Gettin' Screwed

Friday morning I went in to the Ortho's office plunked down a $2k co-pay (yikes!) courtsey of Dad and got my hand fixed.

It hurt like I broke it all over again and I spent most of Friday in a narcotic induced haze. I'm feeling a little better today, but coming off anesthesia is like a bad hangover that food or water have no effect on. Nasty stuff.

I go back in next week to check my progress and, hopefully, get rid of this splint (my third so far) and get my hand moving...

...and maybe ride the trainer :D

E

Crash Happens...

On the roadbike too! Doc says spiral fracture and it needs a pin. I go to see the Ortho on Tuesday. Bye bye fitness...

Reader's digest version: descending, blind corner, water on the road and concrete drainage with huge channels cut into it for water flow and slippery algae growing in it. Rear tire slides on concrete from braking, front tire washes out, gravity, fingers slip into channel and stop my slide, taking the brunt of the impact.

~

Luke: "You ok?"

Me: "...that's a broken hand..."
~

Luke hauls ass back and gets my truck, I drive home and g/f and I spend a few hours in the ER. Woo...

~

Swollen. Note the bloody finger; not the one I broke. Odd.Note how the broken finger is pushed over and crowding the rest. Thumb is just a bruise."Soft splint". Thing's hard as a rock and heavy to boot.

:(

Scratching the Itch

Tri Club San Diego is a huge club and it's difficult for it to exude that "welcome" feeling to prospective or new members, but they do put on some cool events and their support of local races acheives near-legendary status.

~

Wednesday night I bombed their monthly summer Aquathlon series to get my race on.

~

The good:

TONS of fast people come out of the woodwork for these things and it's easy to dial up the intensity racing them.

~

The bad:

Chip timing only if you pre-reg. No chip = no time. Womp womp.

~

The ugly:

Awesome food spread, I feel guilty eating club food when I'm not an official member so I stand there...starving.

~

Some pics:

The group heading off to the start. I was already down by the start location body-surfing at this point. Hey, the surf was good...Coming out of the water. Probably 800 meters or so. Still a PR for me at 12:50; over a minute faster than my split at Xterra REAL, which is billed as 1/2 mile. Stoked!
Heading out of "transition" for the 5k beach run. T1 took too long as I fought to get my wetsuit off around my feet. Time to shorten the legs on the suit.
Finishing up. Ran the 5k in around 20:47.
~
Not my best by far, but a good result considering the month lay-off for illness and that I'm back to putting in base miles.

~

Got "chicked" by Jessi Stensland who won the women's side and probably Amanda Felder, but I'm OK with that since they're short-course stud-ettes anyway. Nice to see Jessi back racing.

~

All told, a quality mid-week workout and some good validation that the work I'm doing in the pool is paying off...finally!

~

Off to work.

~

E.

By the Numbers

I've been going back and forth between Xterra, MTB and even road triathlon's of all things. I still can't decide which type of racing I'll wind up doing for the remainder of the season.

When I look at the travel required for chasing Xterra points, however, it's clear that series is beyond my financial capabilities. Some examples.

Distances are all one way!
Xterra Del Valle: 455 miles
Xterra Deuces Wild: 539 miles
Xterra MTN Champs: 968 miles
Xterra Tahoe City: 608 miles
Xterra Incline Village: 541 miles
Xterra USA Champs: 783 miles

Good lord...

I might be able to make Tahoe City and Incline Village since my brother lives in Auburn, CA (NE of Sacramento) and I can stay with him or use his house as a staging point. The problem is he's about 3 hours from Tahoe, where the two races are. That's a rough drive race morning, but I might just have to suck it up and deal with it if I want to compete in any more Xterra races.

Honestly, I don't think I can stick to "just MTB"; I'm a lifeguard by trade and I need to keep swimming and running so I can make rescues. I'd be seriously bummed if someone drowned because I was out of "swim shape".

So I'm kinda training just to train. With no races on my calendar, finding the motivation for training is getting progressively more difficult.

In the meantime, TCSD has some Club races coming up that I'll crash for my racing fix and I'm sure to bomb some of the Rim Nordic or Racers and Chasers races, but chasing Xterra World or National qualifications is out the window this season. Bummer.

E.

Clownin'!

Holly and I went to the grocery store and saw this.

Think if I eat some I'll be fast like Hunter? Lol!

Props to him for getting the box cover, though.

E.