One Bad Stretch (with injury photos)

I thought I would devote some time to write about the recent run of bad luck I have been having.  To begin, I will rewind to July 3.  Everything was firing on all cylinders.  My training was right on track. My previous race (Jamestown Int'l) was a great success, my confidence was high, and I was excited for Rockett's Landing Int'l scheduled for the following weekend.  On the evening of the 3rd, I headed out after work for a ride with Hause on a route we have done a million times.  I was already looking forward to having the 4th off and taking advantage of the down time with a double run.  We were riding out in Goochland on Miller's lane and I was having a strong ride.  We had just come up a pretty steep hill and there was a small downhill section before a slight climb.  I was sitting up and riding in my big ring and I had just shifted to the easiest cog on my cassette when my drivetrain completely locked.  It happened so suddenly that I had no time to react.  One second I was pedaling up hill and the next second I was launched head first over my handle bars toward the asphalt.  I just remember thinking "oh f**k this is going to hurt" and it did.  I hit the pavement hard. I broke my fall with my right hand and the next thing to hit the pavement was the inside of my left elbow and side.  As I was on the pavement I went through a quick mental checklist of my body.  My first thought was "ok nothing life threatening", my second thought was that my wrist was broken and my Ironman was going up in smoke, and third was whether I had destroyed my bike. 

About this time I looked down at my left elbow and no sooner had I looked down when blood started pouring down the inside of my arm.  I am pretty squeamish when it comes to blood and I quickly became light headed.  Not to mention it was pretty hot and I was probably a bit dehydrated which didn't help matters.  There was a nasty wound on the inside of my left elbow.  I had taken a golf ball size divot of skin out of my arm and it was really deep.  At this point I was pretty out of it.  I sat in the street for a few minutes trying to gather myself.  I was able to get over to the side of the road and sit in the grass.  The next 20-30 minutes is kind of a blur.  I think I was in shock a bit.  I kept asking Hause if I had hit my head because I was so woozy.  He kept reassuring me that I did not and flagged down a car for help.  He was able to find a nice gentleman who went home to get his truck and came back to drive us and our bikes back to our cars.  We also happened to run across another cyclist who was on some type of long distance east coast cycling journey and he was fully stocked with first aid.  He was able to render some assistance and I was able to at least cover my elbow.  As I was sitting in the grass I was taking stock of my injuries and wondering whether this meant my season was over.  I had road rash on my left leg and up my side, the large wound on my elbow and my wrist was definitely hurting.  I was hoping that I had just sprained the wrist but deep down I think I knew that it was broken.  It took me about 15 minutes or so before I got my head on straight.  We had a 15 minute drive back to the car.  When we pulled into the parking lot we just happened to drive by my buddy Moose Herring who is an orthopaedic surgeon (and has really worked to help save my season.  I truly appreciate everything he has done for me.  I owe him more thanks than I could ever dole out).  I flagged down Moose and told him about the crash and he told me that he would go with me to his on call facility.  At this point I was feeling okay enough to drive and I drove myself to Ortho On Call.

Moose took x-rays of my elbow and wrist.  The elbow was negative but the wrist x-ray showed a probable scaphoid fracture.  Unfortunately with scaphoid fractures you often have to wait a week for a second x-ray to truly determine whether it is broken.  Moose set my hand in a cast and immobilized my thumb.  He irrigated and debrided my elbow and stitched it up as best he could.  He also cleaned and dressed the rest of my wounds.  I honestly don't know where I would be today if I hadn't gotten such first class care right after the accident.  Fortunately (or unfortunately) I banged my elbow so hard that my ulnar nerve went numb.  I had no feeling from my elbow to my wrist which was good while he was cleaning out the grit but has been quite annoying over the last few weeks.  It has been 26 days since the crash and my elbow is still pretty numb and swollen.  I suspect the bone bruise and nerve issue are going to take months to resolve.  

