Toe’s Loose
Um, yeah.
Toe’s loose.
Broke it loose coming down Pino last weekend.
Now I gotta cut loose, toeloose
Kick off your Sunday shoes…
You know that same toe I broke years ago…September 2012…or something like that….
Took years to heal. Well, it’s loose again.
Not too much pain. Just some flopping around in there.
It does hurt when it’s trying to sever a nerve.
C’est la vie.
Doesn’t hurt bad enough to change anything. So ‘A’ race is still Beaver Creek Xterra with a focus on qualifying for the World Championship.
What toe?
Eventually it will fall off.
This week was fun.
Went to the Madgalena’s. I love that place.
Water Canyon fun! Zoefitness Season Opener! I ‘ran’ two miles with the boys afterwards. It was a good day!
May have been a PR. I thought I was slow, slow as a tortoise. Started off good, and faded fast.
It had snowed the day before at the higher elevations. And at times I was getting squirrelly through what was visually about 6 inches of snow in spots.
The road was super fast.
I was not.
I haven’t had brakes in about two weeks.
My appointment at the shop was the day after this planned ride.
I’m not one to allow something like no brakes keep me from doing something fun.
I do NOT suggest that people ride 3600 feet without brakes.
I have ridden without brakes on more than one occasion.
It’s definitely a learned skill. That takes years to develop.
Please, whatever you do, do NOT ride without brakes. I am a trained professional. I have fear. I control my speed, and keep it all SAFE. So safe, I’m here to tell you all about it.
Wednesday was the BEST day I have ever had out there. As far as views. So much so, I’m going to do my best to figure out how to load the video I took so I am able to share it with you. It was unbelievable! No luck with the video, I’ll link it here.
I do have this picture:
I have been making trips to Water Canyon since about 1995 or 1996. I remember my 1st trip. Was with a friend, Steve Sandven. It took forever, literally, forever. That was back in the day when we still wore t-shirts while we rode. Yeah, we were cool. I always remember my friend when I go out there. That particular day I had a kidney infection. I don’t remember, whether or not, I had brakes. Probably. Steve always took pretty good care of me.
Pretty sure when I keeled over later that night, and couldn’t move, he was the one who took me to the ER.
Funny, the things we remember.
I remember how it totally freaked him and his roommate out.
I am pretty sure I remember me going,
“Nah, I’m okay, I don’t need to go the hospital.”
That’s pretty much the way I roll. You’ve probably guessed that by now.
To help you understand that aspect of me better. When I shattered my jaw, I road home, with blood dripping from my face, and calmly said,
” I think, I broke my jaw, I need to go the emergency room.”
Or the time, I tore a hole in my patellar tendon in the South Foothills, conveniently while fire and rescue were training up there. I rode down the mountain…in front of and faster than the rescue guys, and refused treatment. I said, “If I can ride down the mountain, I’m fine”.
Or how about that time I got bit by that 5 to 6 foot pit viper, and thought to myself, if I made it to the aid station and I’m not dead, I can finish this thing. I had to 3 days later; being heavily coerced by clients and co-workers, as well as friends that I should seek medical attention.
I just noticed a commonality between all of these examples.
Don’t you dare…say it out loud!!
Well, unless you want to compliment me, on how tough I am.
I won’t accept any idiot comments, or eye rolling.
We have now scientifically proven that the more pain we’re exposed to, the greater the pain threshold we have.
I do believe this.
Whenever I am in pain, especially during long endurance events, I say to myself, “Is this more painful than natural child birth?” The answer is always ‘no’, and I just push through.
Just like my loose toe. Well, it certainly doesn’t hurt any more than the original injury, even though, it’s just flappin’ around in there. It actually hurts less, way less.
That’s another great reason for HIT training. Or high intensity interval training. It desensitizes our pain receptors, or at least, how we interpret pain.
People who have never really undergone real pain, they do not understand what pain is. They have no gauge to give me honest feedback on a pain scale. And it takes a long time to explain.
We should never ever be afraid of pain. Pain always makes us stronger. It doesn’t matter if it’s physical pain, emotional pain, psychological pain. It always, always makes us stronger.
I raced the 1st week of April. The Adoption Exchange Classic. My friend Silvio sure does put on a fantastic event! Yes, it was a road race. Yes, I had fun. Yes, Zoefitness is a proud sponsor and has been for years. All the profits go to The Adoption Exchange. This year we raised over 7k for them. The Adoption Exchange is an Omnium. So on Saturday Morning we raced a Time Trial.
I love Time Trialing. This may actually be my favorite discipline. Although, you can tell, I just ride my road bike. I didn’t put on my fancy race wheel on the back, because I wanted to collect power data.
Data geeks can be that way.
We have a couple of hours, and then race the Criterium. Sunday is the Road Race.
I did pretty well considering I haven’t done any group riding, in well, a year. And I had only been on my road bike 4 times since last summer, two of those times, I’m pretty sure were on the rollers.
This pic is heartbreak hill. It’s a wall. Pretty similar to what we would see in mountain biking. Steep, and short, very steep. I don’t run a compact on my road bike, and I got dropped like a bad habit here. It doesn’t really matter how much SS you ride during the winter, for how long, huge gearing will not help you pedal fast on a 22% grade hill.
I spent the next 25-26 miles chasing down, what I thought was the main group. Turns out it was a group of 3 girls. And the girl who won, had taken off on this climb.
When I finished I was very surprised I was 5th, I told my friends, I was chasing down the group the entire time. And the three in that group said, they thought they were trying to outrun the main group. No…it was just me. I had a little bit of help on a couple of sections, nothing significant, especially since I was having to do most of the work. Although, I know the small bouts of rest I did get was very helpful.
I’m always impressed with this race, or whenever I do short races, because hypothetically, and physiologically, I’m not supposed to have much of a short game, based on all my long stuff. I do. And that always surprises me a wee bit.
I do very much enjoy the road scene. I met some really cool girls. Had a great time. Saw some old friends.
It’s these little road races I do that make me so much faster. I do enjoy chasing some roadies. Even in 30 mph winds…okay, maybe not so much. It was fun.
I can’t remember exactly:
I think, I placed
6th on the TT
7th on the Crit
and 5th on the RR.
GC I think, was 6th. Don’t quote me. Feel free to check out the results.
Take Care.
Thanks for checking in.
Remember Pain Makes us Stronger.
And keep the rubber side down!
-Coach Zoe
Cheers to being Our Ultimate Potential.