Dude, are you alright?

Cast your mind. Heading down your favorite local ride you come across a rider down. Maybe he's alone, maybe she's with a big group. Maybe he's lying unresponsive, maybe she's grabbing her angle in agony. What is your roll? Surely you can't pass by. Of course you are not obligated to this person, but ethics alone compel. It's the right thing to do. But what next? If you are going to be one of the folks to give help, what do you do? The following are some of the common injuries and conditions you may come across on the trails, and a few tip-a-roos to help assess what needs to happen next. This won't be any hypertechnical lengthy post, but I've seen more than a few times people miss some very basic and crucial steps in helping someone. It's also not any kind of complete list, just common cycling related issues. I'm very hopeful people will comment on this post and aid in my own learning process!

From basic to more complex and serious:
Sprained ankles:
Signs: "I fell down, my ankle hurts"
I think the main consideration for these injuries is how you will get the person back to front country. In the case of a severe sprain, you may need to help a person walk out of the trail. Just consider weather, temperature and transportation to avoid getting stuck out in a midnight freezing epic. If you have tape or an ace-bandage wrap it tight and get going!

Knees:
Knee injuries are various and wacky, and it's unlikely you'll be looking into any specifics of the injury. I think just treating it as the above is appropriate with the addition of a splint either on hand or jury-rigged from a stick to keep it stable against lateral movement.

Fractures:
Simple:
Simple fractures should be stabilized and dealt with right away. Similar time considerations apply with regard to getting out. With these it is best to avoid trying to manipulate the fracture in any way. Leave that to the emergency room. Again splinting to protect against movement is wise.
Compound:
This means bones sticking out of the skin. Don't try and reduce them out on trail! Just wrap them up if you can with a shirt to cover the exit point of the bone and head out. One exception to this rule is a femoral fracture (thigh bone). A complete or compound fracture of the femur holds significant risk of damage to the femoral artery. If this is damaged, someone can bleed to death in minutes. Wilderness medicine suggest holding traction on the leg until it can be dealt with. This pulls the femur back in line and away from vessels. There are some creative and fascinating ways to rig a traction until in the back country taught by the folks at the Wilderness Medicine Institute. Their courses are invaluable!

Dislocated Shoulders:
Signs: you'll know this one because it looks ridiculously odd and the rider will be clutching that arm with very limited movement.
Reducing a dislocated shoulder is actually remarkably simple and is something you can do on trail, so long as you don't force a stubborn case. Get to it early enough and the muscles may still be relaxed enough to reduce it with ease. Typically the rider's arm will be obviously deformed, and held close to the body with the arm bent at a 90 degree angle. This is convenient because at this point all you need to do is hold the elbow against the rider's body and at the same time take their hand and rotate their arm out away from the body slowly. Somewhere halfway through the external rotation the shoulder should reduce. You'll feel it "thunk" back in followed by the "OUCH!" from the rider. Don't go and use the shoulder after that. Sling it with a t-shirt and go home! Here's a video from the Navy on reducing shoulders. A separated shoulder will have a similarly deformed look to it, but the deformity will be higher atop the shoulder. These are best left to the emergency room because they involve varying degrees of ligament tears.

The Spinal:
This is serious stuff, and can be particularly complicated in the rider's desire to not appear hurt. If you see someone take a bad fall onto their head or back the first thing you have to do whether they are conscious or not is stabilize their spine. A spinal injury that hasn't yet damaged the spinal cord can easily do so if you try to move the rider. I think it is really important to take charge on this if you saw the fall happen. Remind the rider of dinners out of a straw for the rest of their life if they try to move.

Conscious Rider:
If you come across someone either lying down or sitting up but you didn't see the fall, it's never a bad idea to rule out spinal injuries. The way to stabilize a spine is basic: get behind the person, press your palms on the side of the rider's head like your covering their ears, stabilize your arms against there body and hold the heat absolutely still with their eyes level and facing forward. NEVER try to remove the rider's helmet!

