Injury Report

This is definitely a first.  The first time I have had to write two injury reports in 1 year.  I think I have said this in my past injury report but I have been very fortunate as an athlete not to sustain major injury.  In the 3 years of being a competitive mountain biker this is the first year I have had to deal with injury.  In that perspective I'm pretty fortunate.

Now for the unfortunate, I have dislocated my right shoulder.  More unfortunate, it comes 10 days before my biggest race of the year.  This past Tuesday I was doing some of my last intense intervals for my Ore 2 Shore preparation.  I had recruited Jared Koski to drive my scooter for a moto-pace session.  I got my warm up in and then completed my first 30 min interval.  All was going very well and by the end of the first interval we had developed a rhythm to where I was catching the draft perfectly and still keeping a safe distance from the bike.  He had also successfully routed me around and warned me of any hazards on the road.  The start of the 2nd interval had started as perfect as the 1st had finished until..........bam.......pop!  I was on the ground faster than I could even comprehend what was going on.  I laid on the shoulder of US 41 stunned but not terribly out of it.  My first reaction was to look for my bike which was laying in the middle of the highway.  I stood up, looked for cars, and removed it from the road.  After that everything started to hit me.  The realization I was just in a huge crash, my front wheel was destroyed, and my shoulder was in a lot of pain  Jared came to a fast stop and was at my side immediately.  I saw the panic in his face as if he thought it was his fault, but it had nothing to do with the driver.  I gathered myself and started to analyze the crash scene.  The culprit, a small egg sized river rock that my front wheel to hop over it proceeded by folding it in 1/4.  The bent wheel sent me straight to the ground on my right shoulder scraping my head along the way.  My bike was then catapulted into the air landing in the highway.  My computer shows us going 27.7 mph hour at the time of the crash.

About 5 minutes went by and Jared and I started to make phone calls.  That is when my sponsor and friend Ron Meyer pulled a u-turn and was quick to my rescue.  Into the truck and on the way to Dr. Palomaki's office.  It was crazy to think of the timing of Ron coming by.  It was near perfect and saved me a lot of time waiting for Amber to come who was on her way but 30 minutes out.  The faster I could get my shoulder back in the better and that saved me a lot of time.  To get me there we had made a sling out of my spare tube.  During the drive home I had noticed that my helmet shell was cracked all the way through.  Wow, if that is not a testimony to wear your helmet.  I remember hitting my head on the pavement but I didn't feel it was that bad.  Well, it was bad enough to crack my helmet in 2.  WEAR YOUR HELMETS!

The damage to my shoulder is pretty bad compared to my last dislocation 8 weeks or so ago.  I have a lot more muscle and tendon pain this time around.  My movement is very small and pain is more regular.  The positive thing is it has been 36 hours and I already feel small progress.  Dr. Palomaki from Palomaki Family Chiropractic has me on a very intensive repair plan and I'm optimistic that with his treatments I'll recover faster than normal.  As for being ready for my most important race of the year? Well, I'll do my best and you can guarantee I will be riding in it.  I know I will not be 100% but only time will tell how well my shoulder can handle 48 miles mountain biking.  If the race this weekend I would not be riding as I have no control over my front deltoid.  Sadly, this is why I'm choosing to skip WORS #7 this weekend.

Wish me a speedy recovery.