Here we go again...

Ahhh....stooop..your're killing me! It seems like it's true: karma is a biatch... What makes me say that?! It's the fact that I'm off for a week, so I could have a pallet of time to ride some sweet & savage trails but... here comes an injury again.

My leg is sliced up pretty badly as a falling tile decided to hit me right above my ankle. I was helping out my good MTBer mate Gyuszi to chisle off bathroom tiles at his house. We were going grand, not a bother until...a sharp falling piece hit my leg nasty and cut it wide open. Freakin' perfect... 

Cleaned it up as much a bad cut can be cleaned up, wrapped up and drove into the local ER to get things sorted. After about an hour waiting the wound got cleaned properly and got taped up...

I have to go back tomorrow to get it checked and to get the wrap changed also. It'll take a bit of time to heal so it means there's no cycling at least for about 7-10 days. But the main thing is that I was lucky alright as we are talking about a nasty deep cut but nothing serious as no nerv or ligament got damaged! Thank God! :)       

No comment...

Juuuuuust perfect... I'm at home on 2 weeks holidays and here we go again...havin't trouble with my back again... 

We have been painting rooms in the last two days and ther have been some furniture shifting. There was a moment when it did not feel good and of course it has resulted some back pain. Luckily it isn't too bad and I hope I'll be back on the bike in no time. Roll on muscle & joint treatment! :) 

Out of action...

Here we go again...picking up injury at the worst possible time. This time I'm havin' trouble with my neck. And it seems like it is more hectic to get rid of then usually...

Struggling with this for more than a week at this point. Pills, injections & creams are my army but can't seem to help. The movement is very limited and the whole right side of my neck is extremely stiff. 

Of course there's no cycling for me these days but to be honest I would be happy to get through the days a bit smoother, nevermind cycling. Hoping to visit a chiropractor specialist in the upcoming days and see if we can find a solution or some sort of treatment. I hope it's gonna work 'cause the whole story is getting pretty frustrating at this point...

Shimano VS. Sram // For me Sram it is! Again!

The decision time is here I need to say...Shimano VS. Sram...Sram VS. Shimano... Everyone prefers one for whatever reason but the truth is: they are both fantastic in my opinion.

I've started mountain biking with Shimano gears because there wasn't any other good and reliable option back then. They were fine, worked very well without any hassle. In fact I loved them because they were easy to use and were easy to replace, since the Shimano parts were available all the time. Everybody used Shimano and it was the No.1 thing to have on the bike! 

Year after year I was a happy Shimano fan until an unfortunate crash that left me with torn ligament in my right thumb. Was slow and problematic recovery but when it got healed and I managed to get back on the bike I needed to do a major change to my bike...

The only solution was to get the Sram X.0 GripShift shifters fitted and obviously it ment to transfer the gears from Shimano to Sram. This was the only shifter that was operating without having the riders to use their thumb to change gears. So, I've started to use Sram gears and I have to say I simply loved them! The 1:1 gear cable pulling ratio was really good, it has provided easy adjsutment and the gears performed very well, even in crazy weather conditions. I was using them for about 6 years non-stop and I was one of the "few" who preferred Sram against Shimano. 

Them I got a new bike back in the beginning of 2010. The bike was kitted out with Shimano gears and I just couldn't invest more money to have them changed to Sram. So I sticked to Shimano for 3 more years and ended up having XTR gear system. Now, obviously it works like a dream but it's still doesn't change that fact that I need to use my thumb a lot. In the summer time it's not that bad but in the winter time when it's cold and wet things aren't easy. Got away with it for 3 years but now I just got to the point when I needed to make a decision: give up on Shimano again and start using Sram gears again.

The thumb has "healed" but it will never be as good as it was and since it is a 10 years old injury I need to be careful with it. The GripShift gives me such a nice and easy way to change gears on the bike that is a true relief. So it is time to change! 

The mission to pick up parts begins today! Hopefully I'll find everything nice & quick! :)

Dealing with ankle injury // Update & diagnosis

After bit more than a week I finally got checked out and got answers to my questions about this injury. Visited a very experienced and knowledgeable physio in Goatstown last night who got me the following diagnosis:

I have second degree ankle ligament injury (on the inside of my ankle) that isn't too serious but needs a good bit of a rest and a couple of deep tissue and ultrasound treatment sessions in the next few weeks.

So, this is not that bad after all, but the source of the problem is a bit more problematic. It turns out since I was born my right leg is 6 mm longer than my left one and because of that my left leg needs to compensate all the time. It doesn't cause trouble on the bike luckily but when I'm running it is a different ball game alltogether. Every time my left foot hits the ground the impact is a bit more than on the right one and with the tighter muscles and a sligthly restricted left ankle movement together it's causing me damage. Basicly it wasn't one big trauma, it was the repeated impact over time that caused this injury. Now, we can't do too much about this but avoiding running as part of my training routine because as I increase the distance or the time that I run it increases the chance of this type of injury in the future. And since I'm a cyclist I can sacrifice running in order to stay healthy and injury free. 

So, at this point I've been adised not to run for 4-6 weeks and not to ride off-road for 4 weeks (because of the impact that my ankles get while I'm out of the saddle). I can ride on the road after about 2 more weeks but of course I need to stay nice & easy on it. 