Unconscious rider:
Basic first aid teaches the ABC's: Airway, Breathing, Circulation. One of the doctors i learned from just calls them the AAA's: Airway, Airway, Airway. If you don't have an airway, then breathing and circulation are pointless. Many people are deathly afraid to touch someone in this kind of injury, but if you have a rider down and unconscious he or she may die right before your very eyes for lack of a simple airway. If you think the neck is clear, you can LIGHTLY tilt the rider's head back to open the air way. If you feel the neck is compromised, stick two fingers behind their jaw right under the ear and thrust their lower jaw out. This will also open an airway without moving the neck. When the rider begins to come to, they may make some weird snoring sounds. This is just the brain fighting against a limp soft palette and tongue to get air. Again, NEVER try to remove the helmet.
This situation calls for no playing around. Bust out cell phones, send someone to get to one and get either an ambulance or a helicopter in. There is far to much risk trying to even move these riders let alone get them out. If CPR is necessary, the new protocols for those who know how to do it are 30 compressions for every two breaths. Some even say no breaths at all, just chest compressions. Also remember to properly do chest compressions you are likely to break at least one if not many ribs. This is the right way to do them, so don't be swayed by the cracking sounds you hear. Ribs crack outward so there is no risk to the lungs.

Shock:
There are all kinds of shock. The one's you'd likely see on trail would be from injury or blood loss (god forbid). Treating someone for shock involves lying them down, elevating their legs slightly and keeping them warm.

Seizures:
Probably pretty rare, but just remember not to try and stop the seizure. Just keep their heads from hitting anything and keep your fingers away from their mouths unless you want it bitten off!

Chest Pain:
I don't just come right out and say heart attack because chest pain can be a symptom of a few common situations on trail. That being said, the most serious by a LONG SHOT is the heart attack. I've come across people having chest pain while riding, and was so thankful I knew how to recognize it! Listed below are some common things that would cause or be mistaken for chest pain on the trails.
Hyperventilation:
Signs: Shortness of breath, tingling around the mouth. Get the person to stop riding, and breath into the classic paper bag. Your body is freaking out because it has too much O2!
Acid Reflux:
Signs: Burning pain right under the sternum (breast bone). One thing that makes this kind of pain worse is lying down, so you can do that to rule out heart attacks. Carrying a few tums around is great because you can set someone's mind at ease by giving them one as their "chest pain" will dissipate almost immediately.
Heart Attacks:
Signs: Chest pain, Shortness of breath, excessive sweating, nausea.
I would always be very worried if I saw these symptoms. Age is never a determining factor, and if someone is having these symptoms they don't need to be old, or overweight to consider a heart attack. The nature of this chest pain is very deep, centralized and crushing as if someone were standing on their chest. It is worse with exertion, and not worse with breathing or pushing on the chest. The pain often radiates to the left arm or the jaw. It's no surprise that this person needs to get to a hospital in a jiffy! Unofficially, I always carry a vile of Aspirin with my on rides. In fact I carry one everywhere for this reason. Heart Attacks are caused by a blood clot in the coronary artery. Aspirin is a blood thinner and prohibits clotting. If I come across someone with these symptoms (and I have!) I "suggest" they chew up two Aspirin and swallow them, then put on under the tongue to dissolve. It's no cure by any means, but has been proven to decrease mortality in heart attack cases. After which it's time to call the ambulance! Again, CPR protocols are 30 compressions for every 2 breaths.

Also remember, unless you try and do something stupid like perform surgery with a tire iron, you're protected under the Good Samaritan Law when attempting to help someone. If they are refusing help obviously don't force it on them, but don't be afraid to step in and help! Go out and take CPR, First-Aid courses!

Wilderness Medicine Institute: http://www.nols.edu/wmi/

Again, comments are much appreciated!

When to listen. When to slow.

It would be hard to say to someone's face that instinct is not at all important. But in reality it is amazing how often people ignore it. I knew today as I headed face first down at man made stunt at "the demo" that I was going to fall. By the time I was on my feet again, I gaze back at my bike twisted and right side down against this structure and feel a wave a anger and disappointment because in looking back I knew I would fall even moments before I tried the stunt, one I had done countless times in the past. The messages at that point weren't even subtle! Luckily I walked away with only two dings on my shin and knee from catching the bars on the way down. Once again I credit another dodged bullet to the years of martial arts that if nothing else taught me to roll and fall without thinking about it. I know this because i started down the ramp face first and hit the ground on my feet. Lucky, and mostly so because I really did dodge a bullet that other riders do not. I am fearful that a lot of the bad crashes that riders take come from not listening to the signs.

