Punishment why?!!

Well, someone's trying to punish me. I didn't race Tour of Washington County because I had some family stuff to do on Saturday and Sunday. I blogged about miracle road rash cures.... didn't knock on wood.

On Saturday morning, I found some free time to go out on a bike ride. I joined up on East West Highway when the DCVelo ride was waiting for the light to change on Connecticut Avenue. I u-turned it to get in line at the back of the pack when the light turned. I said hi to another teammate, Kyle, and then pedaled quickly up the hill to turn onto Conneticut Avenue. Then all of a sudden, my front and back wheel just slipped out. It wasn't raining yet! No gravel which I could see on the ground, I thought I was cornering pretty well. Wham! bike sliding out from under me, hitting my left hand and elbow really hard on the ground with my hip. I quickly got up and readjusted my left shifter. Nothing seemed to be broken, however I told Kyle that I would head home and for him to catch up to the other riders. My hand was coated in oil and my butt, and side. Instead of going home, I decided not to go back and wake up my family with a racket, and I needed to ride, so I continued on to chase back. I spoke to several guys in the pack and they said they saw the Metro Bus leaking a whole lot diesel. Well, thanks guys for telling me. A nice contusion and scrape on my elbow, which looked like it was broken, nice road rash on my ass, and a bruised left wrist with a small scrape. The ride actually was a good ride as the usual hammers were not there, more my speed this time and I actually did every hill. It rained the last part of the way home and I got back to wash myself off. I jumped into the shower, smelled like diesel and couldn't get the oil off of my butt, even after several attempts with soap. The same was true when I washed my ripped bibs and shirt in the washer. Oh well, I'll smell like diesel for the next couple of weeks.
Well, I followed my treatment again, luckily I had some left over Drs. Choice pads. Hopefully in the next couple of days, I'll take the pads off and find out that everything is healed over. Oh yeah, my neck is sore like I got whiplash. It's amazing how even in a fairly slow crash, I probably wasn't going too much over 15 miles an hour, can cause so much destruction.

So much for not crashing this year. Paybacks for not racing? Bad luck for posting about miracle cures for road rash? Who knows. Bad luck.

Recovery.

Well, I thought I'd be back in shape sooner than later. It's been almost 3 weeks since my hernia surgery. I was thinking about racing the Tour of Washington County. Unfortunately, I don't have a TT bike or some clip on bars. So that was a major negative for me in making that decision to do Tour Of WC. The other factor is that since my surgery, I have no core anymore. 3 slices into your stomach muscles are bad. On the long hills, or extended long efforts, I just get tired and fade away. I get gapped and can't come back. Sucks. Oh yeah.. by the way, I went in to the oral surgeon to follow up on a sore bone in my mouth, this is about 5 months since my tooth extraction because of a cracked tooth. Well, he was thinking that it was caused by a bone trying to make its way out of the gum on the roof of my mouth. He probed a bit and couldn't see anything and recommended that I go for a biopsy. Well that is a term for cutting you open and taking something out. So, since I had a bit of time and no meetings in the morning, I decided to go for it. The surgeon basically cut my gum near my molar then peeled it upwards to the bone growth, found no bone chips and decided to cut down the bone which was growing and irritating my gum. Yep.. he took pictures too, it was pretty cool to see how the proceedure was like. However teeth pain for me is like the worst kind of pain. That low throbbing pain cannot be taken away by any medicines including codine, vicodin, etc. I found the best is several Motrin's was best. That's my choice for medicines. Anyway, after getting stiched back up and released, I went back to work. The stiches worked itself out by the end of the day, however a few came out after a few hours. I went out on the hill ride, sucked wheels for the whole time and got dropped. Something is really wrong. It could be the lack of base this past winter, however more likely it's the lack of consistent training. This year is a wash for me. Maybe next year... or may be retirement.

Gamjams miracle road rash cure.

Here is a copy of a post I did on the Bicycle Place listserve almost year ago, (July 6, 2008), when a fellow racer crashed at Nationals.

I found Drs. Choice as the best as it was similar to 2nd Skin "moist burn pad" however it was better at sealing everything up so you don't have to tape the sides so that the pad doesn't move. Drs. Choice's "Hydrocolloid Pad" had the cooling/soothing effect and it also has the ability to soak up some of the draining of the wound, of course most of the draining does leak out. Tegaderm seems to be just a very thin layer as a cover, which works well, however doesn't have the cooling/soothing effect which Drs. Choice's have. 2nd Skin's moist covering was probably the most cooling of the batch, however it never stayed in place when I slept. (I used tape on them, and of course that didn't work out too well as it just slipped off and the tape found itself on the wound itself).

