Notes from a Millennial

[serviceguy]

12 Weeks

While breaking (heh) in a new DH bike at Mountain Creek on July 11th. I shattered my collarbone. Feeling my best on the way to the ER:

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The reason for the ride at Creek was a camping/DH trip next weekend in Vermont that was obviously not going to happen. Not sure if I stopped tumbling down the trail before I started calculating how many weeks I had until Little Sugar/Big Sugar in Bentonville, the reason I've been putting in 10 hour weeks religiously. 12 weeks. Just about the exact number everyone settles on when it comes to collarbone fracture back to MTB recovery time. Lovely.

I had about an hour drive to the hospital (Thanks @ebarker9) to contemplate what the chances of racing were, what recovery could look like etc. Thankfully the pain was incredibly mild. All things considered the worst pain I experienced was them cleaning out my wounds in the ER. Bruised ribs didn't feel too great either but the collarbone although a bit tented seemed to be okay. ER was unsure if I needed surgery so I was sent to the Ortho Monday. I was given the choice and one of my goals of 2025 was no surgery so I opted for conservative treatment. Ortho gave me a 10% chance of a non-union since being a healthy younger person will help I decided to roll the dice. Here's the 4 week post crash X-ray:

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So while I was on the couch, @ebarker9 continued training for LS/BS when he had his own injury. Unfortunately less straight forward than a collarbone break, he was not going to make the races with the amount he was able to train battling the infection. So I was on my own for this one and decided a 10 day trip was a bit much and scratched the Big Sugar Gravel race. I was able to hit the trainer in a sling 8 days after my crash. Breathing heavy sucked but I knew the only chance I had was to get back training ASAP. I built up to 6/7 hour weeks within the month and felt OK about my fitness knowing the mental side of the crash and technical skills would be looming when I got back on the real bike.

I was fully cleared from my ortho at 9 weeks. Minimal pain at the break, bone was pretty much healed. Some shoulder crankiness from being in a sling for 4 weeks but generally fine especially while riding. Thankfully I was able to preserve my fitness within reason and was able to get 12 MTB rides before I made the call to drive 40 hours solo round trip Bentonville for Little Sugar.

Making it to the line felt like an accomplishment but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have some goal times in mind.

Glad to see you back on the saddle...even though you were actually never off the saddle!

 

[Cassinonorth]

23 Hours

In an attempt to make this trip slightly less soul crushing, I added an event on the way down which lined up with the Devil's season opener. Good guys lost 3-6 but I had fun and it was good to see a buddy who moved down to Greensboro. Loudest arena I've ever been in without a doubt.

Left Friday morning at 6 am, stopping at Chestnut Mountain aka Berm Park. This place is amazing. I went up to the backcountry trails for a quick loop down Lady Bird before doing the quick laps at the hub area. They're legitimate bike park rated trails and super well built. Absolutely planning on coming back to explore Asheville more next year. Would love to check out Kanuga and Rock Creek along with all of Pisgah.

Friday had a bit more of an open ending. Tenative plan was to stop outside of Jonesboro, AR with 3 hours left to sleep then finish the drive into Bentonville Saturday morning. I passed Memphis around 5 pm and was feeling alert and decided to send it all the way in. Got to see the 9th biggest pyramid on the planet too.

So I arrived in Bentonville around 10 PM, 1000 miles and 15 hours of driving later. Got unloaded and started the prep for the race on Sunday. Kitchenette was non-negotiable.