The day of riding started poorly. Fun, no doubt, but I felt all together foreign even on my own bike. I couldn't hold speeds I was used to, and felt wobbly and awkward with my hands on the bars. To me this scenario is always accompanied by a subtle, as I describe it, cloudy and disconnected sensation in my head. This is a sense that I'm working harder and hard to recognize early. The beauty of this is that you are no longer at risk of being injured by a fall! Early on Dusty took a fall himself, and was equally shaken up by it. I think I knew by that point that I myself wasn't on my game. Not even a little bit. I now have two wounds and a hematomato (hematoma) on my knee as evidence to the fact.

My point of all this is. When you feel off you game, as I did today, SLOW DOWN. Honestly if you can't enjoy some of the best trails in the world at the tortoise's pace as much as the hare's, your missing something fundamental about riding. I am particularly fond of the people I ride regularly with, and care for riders in general. Likewise I equally disinterested in ever coming across a spinal or a fractured femur on trail. I intend to follow this post with one on response to common on-trail injuries and conditions that you may see and quick ways to assess and respond to them appropriately to the best of my knowledge. Check back for that soon.

Sea Otter: Finals

Just a few moments ago I took my scissors out and snipped off the bright orange Sea Otter wrist band, symbolizing the official end of the Sea Otter Classic. I thought about wearing it for the next week or so, but I know even my own imagination couldn't bring it back amidst the return to the stresses and mayhem of life in Santa Cruz ( yes, I hear you all laughing! Come walk a day in MY shoes! =) ) But sifting through the loads of photos and video, and unloading all the gear has had me remembering the event and the progression of the weekend's events. To me, this weekend represented a lot for our group of riders in terms of our involvement in the wacky world of bicycles, and the improvements we've seen event since last year!

My first run aginst the number 1 qualifier.

Zach during practice

Dual Slalom finals took place Sunday. Zach and I were the only ones still riding, but we were lucky to have my Dad, Dusty and Stacy there cheering us on! We were both tremendously proud to have qualified for the finals, thus whatever finish we turned in was going to be good enough for us! My first qualifier went well, and i won both races moving into the quarterfinals. Zach unfortuantely was eliminated in the first round, but elimination in the finals means a guarenteed top ten finish! Zach finished 9th. My second round was against the top qualifier of the day, and i found it remarkably hard to shake the thought that there was no way to beat this guy. His times from qualifying were significantly faster than mine...by almost 4 seconds! Now I take racing very seriously. This is how I have fun! I like to get butterflies, and to focus and go over the course in my mind. This day, though, this lead me over the top and there came a point when I had to just ride off in the distance and tool around to get that goofy feeling i usually have on a bike. Though I lost both races, the runs I put in were the fastest i put in the whole day, and I finished only .7 seconds behind him. It was a remarkable day, and I still wish I could snap my fingers and be back there.

The crew providing encouragement for my last race. Thank you!

Now I'm back in the "real world" and the Sea Otter is becoming a distant thought... I've decided that the Sea Otter now replaces Christmas for me as the one day of the year that I obsess over, wake up early for in the morning, then lament how quickly it passes. For now, the 24 hours of Adrenaline looms in the near future! Check back soon for more writing because I guarentee the apparent draining of my bank account indicates registration for a series of noteworthy events! Thanks!

Sea Otter Day 2 & 3: Pleasure and Pain...

This will be a combined post basically because yesterday ended so late. To start off, the morning before qualification for Dual Slalom yesterday I was so incredibly nervous I could hardly put words together. I couldn't reconcile the situation in my head, and not having the ability to predict what might happen was wearing on me. To say it basically: I might either kick ass, or have my ass kicked bad. The first run was smooth as butter and I turned in the sixth fastest time of my class. The second run started out great but about five gates in I had one of the most comical "crashes" I've ever had. Going into a loose fast corner my rear wheel chopped up too much and before I knew it I was in a full slide, which I somehow managed to control and finally came to a stop atop the bike facing 180 degrees the wrong direction...uphill. Once I realized i could recover I did, and only lost 2 seconds! Out of my periphery I watched my running mate take an awful fall which resulted in a 20 minute delay to wheel him off in an ambulance. I hope he is ok. Suffice to say after stressing myself to death, I qualified with plenty of room to spare for the finals Sunday at 1pm!

