It was immediately evident that something was very wrong with my shoulder. I was certain that I had broken my collar bone. I held my damaged wing close to my side and moved off the trail. It was all I could do to drag my bike out of the way with my left hand; I couldn’t raise my right arm at all.

Fortunately, the crash occurred at the end of the first lap, right next to a road that was lined with spectators. When the cheers and moans generated by my wreck had subsided, I politely asked the closest person to send some help. A volunteer scrambled down to check on me and helpfully removed my bike from the course. Thankfully, Billy happened by just moments later. I’ll always be grateful to him for abandoning his race and exiting the course to go find Jenny. Speaking of grateful, I’m very happy that Jenny changed her plans and attended the race. Billy found her immediately and she was able to pull the car within 50 yards of where I crashed. A special thanks also goes out to Karee, who kept an eye over our kids when Jenny went into EMT mode, and to Liz, who took them home and stayed with them the entire time we were in the ER.

Two paramedics were on the scene straight away and fashioned a sling for me that held them arm in a stable, supported position. Jenny arrived shortly after and all three accessed the extent of my injuries and determined it was nothing life threatening. They helped me stand and I turned toward the trail to begin the short trek up the path to the road. Immediately, my pulse was pounding in my ears. I became increasingly light headed and tunnel vision progressively blocked out more and more of the world. Concerned that I may pass out, the paramedics helped me back down and I was able to recover in my seated position. I didn’t get the names of these two guys, but they were wonderful; so professional and genuinely concerned. One ran for some bottled oxygen and affixed the mask to my face. Breathing straight O2 was a life saver and I was able to regain my feet and start walking towards the car. The only way out of course was to follow a portion of it to the side of the road. The paramedics and Jenny helped stabilize me and my Ace bandaged wing, managed the O2 bottle with its tubes, and assisted my progress up the slope. One of the pro riders came around the corner when we were halfway up and yelled, “Hey! We’re still racing here!” What a jackass.

I was carefully assisted into the front seat of Jenny’s car and the paramedics took my vitals and called ahead to Intermountain Medical Center. This was my first trip to Intermountain Healthcare’s flagship hospital as a patient, and the care I received is truly a credit to their top-tier reputation. Nurse Julie Paulson and Dr. Souter – along with my phlebotomist, patient accounts rep, and other helpers – were kind, humorous, and provided the ultimate care.

After an excruciating visit to the radiology department, we learned that my bones were still intact, but I had suffered a grade III Acromioclavicular joint separation. The acromioclavicular and coracoclavicular ligaments that affix my clavicle to the acromion and scapula had been torn completely.

The internal view of a grade III AC separation

A broken bone would have been better news, since bones knit relatively quickly. Torn ligaments, however, will not heal on their own without significant intervention. Compared with other soft tissue shoulder injuries, an AC separation is definitely not the worse thing that could have happened. Injuries lower down in the rotator cuff can present life-long problems, whereas my injury has a much better long-term prognosis.

The clavicle is supposed to be flush with the acromion. Not anymore!

A closeup of the injured shoulder

How to treat a grade III AC separation is still a subject of debate. This type of injury does not always require surgical intervention. The joint will heal, and the patient will regain nearly complete use of the shoulder (your mileage may vary). In the ER, Dr. Souter suggested that I consider having my shoulder repaired. His reasoning was, with my active lifestyle, having the surgery would help me heal faster and increase the likelihood of a full range of motion. Anything that held out the prospect of returning to my bike sooner was definitely worth considering. Normally, I think surgical intervention is a last resort but, in this case, I felt the benefit outweighed the risks and opted for the procedure.

The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital, known as TOSH, is nationally renowned for its collection of orthopedic specialists. Dr. Hugh West is particularly respected for his shoulder work – and he is a cyclist. Who else would I choose to work on me? Dr. West performed a modified Weaver Dunn procedure to reattach my clavicle to my scapula.

