0 comment Thursday, October 2, 2014 | admin
*disclaimer* - This story does not involve bike commuting, but does involve a bike commuter, and the specific reason why he will be getting a ride to work tomorrow.
Yesterday, I raced in my first Xterra (offroad triathlon), and while it was a beautiful venue, and we had great weather, the race did not go all that well for me. The event was held at Wellington lake at 7700 feet, and entailed a mile swim, 20 mile off road bike, and 5 mile trail run.
So full of excitement at this point... if I only knew how I'd feel in an hour
I had an awesome swim where I was probably in the top 10%, and I started well on the bike leg. We went down a potholed dirt road called "Buffalo Plunge", and since the sun was still low in the sky, the pine trees shaded all the potholes and dangerous spots in the road with dappled sunlight. I made it through the first three miles of the plunge fine, I just felt like I was getting the hang of it when I hit a pothole that I didn't see, my left hand bounced off the bar, and I wiped out hard going about 17 mph downhill. I took most of the impact with my right forearm, and gouged it badly, then rolled onto my shoulder and helmet before stopping. After a few minutes of dazedness and getting help from a fellow triathlete who stopped, I straightened my seat and rode down to the ambulance station, where they bandaged me up (the first time).
I got mostly patched up, and told I probably needed stitches, but I felt alright, and decided to keep riding to see if I could finish the race. I took a moderate pace for the remaining 16 miles, and had a pretty nice time... considering.
After the bike leg transition, I took the opportunity to get new bandages before the trail run; I'd like to thank the Park County volunteer fire department at this time, their bandage work was very professional. I walked most of the trail run, picking up to a jog only on downhills and the last mile, the arm hurt quite a bit, and I didn't care to swing it much. Taking my time at the aid stations, I did get to see a guy puke up a quart of yellow liquid, I think he had it worse. I finally came in at about 4:30, an hour behind where I would have liked to come in, and second to last in my division (I hope the last guy had a good excuse), though I think I'll count it as a personal victory. I still have an unbroken record of finishing every race I've ever started, so I've got that going for me.
The conclusion of the event was much more anti-climactic, there was no "stick-to-itivenss award", and instead I had to fill out some incident reports. I got my wounds thoroughly cleaned by the EMTs, it hurt something horrid, and wrapped up a third time, with instructions to go to a hospital for professional cleaning where they could pick out any sand or gravel they had missed.
I was also there by myself, and after getting help putting my transition and gear and camp in my car, I drove over 20 miles of washboard, back to highway 285, and back to Denver. My sister took me to an urgent care, and after a little over two hours of cleaning, anesthetizing, and painkilling, they sent me home with a mummy wrapped arm and a big prescription for painkillers.
The gouge in my elbow - you could see my muscle moving at the apex of the wound.
Divot in shoulder.
Road Rash, worst I've ever had (and that's saying something)
All wrapped up.
I slid several feet on this.
The rest of the slide was mainly on this arm. The whole thing is a bit swollen at this point.
And in case you were wondering, yes, it hurts pretty badly.
Yesterday, I raced in my first Xterra (offroad triathlon), and while it was a beautiful venue, and we had great weather, the race did not go all that well for me. The event was held at Wellington lake at 7700 feet, and entailed a mile swim, 20 mile off road bike, and 5 mile trail run.
So full of excitement at this point... if I only knew how I'd feel in an hour
I had an awesome swim where I was probably in the top 10%, and I started well on the bike leg. We went down a potholed dirt road called "Buffalo Plunge", and since the sun was still low in the sky, the pine trees shaded all the potholes and dangerous spots in the road with dappled sunlight. I made it through the first three miles of the plunge fine, I just felt like I was getting the hang of it when I hit a pothole that I didn't see, my left hand bounced off the bar, and I wiped out hard going about 17 mph downhill. I took most of the impact with my right forearm, and gouged it badly, then rolled onto my shoulder and helmet before stopping. After a few minutes of dazedness and getting help from a fellow triathlete who stopped, I straightened my seat and rode down to the ambulance station, where they bandaged me up (the first time).
I got mostly patched up, and told I probably needed stitches, but I felt alright, and decided to keep riding to see if I could finish the race. I took a moderate pace for the remaining 16 miles, and had a pretty nice time... considering.
After the bike leg transition, I took the opportunity to get new bandages before the trail run; I'd like to thank the Park County volunteer fire department at this time, their bandage work was very professional. I walked most of the trail run, picking up to a jog only on downhills and the last mile, the arm hurt quite a bit, and I didn't care to swing it much. Taking my time at the aid stations, I did get to see a guy puke up a quart of yellow liquid, I think he had it worse. I finally came in at about 4:30, an hour behind where I would have liked to come in, and second to last in my division (I hope the last guy had a good excuse), though I think I'll count it as a personal victory. I still have an unbroken record of finishing every race I've ever started, so I've got that going for me.