My treatment was to rub the wound with my clean palm/fingers or a clean towel, under the shower. I used Betadine as a antiseptic as it is known to kill bacteria really well and doesn't sting when you apply it. I don't think cause a harsh reaction to the skin like hydrogen peroxide.
Once cleaned dab the wound dry and apply a thin layer of Neosporin + Pain Relief. This stuff is the best for the keeping bacteria out of the wound while healing. Apply the Drs Choice pad choose a size larger much larger than the area of the roadrash. If it is wound is larger, you can always overlap a certain amount of the pads as they are breatheable.

Once the pads are on, you might get some seepage from the wound, don't worry about that, just dab with a tissue or sterile gause. You can keep the pad on for a few days without changing it. (As long as you're not getting any puss or bad smelling leakage, which means you're getting an infection). After about 3 days, you'll probably want to change it as the pad will start not to stick as well as before. I actually changed mine on the 4th day and found that everything was already healing.
By the way, you can shower with these pads, just avoid standing directly in the spray of the water. Wash around the pad and quickly dab the pad dry while making sure the pad doesn't hold much water in it.

If you change your pad, go through the whole process of cleaning the wound in the shower, lightly rinsing and cleaning the wound (don't scrub), dab dry and reappl the Neosporin and pad again. Within about 5 days, my scrapes were already sealed over. I took the one on my elbow off after about 4 days and the one on my hip off within a week. It's still pretty tender, however, everything is nicely sealed up and healing without any scabbing.

If you start getting any bad smelling leakage out of the wound, clean immediately as you probably had some bacteria trapped under the pad or still embedded in the wound. You'll probably have to do some deeper scrubbing and I highly suggest using Betadine. And make sure you use Neosporin as well.

That's my advice. All of these "pads'' work well, and everyone has their favorites, however try them and don't go down the "gauze pad route and let it scab over"as the scabbing will cause more damage later on during the healing process.

By the way, Giant Food had the Drs.Choice pads on a 50% clearance a few weeks back and luckily I bought some. (Maybe I shouldn't have, as that may have jinxed me.)

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However recently because of my hernia surgery...the surgeon used a glue which sealed over the incisions really well and apparently this stuff lets the skin breathe and heal just like 2nd skin or NuSkin, however thicker as it holds the skin together. The problem I see with this treatment is that it may not provide pain relief or soak up the oozing.

I haven't crashed in a while...knock on wood, partially because I haven't been racing much and I'm not on the bike as much. The best prevention for road rash!

Online persona: The Muscle

Local winner of many National and Pro races, Russ Langley AKA "the Muscle" from the looks of his blog,(over the past year) makes him look like a bad ass. No fear, take no prisoners, just get out of my way attitude, a big FU to you...

The funny thing is that here is the same guy in a picture captured by one of our local photographers Les Doerfler.



In my opinion, this is a great capture of the riders in our area. Yes... we would all love to be able to put out huge amounts of power, drop your competitors on a whim, and are have an attitude that we are invincible, however the otherside needs to be promoted as well as we are also fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends, caring for love ones, making that extra effort to help one and another. This is what we are all about. We love competition, however it is only part of who we really are.

Great capture of the image...

Now for the humor....Russ "The Muscle" just put up a picture of himself modelling...I betcha the "gay racer" will love it. Haha. So do we really know who are fellow racers really are???

Off again.

On again, Off again is my repertoire this year. It seems that my training has been broken into 3 weeks of on and 3 weeks of off the bike this year. It started out gaining fitness, then losing it again, because of the weather, bike issues, then vacation, then rain, then work, family events, then health issues.

Well, I did say I would provide you some pictures of the trip to China.

Here is one from X'ian where we visited the museum where the Terracotta Soldiers were being unearthed and put back together from broken pieces. It's like trying to put together a puzzle with the same color.
It was truly an amazing site to see what humans are able to accomplish through their hard work and dedication.  They didn't have tools we have today, so this must have been one hell of a production line, or at least they performed it over many years of constant labor.   This site was only one of the three sites they had uncovered.  As you can see this is about the size of about a few soccer/football fields combined under one roof. 

On another tour, we got to visit a remote village in Yangshuo.  We met a farmer who was about 75-80 years old and fit as an ox.  He was very kind to share with us his house and we experienced how he lived.  He wanted to impress upon us how his fitness was.  At that point he picked up a large stone (around 250-300 lbs to my estimate) and dragged it several feet and back again.   Then he picked up a couple of stones he must have carved into weights (40-60lbs.) He performed several one hand military presses.  Pretty strong and fit!  I then decided to see how heavy the stone pillar was.  Well, to say the least it was heavy.  I picked it up a few inches, moved it about a half of a foot then released it as my arms/shoulders felt some major tingling and shocks.   It felt like I had stretched my muscles not totally properly.    Well, that was enough for me.  This guys was impressive, though he probably was used to all of the labor and has the strength which I am no longer used to since I don't lift weights anymore. 


