Sunday, July 13, 2008

Pollyanna

So next time I post such a pollyanna-ish la la la everything is wonderful entry, please smack me upside the head. Or remind me that I'm tempting fate.

Fate doesn't care for being tempted, apparently.

For starters, Basta drove his bike into the house.

Specifically, he forgot that the bike was on the roof and drove the car into the garage. Crossbars on the roof rack of the cool new car broke, cool new bike rack, with cool new bike still attached, came crashing to the ground.

Fuck.

To put it gently.

The car wasn't badly hurt. A scratch on the roof that you can't see. A couple hundred bucks to replace the crossbars. The bike rack is fine. The bike, though . . . totalled. Bend front wheel. Shattered frame. Fuck.

He took it to the bike shop and they commiserated, but said there was no hope. He'd need a new frame. They sent it off to Kuota who will do some analysis on it and let him know what was broken and what can be saved. They have a 'crash warranty' which they will apply towards this wreck, maybe. That will allow him to buy a new frame at a discount. No idea what the final bill for the bike will be, but $2,000 seems to be realistic.

The bike shop doesn't have a frame in his size in stock, either, so he can't buy one and get it built in time for Vineman. So he'll be doing Vineman on his old Roubaix. No tri-bike benefit.

He rode the Roubaix yesterday and found the gears were shifting erratically. He dropped it off at the bike shop where he bought it -- a different one than where he bought the tri bike -- and they will give it a tune-up and have it ready by Thurs. We leave Fri.

The next thing is his foot. He has plantar fasciitis. Very common runner's injury. He's had it for some time and I've prescribed ice, stretching, and wearing supportive shoes at all times. Well, he ices it sometimes, stretches it rarely, and walks around wearing flip-flops most of the time. So it's gotten worse. It's gotten to the point to where he dreads running and he's screaming in pain after every run.

So no more running for him. These past two weeks I've had him doing pool running. He's fit, he can run the distance, he doesn’t need more miles. He needs to keep what he has and also let that foot heal. So, pool running it is. I've done it with him and it's kind of fun. Definitely works the leg muscles.

He's still not stretching, icing, or wearing anything but flip-flops, so I don't expect this to heal any time soon. He's seeing a kinesiologist this week who will probably tell him to ice it, stretch it, and wear supportive shoes. Maybe he'll do it then. I hope the guy also does some deep tissue massage or something that will be helpful.

He can run on it, and he will do the event. He'll be in pain afterwards, but fortunately he won't be doing any long-term damage to himself.

Then there's the fires. They've been burning for weeks in California and the air quality is terrible. The Western States 100 mile event was cancelled because of very poor air quality, as was the Donner Triathlon and probably many others. Sonoma isn't as bad off as those places and the event will probably go on, but air quality is 'the worst they've ever seen,' the newspapers say. Lovely. It's still a week away and we can hope the fires will go out and the air will clear. But it doesn't look likely.

Finally, I fell, tried to catch myself, and broke my hand. Well, it's probably not really broken but it's swollen and hurts like hell. I'm typing to you using just my left hand. Not so speedy, that is. This doesn't affect him or his event but still. It hurts. Woe is me.

Crister -- your estimate of 12-13 hours for a full is right in line with mine. Maybe a little more optimistic.

We leave for Sonoma in 5 days.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hej! I feel sorry for the "accidents" but I hope you had a big laugh at least about the bicycle not getting into the garage...... To get angry does not help...but it is painful when these things happen./Crister

Anapico said...

Crying doesn't help either, apparently.