About the therapy that I need to do: I need to visit the physio 2-3 times more to get that untrasound and deep tissue treatment in order to get the ligaments healed up nicely. And in the future stretching needs be extremely important part of my life.

Well, I'm not gonna lie about this: I'm pissed off a bit of course...it's never good to pick up this kind of stuff. But I do what I need to do to get rid of this and to make sure I won't happen in the future. Will drop running pretty much all together and will find another alternative training besides the bike. But until then I need to have a couple of weeks "sports free" time...not gonna be easy I can tell you now...

Dealing with ankle injury...

An injury is never good I'd say, especially not now...And it's even worst when it's not caused be cycling but caused by running...

As part of my normal winter preparation I run normally once or twice a week just to build up general fitness over the winter months. Also like running because it doesn't take so much of my time, so it fits in with our routine with the Little One. Thing went well up until now...

Exactly a week ago I went for my usual running session. It was a 40 minutes session and I managed to cover a bit more than 7 km under this time. So the pace was ok, nothing too fast. After I got back home I went to work and on the same evening I had a feeling something isn't right. And things got bad the next day...I have some proper pain and pressure on the inside of my left ankle and it has fairly limited movement also. Now of course when all this happens? Right in the middle of the Festive Season when no one is working...

Ice can sort things out big time!

Thankfully I got some very useful advice how to make things a bit better until I can visit a physio and get things checked out properly. It has been a week now and luckily it got a little bit better, but it's far from being good. I'm able to ride in and out to work but I definitely had to skip my weekend spin (quiet pissed off about that...) to make sure I'm not making thins worse until tomorrow when I get to see a physio. I will get things checked out tomorrow and finally get some answers what went wrong and what do I need to do in order to get rid of it. I hope it's nothing serious though...

Have to skip the next NPS round

I gonna have to skip the next round of the 2011 XC NPS (which is the last one of the year) in Slade Valley. The decision has been made, not like I did have a choice though. This injury forcing me off the bike for a while... 

There is no point to enter a race without training and most importantly I just want to be careful with my leg 'cause the last thing I want is to get back on the bike and push it too hard too early. I prefer to get rid of this thing on the proper way even if I have to sacrifice some of my planned races for it. 

I am taking the medicines and havin' a good rest. This has been the deal for me in the last couple of days. It seems like there is a slight improvement but it is still far away to be called good. So there is absolutelly no chance to be back on the bike this week indeed. 

I think if everything goes well I will give it a go early next week. The plan is to ride the road bike strictly on the flat. Spin the pedals easly and avoid the heavy gears. I just want to have my legs turning and see how it goes. The problem is: I know it will be difficult to control my effort and pace on the bike but I have to try though! :)

Tendon inflammation - First injury of the season...

I am honestly dissapointed now... After the Wicklow 200 on last Sunday I felt tired of course but there was something else that made me worry. I felt some sort of unusual pain in me upper leg (close to the hip) during the last 60-70 km of the event but it has gone more or less for the evening. After a lovely hot bath and a good night rest I thought everything is gonna be just fine. 

But the next morning I've experienced something like I never had before: I had serious difficulty just to get out of the bed. I couldn't stand up without deep pain and I couldn't lift my right foot off the floor more than just 1-2 cm. 

At this point I decided to visit my doctor and get the things checked out. My main concern was the very sharp pain and the extremely limited movement of my right leg. It was nothing like the regular muscle or joint tiredness I do know from the past.

After a proper check I got the diagnosis: I have Tendon Inflammation in my upper leg, that takes me off the bike and training for a week at least. Of course the legs were working hard during the 200km long event but that's not the real issue. There is a good possiblity the very cold, windy and wet weather conditions pushed my body's tolerance a bit over the limits.

So I am on medication for the next 7 days and have to have a proper rest as well. This is the only way to get rid of this issue. Taking the pills and sitting around for most of the day. Great... :(

Of course it very uncomfortable 'cause I feel fresh after the weekend and the weather is getting good as well. Yep, I am happy it's nothing more serious but it is still serious enough to cause pain and give me limitation. Also bad enough to keep me off the bike in the middle of the racing season...

First crash of the season...

I went to the Phoenix Park this mornig to get some easy and flat recovery spin just before the weekend stage race. The weather was mild but wet and damp all morning. As soon I got to the park and started my regular full loop training, the worst thing happened... the first proper crash of the season!

The result of the crash...proper size bruise on my left leg.

I admit it: it was my own fault alltogether. I was way too fast in the bend and the front wheel went and I came off the bike just in a fraction of a second. The bigger issue was that I was doing about 30km/h speed so it took a little while before I stopped. Then I left a long scrape mark on the road also.

"This is just great..." This is exactly what I don't want to have just 2 days before the race. Well, lucky enough I didn't hurt myself badly: bruises on left leg and both elbows but nothing serious.After a quick handlebar adjustment and check I was back on the bike and finished 2 more full laps in the park as it was planned before. 

It is not nice to have a crash but it is even worst when it happens on tarmac road. I think in some cases it could cause more serious damage than off-road crashes. This time I was lucky and I am sure this crash shouldn't hold me back to have a savage race in Killaloe. 

Tomorrow I will get the gear ready and than I am all ready for the weekend! :)