It is an arthroscopic procedure that begins with two holes drilled through bone. The first hole is drilled through the protuberance of bone on the front of the scapula that originally anchored my coracoclavicular ligaments. Next a hole is drilled midway through the clavicle, then a heavy suture material, called a ‘tightrope,’ is threaded through the holes. The bottom of the tightrope is anchored into place with a titanium ‘button’ and then the clavicle is forced down to it’s proper position and snugged into place tightly, and permanently.

I’m measuring the recovery time in terms of how long until I’m back on my bike. The estimate is sixteen weeks (six spent in a sling) before I can take my first gentle roll. That wipes out the rest of the summer, but I’m always cognizant of the many others who have it much worse than me. This recovery is relatively short, and there is no question that a bike waits for me at the end of the tunnel.

Now, I bide my time, perform physical therapy exercises, and read cycling magazines. The accident has done nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for riding. In fact, being forced off the bike has deepened my appreciation for cycling and I cannot wait to resume my passion. So, my season has taken a surprising turn but, I just can’t bring myself to honestly say that it’s really over – it’s just postponed for now. I plan to spend the fall and winter reclaiming lost time and clawing back my summer from the relatively warm trails and roads of southern Utah.

I’ve been coveting Garmin’s top of the line bike mounted gps systems, but haven’t sprung for one yet.  Fortunately, Garmin offers reasonably priced alternatives that still include useful features.  For my first foray into their product line, I chose the affordable FR60.  It is not gps enabled, but it does possess my minimum requirements for collecting work out data.  My previous monitor was a Polar RS200 model, so that will be my baseline for comparison.

The Watch

The Garmin FR60 is a heart rate monitor that is geared towards running and cycling.  It also has a general mode that simply tracks your heart rate without worrying about running or cycling specific metrics.  The ‘quick start’ manuals that ship with the devices are quite basic, containing very little information.  There is a slightly more comprehensive version easily located on their website, but it also mum on some details.  Thankfully, setting up the device is fairly intuitive so you probably won’t be hampered by the lackluster manual.  Additionally, Garmin has an active forum community.  I’ve been able to locate answers to all of my questions with simple searches.

One major disappointment for me is that the watch does not display heart rate zone information as claimed in the product literature.  It does keep track of your zones, and it can be configured to beep if you drop below or shoot up passed a set zone, but I’m accustomed to the Polar display screen that clearly shows where I am on a simple 1 – 5 scale.  It’s certainly not unreasonable to memorize my zone boundaries and figure out what zone I’m in by glancing at my current heart rate, but the convenience will be missed.

The Cycling Attachment

In addition to the watch, I also purchased the GSC 10 cadence/speed attachment.  With this unit, the watch becomes a basic cyclometer, measuring speed (current, average & max), cadence (pedal revolutions per minute) and distance.  Attaching the device to the bike and paring it wirelessly with the watch was straight forward and easy.  The manuals lack any tables to give you a clue on setting  up the wheel size for accurate speed reporting.  If you’ve ever done this before with a different cyclometer, the process is identical.  I used the table on this fellow’s website to enter a quick approximation so that I could test it immediately.  I’ll measure and update the setting manually later, for more accurate reporting.

The Software

The last component of this system is Garmin Connect, the online software that accepts the wireless uploads from the watch and displays the recorded data.  I’ve uploaded a couple of exercise events, and I’ve formed some early opinions on the strengths and weaknesses of the system.

The Garmin Connect website provides a better user experience than Polar’s Flash based Personal Trainer site.  It’s much faster navigating between screens and the workouts are well organized.  The details of the activity are presented as a graph so you can see your heart rate or speed levels at all points during your workout.  Details such as max/avg heart rate and speed are easily identified on the well laid out screen.  Sitting prominently in the upper right corner of the activity detail screen is a constant reminder that the FR60 is not GPS enabled.  If it were, the Google Maps plug in would display the route overlaid on the map – very tempting.

