WP MTB Series Wrap Up

It was definitely a disappointing ending to the Winter Park series since I wasn't able to compete in the final two races. However, my other race results combined with the drops were good enough for a third place overall finish!

Bryce had a stellar season finishing on the podium at every race except one and ended up winning the overall series by two points! Next year he moves up to the Expert 30-34 category so he'll have his work cut out for him :) Congrats Hunny.

My head and hand are still out of commission so my normal full weekend of exercise is out of the question leaving me a lot of extra time on my hands. Melanie and James brought over another zucchini from their garden so I decided to make muffins and brownies out of it! Tada.

Recovery time

 

Last Friday I checked into Avista Hospital where Dr. James Reid surgically repaired the torn UCL in my thumb.  The operation went well, and it sounds like Dr. Reid repairs quite a few of these 'Skier's Thumbs' in Colorado.  

Although the surgery went well and lasted less than an hour, I suffered through the anesthesia recovery a little bit more than anticipated.  Bryce sat in the recovery room with me for about four hours after I woke up, and even when we left I still felt completely out of it.  Due to my fear of nausea, I haven't exactly followed the suggested pain medication routine, and have endured way more pain throughout the past few days than I should have.

I'll be sporting this soft cast until next Wednesday when I have my first post-op visit.  The plan is to remove my stitches and put me in a waterproof cast that can be molded to the shape of my handlebars!  Assuming the state of my concussion allows, I should be able to get back on the bike for some light exercise sometime after that. 

I can't thank everybody enough for the outpouring of love and well wishes through another set-back.  As you can imagine, this is not easy for me to deal with and I would love nothing more than to have a full year without any issues. 

Back under the knife :(

After showing Lara my thumb a week post crash, she wasn't very optimistic. Although it was going to cost me $1000 out of pocket to get an MRI, she was pretty insistent I get the images taken. Just knowing the diagnosis would help speed up the recovery process either way so I agreed. Late Tuesday night I got the news that the ligament was 100% torn and required mandatory surgery to fix. I was able to see hand specialist, Dr. Reid, this afternoon to reaffirm surgery was needed and he immediately scheduled my surgery for tomorrow at 7am!

I'll post more details post operation but in the meantime, you can check out more info on the injury and how it is repaired through this link (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2654954/).
I also have a stener lesion which means the ligament pulled some bone fragment away when it tore. Happy reading and stay tuned for recovery updates.

Bryce's new toys!

Bryce spontaneously decided this past weekend that he wanted to trade in his KTM 250F for a zippy 150 2-stroke. He has always been a ripper on the little bikes and was eager to switch things up to keep his riding fresh. It just so happened our boys at Fay's had a brand new leftover 2012 Red Bull Edition KTM 150 for him to pick up that day!

He has a bunch of parts to switch out before he can sell the 250 but I know he doesn't mind spending time in our toy box :)

Bryce also completed his new 1x10 hardtail mountain bike/commuter. It definitely turned into a much more elaborate bike than anticipated but now we both have the same type of bike for short track and singlespeed riding.

These are obviously not Bryce's new toys but I thought it was a cute pic to post :) I helped watch Ben's kiddos while he had some important work to take care of. We had fun watching motocross and destroying my kitchen while making cookies. As adorable as these little munchkins are, I'm still set on my ''no kids, no plants, no pets'' lifestyle!

Down but not out

As much I want to believe I am invincible on my downhill bike, the truth is, I'm nowhere close! As a matter of fact, I got a pretty good idea of that last Friday when I dropped straight on my head from the top of a wooden bridge feature in Winter Park. I had been riding really well and was told everything on this double black diamond run we were about to go down was ride-able. I had never been on it so I should have known better not to try everything even though someone told me it was okay. That definitely came back to bite me when I thought the wooden bridge continued to the ground instead of just dropping off making it a mandatory jump.

The unfortunate part is that I did land straight on my head and pulled my right thumb completely backwards. For a split second I thought my whole body was broken but thankfully it was only a concussion, a bum thumb (that still needs to be analyzed for a ligament tear), some serious whiplash, and a super sore body. The best part is that my bike was okay!!! I have been put on a mandatory 10 days of ZERO exercise so that my head can come back to life. I've already done some pretty stupid things since the incident so it's probably best I stay put on the couch for a bit. Throughout the past years of illness, I've tried to think that everything happens for a reason. This may just be a way for me to take a forced break before the cyclocross season so that I don't burn out or get sick mid-way through. For peace of mind, I'm just going to stick with that theory :)

BRC Watch Demo - HUGE TURNOUT!

 

Christine and Denny joined me Wednesday night for another watch demo at the Boulder Running Company Fun Run. I couldn’t believe how many people showed up and how quickly every single demo watch went! We had a lot of runners in the market for a new GPS watch and they were stoked to be able to try out the Run Trainer 2.0 before they bought something. Everyone who tried it absolutely loved it so we couldn’t have been more thrilled! Below are a few pics from the night.