Well, later that evening after our huge dinner, I went back to the hotel room, stuffed, then looked down at my belly.  There was a bulge coming out from my crotch which wasn't typically there.  I must have bust my belly.... I knew this was probably a hernia.  Oh no, we were less than half of the way through our tour.   So the next several days, I kept an eye on the hernia and hoping not to stress it so that I would end up in the hospital.  I can't attribute it to the lifting of the stone, as I didn't feel anything rip in my stomach or groin area, however it may be the cause. 

The next photos are from our trip in Guilin, a small city, population of almost 2 million, however very different from the larger cities like Beijing, X'ian, Shanghai as it didn't have quite as many skyscrapers and the pace of life was much slower. The scenes you see are from a boat trip we took down the Li River to a smaller town called Yangshou. The town was very picturesque. Here's a link to the view of the town from above:
As we were traveling down the Li River by boat.


There was lots to do as far as shopping was concerned as it seemed to be a market for everything. We did spend some time purchasing some painted scrolls there.

We also toured a large cavern, however was not really impressed as if you've seen one cavern you've seen them all.

One of the unique things in Guilin was to be able to see the silk factories where the silk was produced and spun as well as to go to a silk market where we of course were trapped to buy lots of silk stuff including bedding and clothing.

The next day we traveled back to Guilin to see the beautiful lakes where many of the Chinese celebrate their honeymoon.

We then traveled to Hong Hong were exposed to the Gateway to the East. Hong Kong was impressive just based upon the number of extremely high sky scrapers on the horizon. Everywhere you looked there were skyscrapers. It was a unique experience, however not really a place for tourists unless you are there to enjoy city life. There were little shopping bargains to be found as the cost of living is so high. There was a shopping market, however only for outlet stuff (closouts)and even that wasn't much of a bargain. The below picture is a view looking at Hong Kong City from a hotel on Kowloon Peninsula, where we were sitting having some late night eats drinks.

Our last stop was in Shanghai, a busy city, again with skyscrapers all over the place, similar to Hong Kong, however probably better shopping. We didn't

Anyway, enough about my trip to China. Basically it was off for 3 weeks then I got going again on my training, only to be broken up with all of the rain and weekend activities including my son birthday party, my anniversary weekend, more family stuff and of course last Friday, I got my hernia operation.
I went in on Friday morning, came out with a few small incisions in my belly for Laproscopic surgery, I was working in the evening catching up and then by Saturday, I was mowing the lawn and weeding. Stuff I'm not really supposed to do. It was time off to do those things instead of going for a ride or taking my kids to tutor lessons, play dates, etc... My doctor says I have to stay off of the bike for 2 weeks, and I know I will be going crazy thinking of the fitness I will lose.
I don't know when I will actually race this year and it is frustrating.
I'm actually thinking of retiring from racing if these things keep coming up to take me away from being able to race and train properly. Oh well. C'est La Vie!

Giant Foods follow up.

Well, I finally received a phone call from the manager for the Giant Foods on Arlington Road in Arlington, VA. The manager was very apologetic. He said that the store has no issues with adults bringing their bikes in to the store.

Being a good patron of that store, I decided to go in today after my noon ride to pick up some lunch stuff. I went in, no one gave me a bad look. I walked up to the deli meats counter ordered my stuff, and low and behold, a lady at the deli counter who works in the prepared foods spoke up and told me that I couldn't bring my bike in the store. Oh my GOD!!!! I said that I had already spoken to the store manager and he okay'ed it. She then went to say that it was a health regulation in Arlington County to not allow bikes in the store. I basically ignored her and told her to speak with her manager. After purchasing my food, I went to find the manager, because I was starting to fume again. How could this happen??? By the way the deli meat worker was very nice and helpful. The lady at the checkout who I always see was also very nice when she saw that I was at the manager's counter and made sure that I was taken care of. The manager finally came over and I thanked him for the assurance that adults with bicycles were not going to be harassed. I did let him know that I was told by another employee that I couldn't bring in the bike and he said he would take care of it and let all employees in the Giant know as word has not gotten around. I am satisfied with his answer and will continue to go there with my bike and hopefully will not be harassed again.
If any of you readers of my blog want to test this, please do. By the way, I contacted the Arlington County government Health Department and they checked the regulations and said that there were no regulations against bringing bicycles into grocery stores. I am so shocked to hear someone say this in Arlington as Arlington County is so "pro" bicyclists and commuters. So... please make sure you bring your bike in the grocery store if you are afraid that someone might steal it. Of course you can leave it outside if you feel more comfortable of having 2 hands to use when shopping.