Last night was a movie premier of a new film by a group called The Collective in downtown Monterey. We preceded that by taking our dirty and dilerious selves to a restaurant and throwing popcorn at each other. The film was called "Seasons" and was a downhill bike film shot on 16mm film. It was, to say the least, inspiring. The film quality and photography was rich and tasty. ( I always want to describe movies made like that as having some sort of thick rich and complex taste to them) We arrived home at 12:30am (mind you our Cross Country race started at 7am the next morning...that's a 5am wake up) when I proptly had to get in the garage and change my drive train on the bike... After realizing i lost my phone in Monterey, I set someone elses alarm and closed my eyes somewhere around 1:30am.

Cross country this morning was great. Waking up for it was another story all together. The Sea Otter course is fantastic. I felt strong the whole way until the infamous "hurl hill" at the end, when I ran entirely out of gas. It was a this point that Dusty passed me and pulled almost a minute gap on me. Very demoralizing! Way to go Dusty! Evidently if you train, your performance improves! I won't take you through a play by play on the 20 mile race, but suffice to say it was very fun and very hard... I've spent the entire day since trying to rectify some funky stomach issue that has had me in a bad mood ever since the end of the race. Coupled with that was the 50mph wind gusts blowing icy air and dust in your eyes. The Sea Otter today was basically miserable. =)

Tomorrow is the last day and the finals for Dual Slalom. We'll be making runs head to head in elimination style to see who is the fastest rider out there! Wish Zach and I luck in our respective classes! Better yet, since of course we don't need luck, wish us speed and tires that stay on the ground!! Once this weekend is over I'll be posting many links and imbedded photos for y'all's (yes that would be a double contraction) viewing pleasure. Thanks for reading!!

Day 1: Practice makes perf-wrecked

Well, amidst all the excitement of the event, we got up early and lined up for practice on the newly built dual slalom course. I couldn't imagine my first few runs going any worse, and without much to compare to i felt like I was going tremendously slow. The course is very raw, very rough. Only a slim portion of the turns are groomed, the rest are bumpy and dusty and very hard to keep traction on. Gearing myself to aim for gates (imagine skiing dual slalom where the riders weave through gates) is a new thing for me. I've been trained all my life to aim to avoid trees, rocks, shrubs, hikers and animals. In racing a colorful flag was something that just passed in your periphery. In dual slalom they are your main focus, and they steer the entire course.

Zach and I had a few hours to begin to dial in the course. The way they are built is amazing and it seems they put an element into these short courses that challenges every aspect of riding imaginable.

Tomorrow we qualify at 2pm. I'm a little nervous. I aquired a chainstay from an old friend after getting lost in Seaside, CA. Imagine two econo lodges having nearly the same address on opposite ends of the same street. This device should give me confidence in pedaling through rough sections without the fear of the chain bouncing off.

The rest of the festival is amazing as usual. Bikes everywhere! I'll post more tomorrow after the qualifiers!

Sea Otter Classic!

Finally the Sea Otter is here! After many moons of waiting, we're finally getting bikes tuned up and getting psyched for this years event. I'm excited to say the whole team is participating in one form or another. We'll be competing in varying events from Thursday 4/17 until Sunday 4/20. The newest and most exciting event this year is the SRAM Dual Slalom which Zach and I will be competing in. The schedule is as follows:

Thursday:
8am: Open practice on the Dual Slalom course
Friday:
1pm: Super D. Zach and Dusty will be taking to the high speed course!
2pm: Dual Slalom Qualifying. Zach and I will strap on the full face helmets for some of the most exciting and high energy mountain bike racing there is!
3pm: Stacy, Maia and Cyndie flag off on the Cross-Country course.
Saturday:
7am: Zach, Dusty, Craig and I get the dawn patrol on the Cross-Country course.
Sunday:
1pm: Dual Slalom Finals! Wish us luck! I hope we're in the running!Check in regularly. I hope to post daily with photos and updates, but we'll see how readily that comes to be. Even better, come out to Laguna Seca Raceway and cheer us on! Hope to see folks out there.

