Extreme Momentum

After feeling like crap for 3 days, I left work early today extremely frustrated. Thousands of milligrams of Vitamin C and tons of sleep just weren’t doing anything. I was going to take a nap, but decided to go for a run instead. I know that might sound odd, but I’ve found that an easy run often seems to boost my immune system (and, yes, this is proven scientifically). Besides, I could always nap afterwords.

I had been lightheaded biking home on Friday, so I thought running was fairly safe. Ha! I felt pretty good on my run even though temps were in the 30s (well, the sun was out and their was barely any wind). As usual, I went with just shorts and a Sporthill top. I ran south along the lakefront path, but opted for dirt instead of the pavement. I thought it would easier on my legs. Hee, hee…I found just the right slick spot about 2 miles into my run.

Making the transition from the dirt to the pavement, my foot got caught in the mud. I slipped, tripped, and stumbled right onto to the pavement. I’ve done this a million of times on the trails, but rarely anything like this. I got up and was laughing. Thankfully, the path was dead so no one saw me. I got up and checked my knee, which as covered in blood. No problem. I finished the 400 m to my turnaround and headed home. I snapped a few photos of the carnage below. It looks a lot worse than it feels, but I’m sure my knee will be sore tomorrow.

My fall today reminded me a bit of a one that I had during the spring of my senior year of track at Beloit. We were out for an easy run when I tripped on the sidewalk. I started running again, only to have my teammate Warren say, “Hey, Pete, you left some skin here on the sidewalk.” My teammates encouraged me to head back to training room, where the training staff was no stranger to having clean out our wounds. Ah, the joys of spring!

I tried and I tried, but I couldn’t save my beloved front training wheel.  It was one of the first ones I built back in 2006. After nearly 3 years and around 7,500 miles, the hub had finally had it. I kept adjusting the end cap, but it was always coming loose. I had also replaced the bearings once last year.  Not a bad life considering how horrible the roads are around here.

The good news is that the rim was still in decent shape.  I didn’t want to spend $$$ on new spokes or a new hub, so I decided to sabotage one of my lightly used CX wheels. It had the same number of spokes and they were the right length. As usual, I got the wheel laced, tensioned, and trued and was beginning to worry things wouldn’t work out, but somehow the wheel turned out OK.  Here’s a photo of my old hub and spokes, the new wheel, and a PDF showing build specs.  Now, I just need to go ride it.

Spoken Man sculpture – My old White Industries LTA hub and spokes after disassembly.

The new wheel – DT Swiss 240s hub laced 2x with DT Revolution spokes to a well used Mavic Open Pro rim.  The hubs are good enough for MTBing and it be interesting to see how much longer the rim lasts.

Specs for the wheel – I was aiming for about 110-120 kgf. I use a Park Tool tensionmeter to check spoke tension.

After hearing about Lance Armstrong’s clavicle surgery, I totally felt for him. It reminded me of my own experiences last year.  He was just starting to get back in form and was targeting the Giro d’Italia in May.  He might still be able to race, but his crash definitely threw things off. Thankfully, the Tour de France isn’t until July!

I found a picture of his clavicle “hardware” on a video he posted on his Livestrong website.  There are 12 screws, because he had a complex fracture to fracture to repair and mine was a fairly simple reduction. Here’s are photos comparing our clavicle “hardware”.  Besides Lance’s website, check out his Twitter feed for some cool photos and updates on his situation. Best wishes to Lance on a speed recovery.

An x-ray of Lance Armstrong’s clavicle “hardware” with 12 screws.

An x-ray of my clavicle “hardware” with 8 screws.