Moose told me that I had to take the next five days off and we would re-evaluate the situation after the weekend.  Over the weekend he cleared me to start running and riding the trainer.  Unfortunately the open wounds and uncertainty about my wrist were going to keep me out of the water for quite some time.  Over the next few days Moose really went out of his way and volunteered his personal time to clean and re-dress my wounds several times.  He also set me up for a follow up x-ray and got me an appointment with his hand/wrist specialist, Dr. Glowacki.  Unfortunately, the follow up x-ray showed that the scaphoid was clearly broken.  This left me with two options, eight weeks in a cast or surgery.  With Ironman 8 weeks away, a cast was not an option.  Surgery seemed like my best option to get back to training and save my Ironman dreams.  Additionally, Dr. Glowacki was going to irrigate and debride my elbow again and close it up to get me back in the water as quick as possible.  Surgery was set and I went under the knife the day after my birthday.

Surgery was pretty uneventful and went smoothly.  It was amazing how little pain I had after surgery. The weirdest part of the procedure was that they did a nerve block on my right arm.  This basically cut off all feeling and control to my arm and I essentially had a dead arm for 24 hours.  Definitely a weird sensation.  Dr. G is a real miracle worker.  In fact I only had to take one day off after surgery and I was back running and riding that weekend.  I was on my bike riding outdoors in West Creek and did 50 miles that Sunday.  I am also now the proud owner of a permanent metal pin in my wrist.  I was surprised how big that sucker is when you see it on x-ray.


I have been able to get back on track after a couple weeks of lesser volume.  Last week I was finally able to get back in the water.  I was concerned that I would have lost my feel for the water since I had been out for 3 weeks.  Fortunately I did not feel too bad and the swim seems to be picking back up quickly.  I had a huge volume week this week and have one more monster week in final preparation for Louisville.

During the time I was forced to ride loops in the controlled environment of West Creek, Hause went back to the scene of the crash and snapped this photo.  It shows the puddle of blood from my arm on the pavement.  The crazy thing is that he took the picture like two weeks after the crash after multiple thunderstorms and it was still prominent on the blacktop.

This week my bad luck streak has continued.  On Wednesday evening, me and a buddy of mine got our bikes locked up on a left turn and we ended up landing on top of each other.  Fortunately we were both going very slow and neither of us was seriously injured.  I just have a couple more bruises to add to the collection.  I am thankful we are both okay as he has Ironman Mont Tremblant in 3 weeks and I have Louisville in 4 weeks.  As if this little scare wasn't enough, I had another issue on my Saturday long ride.  Yesterday Hauserman and I had a five and a half hour ride.  We had gotten up early to beat the heat and were riding strong.  We were 65 miles in and cruising at a great clip.  We were on pace to ride 112 miles in 5:13 which is sixteen minutes faster than I did at the race last year!!! Unfortunately my Karma just continues to be off.  As I traveled up a hill, I had a repeat malfunction that caused my first crash.  My drivetrain shifted the chain into the wheel again...wtf!!!!  This time I was able to slam on the breaks and got off the bike before sustaining any further injury.  Needless to say after we got back to civilization, my first trip was to the bike shop.

At this point I look like a walking train wreck and all I can do is laugh.  I have got scabbed over road rash, huge bruises, and a brace on my wrist.  I look like the walking wounded.  But through these little incidents I have chosen to keep my head down and keep grinding.  I am not going to let any of this sh*t get in the way of my goals.  I am not going to allow any of it to be an excuse to not give my best in training or on race day.  If things work out like I am hoping it will just make for a better story.  For now, I will continue to put hay in the barn until the big day.  I know I have put in a ton of quality training this year and have not cut any corners.  Because of that I will be able to live with 9:45 or 13 hours because I know I couldn't have done more in training.  I am going to spend the next few weeks fine tuning things and I look forward to racing on August 26.  Thanks again to Moose and Dr. G for helping to fix me and keep my dream alive.  Thanks for reading!