Last weekend was the Napa Valley Dirt Classic. Congratulations to Dusty for turning in a very strong 6th place finish in the Sport 25-29 category. Cyndie took 3rd in the Beginner Women 19-25 and Stacy took 4th in the Beginner women 30-35. Zach finished 6th in his first ever single speed race! I however turned in a sad 8th amidst an unhappy body, poor preparation and mechanical trouble, but I'm forgetting that ever happened to be mentally ready for this weekend!! Denial, it seems, CAN actually be a river in Egypt!

CyclePathic Tendencies

We at Team Miracle have just added a new event to the roster for this year, and I won't lie... It's a biggie! Thanks to Stacy's efforts we are signed up for the 24-hours of adrenaline at Laguna Seca on May 2nd. Starting at 12pm on Saturday May 2nd the first of our team members will set off on the course and we won't stop the relay for 24 hours! Each lap follows the Sea Otter course and should take about an hour and a half to complete. Depending on the schedule, a good percentage of our team will be riding said course in complete darkness (aided by headlights of course...) Back on "adrenaline island" we'll have two campsites set up where we'll be staging, planning, encouraging, fueling and generally having a great time. I've volunteered myself as team mechanic and with the aid of my trusty stand I'll be helping get everyone's bikes up to speed for their laps.

CyclePathic Tendencies is sponsored by Stacy's growing Athletic Training and Rehabilitation business, Core Therapy.

Training Delay

I'm writing this post from Brooklyn, NY. After 8 midterms in Santa Cruz I jumped on a red-eye to NY, and proceeded to stay awake for a total of 42 hours before finally getting to sleep in a beautiful house in Princeton, NJ. The period of time between the red eye landing, and my head landing on the pillow was filling with a lot of amazing sights and time in NY, and honestly I didn't really want to sleep, but most of what I said to Bethany, my NY host, was received with a sideways stare as if she expected me to fall terminally asleep at any given moment. As if anyone could sleep in this city anyway. New Yorkers put up with a lot of noise, incovenience and commotion. On the flip side I have always been fascinated with cities what have basically grown so congested with people that they reach some level of functionality. Much to my amazement standing on the crowded subway, or weaving myself through thousands of people in the financial district of Manhattan I couldn't help but feel a sense of calm. New Yorkers do also fulfill a few stereotypes that we newbies to this city come in with. For instance, and I'll spare you the details of all of them, delivery drivers and cabbies in the city pull up to a line of traffic, one which they cannot see the source of, throw up their arms then lean on their horns for literally no less that 3 or 4 seconds. That doesn't sound like much, but the next time someone in front of you doesn't notice the light change to green, try leaning on your horn as you count out four seconds... You'll be disgusted with yourselves! (and if any of the folks in Santa Cruz try this you know they'll probably hold a lengthy city hall meeting about you and the possible implimentation of community based grassroots programs to train young kids on the humanitarian use of horns)



The seating chart in my life seems to have been built not to accomadate large crowds. There is just one front row seat, and it seems the many things I have going in life fight constantly for that one spot. Occationally the arrangement makes sense: school's comfortably up front followed by racing/riding and work is back in the third row trying to peer over their heads and despite the busy environment the arrangement feels right. But other things come in from time to time and steal seats causing everything to get messed up.



Last weekend was an XC race at Ft. Ord. I haven't had the chance to post a true race report yet, but I'll link to Stacy's photos. The race, in a brief synopsis went really well not in the sense of where I placed, but how I felt. As the laps wore on, my body seemed to feel stronger and stronger, and when I crossed the finish line I was barely winded! The ride was very encouraging. As I sit here now, though I see the Sea Otter approaching in about 10 days, and I feel drastically under-trained, under-prepared and just plain not ready! Between then and now is a few more days in NY, including a trip up to New Paltz...a town I've always wanted to see, and a climbing trip to Yosemite to climb the South Face of Washington Column in preparation for Half Dome this summer. If you're wonder which seat that mission has taken in the Jesse's life auditorium, it's standing in front of the front row jumping up and down, waving it's arms and throwing popcorn...