A Bump In The Road

Last week, June 4th through the 11th, was quite frustrating for me.  There is a race coming up on June 25 call the Hilly Billy Roubaix.  This race is 70 miles on some of roughest, dirtiest, gnarliest, roads northern WV and southwest PA has to offer.  It's so rough that it's suggested that you leave your road racing bike at home and instead bring your cyclocross bike to the race instead (a cyclocross bike is a road bike set up and designed to be ridden on roads and terrain just like this).  And it just so happens that I just got a cyclocross bike, actually it's a "team hand-me-down" as I'm the third person on the team to be using it, but it is a nice bike nonetheless.

I was stoked to be able to do this race with this bike, so on June 4th I took it out for a 50 mile training ride on the harshest roads I could find around where I live.  And I sure did find some good ones too.  I was having a blast, out in the middle of who-knows-where on these beautiful dirt/gravel roads, with a little pavement here and there getting to other dirt roads.

At twenty-five miles into my ride, I was going down a hill in the Bethany, WV area when I hit a bump in the road.  Not a pothole where you "fall" down into it, but a bump, where you "pop" up over it.  Well I hit that bump and it sent a painful jolt right up my spine that settled in my lower lumber area.  Ohhhh that crazy hurt.  And I had twenty-five miles to get back home.  Needless to say, my dirt road excursion was over.  I had to find the smoothest, shortest route to soft pedal home.

The following Monday I was in my chiropractor's office and could barely get on and off his table.  My midline was nice and straight until it got to by bellybutton where it took an angle to the left.  I was way out of alignment.  I was at his office three times to get this fixed and was stretching and laying on bags of ice in the evenings.  And to add insult to the injury, I didn't even look at my bike let alone ride it.  It was a loooong week.

But yesterday, the 13th, my last visit to the chiropractor, was all good news.  I was feeling great, he didn't find any mis-alignments, and he gave me the "all-clear" to get back on my bike and start training again.  He figured that I was starting to have alignment issues prior to that Saturday ride, and that bump was the straw that broke the... rider's back.

So now I'm back at it, had a great, hard ride today where my legs felt great but my lungs felt like they were two sizes too small, but they'll come around.  And now I'm looking forward to the party that is... the Hilly Billy.