This post will seem a lot like someone just sitting around and whining because, well, that is exactly what it is!
There
are some days that we are reminded of our vulnerability t0 physical
debilitation, repetitive disappointment, and just plain dumb luck. The
past two weeks have been full of all three components which have left
me severely stressed as I close out my semester and commit to the
racing season.
I will begin with the frustrating, yet less
worrisome, bothers of the past two weeks. Now to preface this, I have
been fairly lucky throughout the last eight months in that I have only
gotten about two or three flats with a fair amount of riding. Thinking
I had broken my bad riding Karma with my consistent miles, I was not
thinking about this too much. That is until I started getting flats
again. They (meaning witty people who make proverbs) say that all bad
things come in threes. Well, I'm pretty sure someone in the "bad
things" department skipped a few days of basic math, because after my
8th flat in two weeks I realized that the "three" theory was abandoned
a while back. I was lucky enough to get two of these flats during the
Greenbrier race this past weekend, even after going tubeless, causing
me to drop out shortly after the first lap.
This
here is a picture of my tire, which explains why my tubeless setup was
insufficient in preventing my DNF. What you see here is my tire, with
my tire lever through the top of the lever. As I am sure most of you
know, in a good tire there should be no opportunity for any object to
poke through, as it is an enclosed object when inflated (you know, to
keep the air in or something). But during the time that I was in my
element, catching back some time on rough, rocky decents, I managed to
slice through the top of my tire in two locations. I took my time
putting a tube in because I know there was no chance it would last
through the entire race. It didn't. I got only a couple miles down the
trail when I flatted a second time.
That has been one of the
recurring features of the past few weeks: endless flats. Up the tire
pressure? Flat. Lower the pressure? Flat. Tubeless? Flat. New tires?
Flat. Pray to the Buddha for enlightenment? Flat.
But even if I
hadn't flattened during the race, there was a much bigger problem
lurking which would have greatly hindered me. Along with my misfortune
of flats, I have also had the misfortune of my body vehemently
protesting activity. My hip flexors have been flairing up lately during
rides, causing a severe reduction in power. After a back ally
diagnosis, I find out I may have a degenerated disc in my lumbar spine
and a case of snapping hip syndrome which is resulting in bursitis. If
you know anything about these terms, you know none of this is good. I
also found out I have the flexibility of a steel rod in my spine, which
is not helping the situation. As a result, I can't seem to ride for any
longer than an hour without my hip seizing up with inflammation. I am
beginning a stretching regimen to try to help this ailment, but it is a
slow process indeed.
To go along with a failing body and the
overarching fear of flats, I just can't seem to get into a rhythm while
riding these past few days. My overall ability to turn the pedals is
mediocre, and my cornering is barbaric at best. The final diagnosis:
I'm stale, mentally and physically.
Of course my ego won't let
me take time off the bike completely, so I will most likely race this
weekend at the Michaux Maximus. Though in this shape I don't expect to
have a good result... which is unfortunate because Michaux is the style
of course that actually suits me (super rocky and technical).
If these things don't change soon, it is going to be a long season.