My 2 cents and hopefully in the future I won't have any issues. Hope you don't either. Please test the Giant in Arlington out.. Hopefully your next experience will be a good one, where someone says that you're very welcome in Giant!

Fellow cyclists Boycott Giant Foods!

I've held my peace for a week now and I have not heard back from Giant Food's consumer affairs department. I am not going to let my fellow cyclists know about my treatment at Giant Foods in Arlington on Arlington Road last Monday.

I commuted to work last Monday, knowing it was going to be dry and hot out. I rode to the Giant Food on Arlington Road in Arlington to pick up my lunch and other supplies I would need for the week. This is typically my routine at least a couple of times a week. Sometimes I drop in at my local Giant on Western Avenue in Chevy Chase, MD on my way to work. I have always been greeted with friendly faces. Well not this past Monday. I arrived and carried my bike inside with me as usual, however as I went to grab a basket at the front door at the self service computer automated system, an African American lady barred my entrance and told me that I could not enter with my bicycle. This was the first time I was ever told of this and of course there are no signs saying the that case. I immediately turned around and mentioned that that was the last time I would go to Giant Foods. I then hopped on my bike looking for a Safeway where I could not remember where it was. Some runner on the sidewalk asked me if I needed help as I turned around going the other way at a traffic light. Nice guy... I asked him and he said there wasn't any around. He did mention the Harris Teeter on North Glebe Road a mile or so away. I knew where that was and decided that was my best bet.

I arrived, thinking that I may get the same treatment here. I strolled in with my bike in hand and headed towards the fruit section picked up several apples, bananas and started strolling towards the deli counter. A lady worker approached me and asked if I needed a bag to help me shop. I kindly responded yes, as I had my hands full. Not only was I surprised of her helpfulness and attitude, she rushed to get me a bag quickly and held it open for me to drop my food inside. I thanked her profusely and headed over the deli counter where I picked up some deli meats and cheese. I went through several more aisles and finished up at the cashier. As I was lining up they directed me to an new opened checkout. Total purchase: $28.+
On to work I went. What a different experience!

Three days later I checked out the Safeway on Lee Highway. No problem there either. In fact a couple of worker asked if I needed help looking for something as I was not familiar with the layout of the store.

I am just really surprised and taken a back from the greeting I got at the Giant on Arlington Road. I have been shopping there for over a year and have always found their employees very nice. The Asian guy at the Deli counter is always polite and asks me questions, the couple of ladies and one guy at the checkout line are always pleasant. The deli counter is really one of the best I've seen with a large Boars Head selection as well as other brands. I've always recommended my colleagues at work to go there as I have found it clean and a good value. So, I've done most of my shopping there, even stopping in the mornings or sometimes after work with my car to pick up the other things like laundry detergent, kitty litter, cat food, and other stuff my wife doesn't have a chance to pick up on her daily schedule. Those are days when I walk out spending over $70-$80 bucks and have a car. I guess they have done studies to show that bicyclists are not who they want shopping at their store cause they can't carry enough in their backpacks.
After the incident, I wrote an email to their consumer affairs department, which I have yet to hear any response to.

I ask you fellow cyclists to boycott Giant Foods, if you can till, I get a response from them. Or if you do go, with your bike, and have a different experience, please let me know.

I will not go to a store which does not allow me to either put the bike inside of the store as I have heard about people walking away with your bike when shopping. Arlington is not a high crime area, however, if you have a nice expensive bike, I don't think you'll want to leave it outside without someone watching it. Oh yeah.. I've also seen how bikes can get mangled by cars backing up without looking or trucks loading and unload stuff not being careful on where they roll their pallets of merchandise.

So until a store provides sufficient secure storage, I will bring my bike in with me. I don't mind leaving it at the front entrance as long as there is space and someone is aware that it is my bike. Thieves tend not to take things inside of a store as easily as they do when it is outside.

Probably what got me going on this is the fact that my office management company, CB Richard Ellis, sent out an email banning bicycles in the offices. We have many cyclists who commute to work and it is not acceptable for many of us. Well, they backed down and said that we could use the freight elevator, which kind of is a solution, however when we go back down, the elevator for the freight elevator only has the up button, so it may take some time and there of course may be other passengers in there with you. At least our building provides a gym and locker rooms with showers. That is a positive check mark for them.

Bottom line, don't let people stop you from commuting, saving gas, helping the environment, and making one less car on the road.
Cyclists unite! Ban Giant Foods or send them an email letting you know your dissatisfaction with their rule.