Tape it up

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June 1st got my cast off finally and what a relief. Of course I've been thinking the entire time that it's been on that as soon as it comes off, I can start racing and doing whatever I want just like before. Wow was I wrong about that. I figured I've been riding so it won't be a big deal riding now that the cast is off. I can't even describe the lack of mobility and just how weak it is. But I figured what the hell and decided to do the Tour of Tucker County race. So I taped it up and went out, for not racing in like 8 weeks or so I felt OK. I managed to hang on to the field for the first lap but fell of on the second lap and still finished. I was happy that I finished and wasn't to disappointed by were I finished.

I should have did the smart thing and quit while the going was good. Ruth did the race too and wanted to do the Massanutten HOO HA XXC the next day. So instead of listening to everyone that said don't race. I figured what the hell I'm tough I'll just ride slow and take it easy. Plus I figured to was better than just sitting around and I love riding in this area. I was surprised at the start how many people were it looked like fifty plus. So at the start I followed my plan and just rode easy and that lasted for maybe about a mile or so. That's when I decided that the pace I was going was to slow and picked up the pace and worked my way towards the front of the pack. Then everything seemed better and much more like the normal. That feeling only lasted for maybe like 15 minutes or so that's when we hit the first bit of single track that had some rocks and logs. I was OK this it's alright and thought I was going pretty fast, but in reality I was going very slow. I figured it was best just to pull and get out of the way. Not sure how people went past me but it seemed like allot. Then the course started to go up and it wasn't to rocky so I past a few of the racers that had just past me. I was feeling OK and started thinking this is going to be OK no problem. That was before we got onto the ridge trail, I've ridden this trail before and knew it was rocky. But it seemed to have more rocks and up hills than I remembered. It seemed almost impossible to ride some sections. But after seeing lots of people riding them I figured it was just me that couldn't ride it. I would ride a little then walk allot, and try to stay out of everyone's way but it was hard because the is very narrow for long sections. After about 2 hours of being out there is when I realized just how much it sucked to walk your bike down every downhill because I couldn't ride them. So at about 3-1/2 hours and 21 miles I came back though the start and found out how much more there was to go .With about 12 more miles to go that's when I made the smarter decision and quit. I really don't like not finishing a race but I just figured it was for the better.

Ruth finished 5th out a pretty big group that had some fast girls in it like Betsy Shogren and Sue Haywood. Hopefully next race will a little better.

Justin

Waiting

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Waiting sucks and especially when your not very patient like me. But first thing is if you've been following along and thought that the dates don't seem correct. Guess what your right the reason behind this is up until about a month ago I didn't have a good way of updating regularly. So at the rate I'm going I hope to be up the present and not the past in a few more weeks. Now back to the waiting crap if you've ever been stuck in traffic this is how my life feels right now. I get hurt and go to the hospital and wait, come home and wait to go see a different Doctor, then go see him to wait, then wait and see how it's healing, then go back for a recheck and wait, then wait until I get a short cast, then wait until I get it off, when will it stop? I'm not sure but I'm very happy that I don't really have to rely on the health care system. Because from what I've seen of it is that it sucks.
One question I been hearing allot is "When did the Dr tell you that you can start riding again?" My answer is don't know because I never asked. I figured why ask because he's going to tell me something that I don't want to hear and plus I'm going to do what I want to anyhow. Something that seems easier said than done is riding with your arm in a cast. At first I thought no problem but after doing it sucks. It's amazing how much it affects your balance and several other things. Oh well I'm just going to continue waiting and see what happens.

Justin

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Outlaw

I'm counting two things the days until my cast comes off and the number of races that I'm missing because of it. Either way it just sucks there's really no getting around it. Over the Memorial day weekend we decided to go camping we wanted to go to Ohiopyle. But due to waiting so long the nearest camp site we could find was the River's Edge in Connellsville. Which was OK because I wanted to ride the Rail Trail and do some hiking. Saturday we rode towards Ohiopyle and did some hill repeats on and long rocky climb. We also found a really cool waterfall it was tempting to jump in but it was a bit to chilly for me.


Sunday was fun we took the tandem or "the sled" as I like to call it out on the Rail Trail to McKeesport and back. It was pretty fun a little over 80 miles, but the thing is with riding on the rail trail is it seems like allot more work than it should be. It's flat but it's allot like riding a trainer as soon as you stop pedaling you stop and the constant sitting makes it just a bit unpleasant too. But I was happy to be riding and the weather was good.

Monday we heading in to Connellsville to get some breakfast. We did a little bit of exploring across an old rail road bridge. I thought it was pretty cool and just a bit scary, but someone else found it to be terrifying experience and was worried about getting arrested. After we got across we did a little more exploring on some quad trail but nothing else as cools as the bridge.