The conclusion of the event was much more anti-climactic, there was no "stick-to-itivenss award", and instead I had to fill out some incident reports. I got my wounds thoroughly cleaned by the EMTs, it hurt something horrid, and wrapped up a third time, with instructions to go to a hospital for professional cleaning where they could pick out any sand or gravel they had missed.
I was also there by myself, and after getting help putting my transition and gear and camp in my car, I drove over 20 miles of washboard, back to highway 285, and back to Denver. My sister took me to an urgent care, and after a little over two hours of cleaning, anesthetizing, and painkilling, they sent me home with a mummy wrapped arm and a big prescription for painkillers.
The gouge in my elbow - you could see my muscle moving at the apex of the wound.
Divot in shoulder.
Road Rash, worst I've ever had (and that's saying something)
All wrapped up.
I slid several feet on this.
The rest of the slide was mainly on this arm. The whole thing is a bit swollen at this point.
And in case you were wondering, yes, it hurts pretty badly.
Labels: Bike Crash, Bike Racing, Road Rash, Scabs, Stick-To-Itiveness, Xterra
0 comment Friday, April 25, 2014 | admin
... but you need a razor blade, some tweezers and a dental tool to take the Colorado out of the boy.
Karen helped remove this little bit of Colorado granite from my elbow this weekend. I expect it was from this incident, and somehow avoided being excised at the quick-care cleaning. I started noticing something hard at the apex of one of my scars about a month ago. Like anything annoying that's noticeable and won't go away on it's own, sooner or later you are bound to do something about it. So we gathered what we had on hand (assorted dental and jewelry making tools, a razor blade, neosporin) and did some light surgery.
I could feel the hard object underneath the scar, and figured since it was through scar tissue, there wouldn't be too many nerves to fire off, or any important blood vessels in the way. With an aim to educate, here's my step by step procedure on how to remove an object from under your skin:
1) Scrub the area for at least 30 seconds with soap, rinse clean.
2) Sterilize your instruments, we used nail polish remover, then a rinse with water. Isopropyl will work too.
3) Get someone steady handed to make the incision. Karen is very skilled with small tools, having spent a lot of time making jewelry. She is also very stoic around bloody things, so I wasn't worried about squeamishness. The incision was about 1/8th of an inch long, just over the top of the area where the object could be felt.
4) Have something to dig around with, I used a dental scraper tool. Needle tool or sterilized paper clip can work too. I had to really get in there with the tool, but as soon as I did, the unmistakable clink clink sound of steel on stone was audible.
5) Dig out the foreign object. Once I got the point underneath the pebble, I just kept pulling up until we could see it and remove it from above. (there was a bit of puss surrounding it). This didn't hurt as much as you would think, probably because of the absence of nerves in the scar itself.
6) Disinfect. We used pain relieving triple antibiotic, aka neosporin. Everything seems to be healing up nicely.
So there you have it, quick and easy surgery for amateurs. And now I have another little memento from Colorado to remind me just how much fun it is out there.
Remember, clean your wounds thoroughly when you crash, although even the professionals seem to miss things sometimes.
Karen helped remove this little bit of Colorado granite from my elbow this weekend. I expect it was from this incident, and somehow avoided being excised at the quick-care cleaning. I started noticing something hard at the apex of one of my scars about a month ago. Like anything annoying that's noticeable and won't go away on it's own, sooner or later you are bound to do something about it. So we gathered what we had on hand (assorted dental and jewelry making tools, a razor blade, neosporin) and did some light surgery.
I could feel the hard object underneath the scar, and figured since it was through scar tissue, there wouldn't be too many nerves to fire off, or any important blood vessels in the way. With an aim to educate, here's my step by step procedure on how to remove an object from under your skin:
1) Scrub the area for at least 30 seconds with soap, rinse clean.
2) Sterilize your instruments, we used nail polish remover, then a rinse with water. Isopropyl will work too.
3) Get someone steady handed to make the incision. Karen is very skilled with small tools, having spent a lot of time making jewelry. She is also very stoic around bloody things, so I wasn't worried about squeamishness. The incision was about 1/8th of an inch long, just over the top of the area where the object could be felt.
4) Have something to dig around with, I used a dental scraper tool. Needle tool or sterilized paper clip can work too. I had to really get in there with the tool, but as soon as I did, the unmistakable clink clink sound of steel on stone was audible.
5) Dig out the foreign object. Once I got the point underneath the pebble, I just kept pulling up until we could see it and remove it from above. (there was a bit of puss surrounding it). This didn't hurt as much as you would think, probably because of the absence of nerves in the scar itself.
6) Disinfect. We used pain relieving triple antibiotic, aka neosporin. Everything seems to be healing up nicely.
So there you have it, quick and easy surgery for amateurs. And now I have another little memento from Colorado to remind me just how much fun it is out there.
Remember, clean your wounds thoroughly when you crash, although even the professionals seem to miss things sometimes.