Henry of Jittery Joe's, who got this status not by merit of GC standings but by the amount of baby oil on his legs. Anyways we rotated smoothly for another lap and a half, pausing only briefly to watch somebody crash as they made an attempt to take musette bag in the feed zone. With about 15 miles to go rotation began to stagnate a bit as the sprinter types, confident that the 4 minute gap would hold, decided to endure the storm of curses hurled at them and wait it out for the last 200 meters. Whether it was because I'm just a sucker or I felt that one less man working would throw the group into a real funk I figured anything top-ten would be great and continued to work all the way toward the finish. In retrospect I think I missed a great move at 1k, but I managed 8th in the sprint. I took pride in being the only junior that far up the road (and the only one still wearing knee and arm warmers), and gladly had the officials roll out my bike. The gigantic gap I earned in the road race should give me top ten in the GC, so hopefully I'll be getting a check in the mail sometime soon.

Anyways, this weekend is Rouge Roubaix, so I'm sure I'll have something to say about that.