OUCH presented by my job

So I had this grand plan for a positive, uplifting post about the race last weekend. I was going to talk about how it was the smartest race I’ve ridden and about how I soloed up to a move with Ben King (Trek-Livestrong), attacked out of that group as it was getting brought back only to look back and see that I was then off the front with Johny Sundt (Kelly Benefit Strategies). And then about how I soloed up to Johny, Ben and one other guy on the last lap only to have Johny blow up when I was five meters away and the others accelerated (they were caught just before the line anyway). But instead, there was another incident this week that really made me think.

I was at work the other day and caught a nail in the thigh. When I say caught, I don’t mean glanced or scratched. I mean this nail went into the muscle in my quad. When this happened, most people would have been worried about the pain or the risk of infection. But as I sat there pressing a cloth against it, trying to stop the bleeding, all I could think about was how it was going to impact cycling. Would it take me off the bike? For how long? With my two biggest goals of the year approaching this was not good.

It turned out to be not incredibly serious, so far. I was back on the bike the next day, albeit in slightly more pain than usual. However, it really made me sit back and take notice. I think of everything in terms of how it relates to cycling. From the food I eat to the hours I work, I plan it all around the bike. There is no way I could be happy doing anything other than what I’m doing right now. I work hard for little pay, it’s a constant struggle, both mentally and physically. But each weekend I get to go race my bike and there’s never a doubt in my mind that it’s worth it. Will I still have the same mindset in ten years? I doubt it, but right now I’m living in the moment going full gas and not looking back. Who would have thought having a nail puncture your leg could be so philosophical?

Ohio is only a little over a week away. Get syked!