The reporting features of the website left me wanting.  It’s good at summing totals in various categories and you can separate activity types easily to see your totals for those workouts.  However, you cannot generate trend reports to compare performance changes over time.  I wish I could overlay my heart rate graph for different activities.  I’d love to look at the graph for a ride in the spring and compare how my heart rate is improving by mid summer.  Without that kind of long term comparison, the reporting is really of limited value.

You can, however, export your data to analyze on your own.  I’ve downloaded .csv files and created reports and charts in my spreadsheet program to fit my needs and desires.  This is also useful for inputting additional information that is not allowed on the website (like distance traveled on the treadmill).

Also missing from the Garmin Connect reports is heart rate zone information.  I like to see how long I spent in each zone – an easy stat to find on Polar’s watch and website – but it is not available with Garmin.

The number one problem with the website is that it severely limits what you can edit on line.  You can’t manually enter a distance for your work out.  I can’t enter the distance I’ve run on the treadmill, nor can I enter the distance I’ve ridden on my road bike.  The FR60 does not track multiple bikes, so I had to decide which of mine would wear the GSC attachment.  My training goals this year are mountain bike events so it won.  However, my road bike already has a separate cyclometer that is tracking distance for me.  How frustrating that I can’t add that information to the Garmin web site.  I understand they have a marketing incentive to encourage people to purchase foot pods and GSC attachments, but I consider this a ridiculous limitation.

The front porch never looked better than when this box was sitting on it

Bad Ass!

Look what arrived in the mail today, my brand new Look Pivot 14 bindings showed up from GETBOARDS.COM.  These are going on my Scott P4′s that have been sitting in the garage, waiting for the perfect hardware.  I can’t wait to take this setup to Alta and drive them down my favorite haunts.

Kudos to GETBOARDS.COM for an incredible deal on the bindings and free shipping that only took three days!  They shipped on the same day I ordered; that’s great customer service.  I will always shop these folks for new gear in the future.

I have been a confirmed Solomon binding user for years, and very happy with their performance.  However, after my late arrival to fat skis, I’ve had my confidence shaken by a few pre-releases.  It’s no surprise that the extra width of my P4′s exert more force on my bindings than skinnier sleds, so I had compensated by increasing my DIN settings.  That helped but, nevertheless, one ski or the other would inexplicably bail at the most inopportune moments.  It was annoying that something that happened so rarely was constantly present in the back of my mind when dropping over edges or plowing through crud.  After purchasing my new (and bigger) P4′s I decided that I would try a different brand of bindings and started researching my options.

Joe approves of the new gear

If you haven’t checked out Epic Ski Forums, you’re missing out on a wealth of information.  The boards receive a ton of traffic by helpful, experienced skiers.  Not surprisingly, everyone has their favorite brand, but the predominant recommendation for preventing unwanted releases was Look/Rossignol.  I should note that Look, Rossignol and Dynastar bindings are all produced by the same manufacturer.  The only difference is branding.

I also ran across this post discussing the reintroduction of the turntable heel bindings of yore.  I remembered that these binding were the bomb – but beyond my reach – way back in my youth before my 13 year hiatus on a snowboard.  These bindings have about a centimeter of elastic travel in them to absorb spikes in force without releasing.  Since the forces are not limited to direction of the ski, and are most often side or shearing forces, the heel will rotate to follow the movement of the boot.  This keeps the heel firmly clamped down across the contact surface, not allowing one side or the other to slip past and lever the boot, and your sorry rear, out and away from the ski.

