Now through Tuesday you can get 10% off at Nashbar when you use coupon code MY307. I actually get notified of specials quite often by advertisers but this blog is about cycling and other outdoor adventures instead of special deals. I do have a few long term specials on my web site but other than that I generally don’t post them. I decided to create a new blog called UltraRob’s Deals that I’ll throw them into for those that are interested.

This morning I went to Dr. Wood and he did quite a bit of work on my knee and the surrounding muscles. He still doesn’t think there’s anything really wrong with it other than tightness and some inflammation. He doesn’t see anything wrong with my plan to ride about 500 miles over the next 3 days including the RMCC 300k brevet. He said that on Monday I may want to do a ride with less climbing since the ride I’m planning on will have about 12,000 vertical in 140 miles.

I also had my friend at Front Range Orthopaedics take a look at my knee. He said I had a little soreness around one of my ligaments but it felt alright. He thinks a big problem is that my hamstrings, IT band, and quads are too tight and putting stress on my knee. He gave me a bunch of stretches to do and said some ice and massage would help. He also said he didn’t see any reason to back off on my training.

My coach uses a Saturday to Friday training week and this week is an easy week. Next week is my last high volume week and then I start tapering for RAAM.

Last Saturday I did the Acacia Park group ride. I stayed at the front and took a lot of pulls. The only time I didn’t manage to stay at the front was on Link Road when I attacked on the small hill and got a nice gap and stayed away for the sprint on the other side of the hill. After the sprint point, I slowed to let the lead group catch me. It was down to 5 people and they had the hammer down when they caught me. I had used too much and couldn’t get on as they went by. I chased on the way down to PPIR and caught my teammate Will that had gotten dropped from the group. We worked together but couldn’t pull the other guys back. I didn’t feel bad because the two of us and been working hard most of the ride and the other guys were pretty much just sitting on our wheels. After the group ride, I rode up to Denver into a head wind. I meet Julie up there at her sister’s house. It ended up being a 121 mile ride with an 18.0 mph average.

Yesterday I did the lunch time training race and went hard on the hill and tried sitting in on the flats. I stayed with the lead group until about half way up the hill for the last time. At the bottom nobody wanted to work so I went to the front. About half way up the other guys came around me and I didn’t have anything left and ended up getting dropped. I ended up in 4th and felt pretty hammered afterwards. After the race, my knee was bothering me again so I’m not sure what’s going on with it since it felt fine on Saturday. Tomorrow I’ll go see Dr. Wood and also have my friend that is an athletic trainer look at it to make sure it’s nothing to worry about.

My training has been going well other than 2 weekends ago when the snow stopped my 191 mile ride and my 2nd 191 mile ride turned into 97 miles because I was fighting a cold. I’m feeling fit and riding well. I’ve gotten my weight down to where I want it. I’m stockpiling bike parts, pills to keep me awake, medication to keep me breathing at my typical 80% of what a coach potato does, Assos Chamois Creme and spray to numb my butt. I’m short on sponsorship but have some and can make it work but if you want to sponsor me or donate money I’d greatly appreciate it! The local newspaper is planning on doing an article and the company I work for is planning to issue a press release.

The thing that is stressing me out right now is I had 8 crew members. One has had to bail because of health issues and another because of work. That leaves me at 6 which is enough. The problem is one more person is having work issues. It would be tough to do RAAM with a crew of 5. If you know of anyone that wants an adventure in June, please let me know. I’m thinking that maybe there’s a college student out there that could use 2 weeks of free food and lodging.

Yesterday morning I woke up to find it had snowed overnight. The grass and roofs were white but nothing on the streets. The sun came out pretty soon and it was a nice but cool day. I went over at lunch to do the training race. When I first started riding, my knee felt like it had a little inflammation but after 10 minutes I didn’t think about my knee until after the ride so it’s doing pretty good. Today Dr. Wood worked on it again and he said it’s moving better than it was on Tuesday.

I think we had 16 people show up was a big group for open streets. There a 4 traffic lights on the course. Two are at small side streets and they only turn red if there’s a car on the side street. The other 2 are at busier intersections but we are making a right turn. On the first lap the light was red at one and we blew right through it making the turn because the way the light is there’s no way for traffic to be going where we were turning. Just after we turned, we heard a loudspeaker behind us and a cop telling us how we broke the law and he could give each of us a $100 ticket. After lecturing us, he asked us to give him a thumbs up that we understood what he had said. After that he went on his way. We clearly broke the law and normally I’m very careful to obey traffic laws because I don’t want to give cyclist a bad image. In a group it’s sometimes easy just to not pay attention to the laws plus it wasn’t a safety issue.

I felt good and rode well and was only a few seconds off the leaders after the first climb. A couple other guys and I were able to get back to the leaders just after the descent making a lead group of 6. I was able to stay in the group a little over half way up the second time until Rob from RockShox picked the pace up. I was the first to go but pretty much right away nobody was left on anybody else’s wheel. Damon and Rob from RockShox finished 1st and 2nd in the Industry Cup cross-country at Sea Otter and Damon also finished 2nd in the downhill. I was able to catch my teammate Will on the flat. We were chasing our teammate Dan when Damon flatted and crashed and Dan stopped to check on him. I dropped Will just before we started the climb for the last time. I then caught Nathan who was in 2nd place about half way up the hill. I was surprised that he was riding like he had blown. I went by him but he soon came back by and I had no answer. He knew he couldn’t catch Rob and he didn’t think anybody would catch him from behind so he had eased up.

I ended up 3rd but I’m pretty sure Damon and probably Dan would have been ahead of me if Damon hadn’t crashed. I finished in 36:50 which I think was about one and a half minutes faster than I’ve done it this year. I managed to have an average heart rate of 178 and maxed it at 192.

Since my knee was still bothering me this weekend after smacking it into a fence post a week and a half ago, it was time to go see Dr. Wood. A big thanks to Dr. Leahy and Dr. Wood for giving me free treatments as I prepare for RAAM.

I first meet Dr. Leahy 10 years ago when I had a calcium deposit behind my knew that was rubbing on my hamstring tendon. It was big enough that it could be seen on x-rays. It only bothered me when I rode but I had very little pain when I would walk. I could stay off the bike for a week to let it recover but when I’d ride again, I’d feel fine for about 5 miles and then by mile 10 I couldn’t turn the pedals. My orthopedic doctor said the only thing he knew to was to scope it but he was worried that would cause scar tissue that would rub on my tendon. He said he knew about this guy in town that had really helped some Olympic athletes with injuries. He suggested I give Dr. Leahy a try before doing surgery.

Dr. Leahy has done lots of Ironmans and knows plenty about what athletes go through. With my calcium deposit, he and a couple others in the office treated it by breaking it up by putting pressure over it and having me bend my leg. It was extremely painful but I was willing to do pretty much anything so I could ride again. Within a week I was able to do normal training and within 3 weeks I was riding without pain. You can find out more about Active Release Technique and find others trained in the technique at their website. They also do normal chiropractic adjustments which I generally have something out of place.

I’ve been going to Dr. Wood for the last few years because for a while Dr. Leahy was traveling a lot training other people. Dr. Wood has worked on me so much he knows the normal things that will need tuning up when I’m in. Today he said my knee cap is moving good but there’s injury to the muscle and connective tissues so he worked on them. He had me ready to scream a few times. After a few more treatments, I expect it will be pretty much back to normal.