Thursday, June 26, 2014

It's Not A Tumor

Sully can impersonate this pretty well.
I haven't been feeling like myself lately. And when I say lately I mean the past 10 months. I haven't been wanting to post until I figured out what it was because it seemed like we were close but since ruling out a brain tumor we're back to square one.

Look at that healthy brain!
Initially I thought I was just recovering from Leadville, and then things at worked changed and then I was studying for the GRE and then I was taking the GRE and then I was moving and then I was switching jobs and then I was starting to up my training and then I was trying to race and then I knew something was off. Not terribly off  just not right, but off enough. I saw a doctor who chalked it up to just "paying the price of being on birth control" when I mentioned that might part of
the issue. Yah, uhh okay. I went and saw my doctor, the one who navigated everything with my brain injury and told her everything. She ran all the tests she could and then some. I apparently have an abnormally high amount of a hormone that can lead to issues later on and cause some problems now (biggest one, fatigue) the number one cause for most is a tumor pushing on the pituitary gland. I had to get a Brain MRI to rule out a tumor, which I did and then they did. Which puts up back to mostly square one and off to see an endocrinologist.

Not that it's really super significant to write about my medical life but a little because well mostly it has been impacting my riding. As a result I seem to end up more on my Remedy or my single speed cross bike because well it's a little depressing to get on my race bike and feel like I'm out for a Sunday stroll. I feel like I'm missing that next gear, to kick it in and go.

My current nemesis
It hasn't been awful, there are certainly more dreadful things I could be facing. I've gotten a little better at riding my Green Machine (remedy) and have found a new focus after Leadville. There is a technical trail outside of town that has a technical rock section. I can occasionally clear the whole section going down (except a left turn off a rock at the top, I can't turn left!) if I haven't bonked or started crying. But there is a huge rock that I cannot get up. I like riding with Sully I do, I really do, he has lots of skills so he can pick a line and go and he makes it, with flat pedals or clipped in. I on the other hand have been working and reworking lines to try and muscle up all my strength to get up and over. The past two times were actually progress. Our last time Sully and I must have spent good 15 minutes of the ride up on this one particular section. We talked lines and I tried different routes when finally the stars aligned and I was able to ride up onto the rock slab take the line that sent me onto a little rock that made the lift to the big rock shorter than other places. That's all I did was get my front wheel on the big rock and without much more momentum to carry me I stopped. It was a step though, and the building block I need to keep going with it.

Since then I have ridden it by myself only to rework and reride the line multiple times only lifting my front wheel onto the larger rock but never having that kick to really get up. But it's progress. As as result I haven't thought much of the other sections and when I conquer this I will be like a kid who only has once magic trick and when asked to see more try to convience the person that the one I have is so amazing I don't need anything else. I'll cross that bridge at some point though.
And occasionally this still happens....

I turn 25 this weekend, which I'm not super stoked on. Mainly because it only means one more year on my parent's health insurance. I also have the Firecracker 50 and SilverRush 50 coming up in the next three weeks. I was hoping to do the Firecracker as a team (each person does one 25 mile lap) but haven't locked down a partner and I'm don't feel super confident on my long distance riding abilities right now to really try to track down a teammate when I might completely bonk. If your interested though, let me know. One requirement: no expectations.  Even the SilverRush is up in the air at this point.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Hey! Remember Me?!?

I know it's been a while since I've posted. And it's not that I haven't been doing things, I just haven't been writing. Instead of boring you with an absurdly long post that catches you up here it is in mostly pictures.

After the Whiskey 50 I spent some time on my bike and some time off of it.
Wayne and I went to Omaha for Frank's law school graduation.
This is how the trip started out, until my car broke down with a bad pulley on the serpentine belt....Luckily the car dealer we took it to conveniently rented cars. Which immediately axed Wayne's idea of hitch hiking and instead we got to roll into Omaha in style.
 
The Silver Bullet
We made it to his hooding ceremony just in time for them to start the "M" last names. But considering we changed in the/outside the car I think we cleaned up pretty well.

Then we got to see him graduate!

After that it was back to Boulder and more riding. Sully and I did Buffalo Creek on a day off. It ended up being an amazingly good loop.
  At least until the rain hit, and hit it did, immediately filling every crease on the trail with water. We scampered to put on our rain jackets and simultaneously saw lightning strike about 200 yards away while the thunder clapped overhead. As if worrying about getting struck by lightning wasn't bad enough as we were descending the rain changed to tiny hail pellets. It felt like the sticks of 100 needles and I soon straightened my legs to try and give them some protection. It was a fruitless effort, by the time we reached the car it looked like I had been infected with chicken pox again.
 
Don't worry it was still there the next day too. 


I did the Beti Bike Bash, I felt I should. It's a women's only race/event and our shop was a sponsor. Given that I was the only girl in all three shops I felt that I should be representing. I wasn't sure how it was going to go as 1.)  I had been dry heaving/coughing up mucus for the past week and 2.) I also wasn't quiet sure how to race 12 miles (I've only ever done 20 minutes short track or 50 miles plus races).
 I surprised myself by getting the hole shot  
(probably because I forgot that it was longer than 20 minutes and started sprinting)
only choking on my mucus once and then throwing it up (pretty impressive I can stay up right on a bike for that, huh) 
 and even ended up getting on the podium. Don't worry, there were more than 3 people in the category. 

Barb even came down for it and crushed it in her category as well and then hung around to cheer for me!
Barb and I after the race!


I did some cross rides, some technical rides, some long rides, some that took me on the steepest paved road in Colorado with grades close to 25% and some leisurely rides. 
#enduro

That's really the short and sweet version of it. More to come and in more of a timely fashion.