A rotating heel piece

The Fulldrive toe

The bindings come in two models, a 14 DIN and an 18 DIN.  Each model sports a different two piece, the 14 that I purchased, includes the “Fulldrive” toe.  This is the same unit that is included on their other, not pivot bindings.  It features a multi-directional release that will allow the toe to exit at an upwards angle.  This is one safety feature I look for in a binding.  Rare is the time that I’ve taken the wheelie exit out of my bindings, but my knees have always been grateful when the Solly’s let me out that way (and my unwanted exits have always been at the heel or a sideways slip from hitting a solid death cookie hiding under the crud).  The 18′s have a heavier metal piece that only goes left or right.  A DIN of 14 is plenty for me (a DIN of 12 is plenty for me) and I’m not a cliff hucker, so I didn’t even consider the heavier duty model.

My neighbor and friend Steve has reached hero status in my book.  He was kind enough to mount my new babies on my long neglected 191′s.  The job was done perfectly and the skis look absolutely bitchin’!  Now all I need is some fresh snow to take them on their inaugural voyage down the hill.  I can hardly wait.

The unboxing

Jaws open, ready to bite

Multi-directional release toe

Happy Valentines Day 2010

The thermometer ticked up to 41 degrees today. That means I can stop avoiding my bikes and start getting my heart and hamstrings ready for the hurt folks like Billy Conry and Bob Streeter will inevitably put on them.

To avoid muscle strain, I carefully warmed up my legs for three hours in ten inches of snow at Alta.  Then I hustled home, exchanged one pair of tights for another, hoped on the bike and met Jenny down in Alpine.  My Valentine had already logged an hour an forty minutes on the bike, but she was ready to roll some more.

Followed this guy down from Alta. His plate reads, YRUUGLY?

We biked along the outskirts of Alpine, checking out the wide variety of homes and the exotic animals (camels and alpacas) that live along the route.  We climbed up to the Rodeo Grounds parking lot to check on the state of the Lambert Park trails.  There’s still a healthy amount of snow on the ground.  The tracks from last weekends Hog’s Hollow race were still visible.  That affair must have been a soggy slog.

Finishing up thirty miles

The weather couldn’t have been more accommodating.  Clear air and sunshine showcased a tremendous view of the Wasatch Mountains.  It was a perfect way to start off the cycling season and begin the difficult transition from the puffy powder days of winter.

Yeah, we wussed out and drove up the hill

I was blown away by the service we received at the store. I have never equated the mall with excellent customer service. Normally, I’m accustomed to ripping the cell phone from a surly, texting, teenage cashier’s hands before she’ll grudgingly accept payment for my purchases. Not the case at Buckle. We were immediately accosted by a friendly and exceedingly helpful young man, who asked Jenny a series of pertainent questions about what she wanted. He then proceeded to pick out a bloody ton of clothes that met her criteria. Jenny was thrilled. This fellow knew his stuff and paraded several matching articles to go with her selections. I’ve never seen anything like it at any other store.

Jenny striking a pose on the Longbranch Runway.

One of the must-have accessories that Jenny loves is the pretty green sweater she’s modeling in these photos. It’s her special birthday gift from Uncle Ralphie. Even from the distant coast of Oregon, he can pick out the perfect gift.

Thanks Ralphie!

Jenny, on the other hand, has real weather gear – and she’s not afraid to use it.  It’s going to really suck when she gets better than me on a bike.

Holy Crap!  These things are amazing!  I’ve often wondered what my top speed is, or how many vertical feet I’ve skied in a day.  But, I’ve never been curious enough to plunk down the $350+ for a Suunto watch that is the size of my head.

However, goggles are supposed to be the size of your head, and these have a heads up display in them.  I love the “hud” in my car that relays speed, temperature, gearing and song title in an unobtrusive green color.  The thought of having that info available – in my face – while I’m shushing down the slopes has me extremely tempted to part with my cash.  I wonder how long it will be before I can buy some “heads up” cycling glasses.

More info at http://www.zealoptics.com/transcend/

A sissy pushing his bike instead of riding it.

BBC News – Mountain biking takes off – in Bangladesh.

I often fantasize about touring foreign countries on a bike.  This looks like a beautiful option.  I’m glad to see that the political unrest has subsided.