Here's Ruth

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Here's one of the two pictures I got of Ruth for some reason I could only upload one at a time.


Justin

Turtles and Racing

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OK what do turtles and bike racing have in common? Not very much other than location. We heading down Saturday to MD for the Greenbrier race. Ruth and I both planned on doing the marathon race in the morning. I was defiantly out because I had my accident on Thursday. But figured I'd go and hang out and take some pictures. So I got up early Sunday and rode my trainer for a few hours and helped Ruth get ready.


So I went I found what I thought would be a good spot to watch the race from. On the first lap Ruth was the first girl though so I knew she was leading it wasn't much of a lead maybe 20 seconds. Then on the second lap her lead seemed to be gowning and she was still leading on lap five. But then disaster stuck she had a flat and managed to get it changed but had trouble with the CO2 inflator and went from 1st to 5th.

I found out a couple of things first it's allot harder taking pictures of people racing than I thought it was, and second I'm not very good at it. So what about the turtles? When Ruth was looking though all the pictures from the race she wondered why there was about 10 pictures of the turtles and only two of her? It's easy I told her the turtles are slow and she's fast.

Justin

OUCH

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Dateline April 23rd Moraine Mountain Bike trail. On the regular Thursday training ride a Moraine I went over a small log and did an endo. I got up and got back on my bike when I noticed a slight problem. My hand felt funny and I seen that my arm had a strange looking bend in it. Upon further review I came to the conclusion that it was broken. When Joe caught up to me he looked at it and agreed. So I walked and rode what I could to get back the car. I figured that I should go home first take a shower and head to the Hospital. I hate going to the Hospital because it always takes forever and it's filled with a bunch of that I try to avoid at all costs.


So after my long wait the Doctor confirmed what I already knew, that my arm is broken. Something I hate hearing and heard several times before is the Doctor saying "That looks really bad" Finally the Orthopedic Surgeon that was on call made it in. He said that he was going to try and set it. So after some pain numbing shots it was time. Wow that's a very strange sensation you get when they're trying to reposition your bones. After setting it, putting it in a splint and a few more x-rays it was time to leave. Wow and it only took 8 hours.

OK I don't even have any idea where to go from here. All I can say is what a huge disappointment, and keep replaying it over in my head and wonder how the fuck did I do it. I didn't think I was going to fast or landed that hard but I guess I did. As for how fast I was going looking at my Garmin it looks like it was around 18 MPH. So after 4 races my season got put on hold.

J

Mohican Wilderness

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OK it's finally here my first race of the year turned out to be OMBC Mohican Wilderness. Finally I get to see if my training plan will pay off. Ruth decided not to go so I rode out to the race with Joe. I decided to race my single speed for to reasons first I thought it was going to be muddy and second and more importantly this is the only mountain bike I have for now. When we finally got there I was suprized by the number people that were there looked to be well over a 100. I was debating on whether to race Expert or Vet open. I decided to race the Vet open because I figured I was on a SS and it was the first race of the year.

After getting dressed and a short warm up it was time to go. At the start there was a little drizzel coming down and the temp was around 50 I think not really sure. When the whistle went I got a nice hole shot and managed to be first into the woods. Just like I figured it was muddy and wet, but I just tired to have fun with it and not get furstated. I knew that I was in the lead of the group I started with but just kept going at it. The conditions for the first lap weren't to bad but got worse with each lap. This was one of the few races that had a little bit of everything wheather wise. It was raining hard at times, sunny, windy and was even hailing at one point. But finally 2:46 after I started it was over I won the Vet open and came in second overall.
I was very happy with how it turned out, for a couple of reasons. First was that I felt good so I guess some of my training paid off, second I was happy with how I held up to the conditions. Hope the conditions are a little better for next race.

Justin

Season

Something that I've relizied about bike racing is that there's never really an "off season". There's two seasons one is the racing season and the other is the not racing season. For me I've always made my biggest improvements in preformance during not racing season. But it's not from taking time off I actully seem to train better and harder during the non racing season. I think there's several reasons why no wasted time traveling, don't have to save your legs for tomorrow's race, you can work on your weakness just to name a few. So far my none racing season has been going to great can't wait until March to test it out.

Justin

Colors

Everyone has there favorite colors but mine recently changed. Well really it wasn't my favorite colors that changes but colors that I enjoyed and have some fond memories have changed. After 3 plus years of wearing the Dirty Harrys yellow and purple jersey my colors are changing to the Pro Bike colors of Yellow and Black. I first would like to say thanks to Barry and everyone at Dirty Harrys for everything they've done for me. I'm nervous about the change but also very excited. So far Todd, Craig and everyone else at Pro Bikes have been great in every way. So enough said about that, but I'll be sure to keep everyone updated.

J