April 09
Like all things in life some good some bad. The good is that I finished 2nd overall CAT 1 XC 43-50 in the Southridge Shimano Winter Series. The bad is the my back had been killing me, more specifically my herniated disk at L5/S1 which about an hour into a race would really start hitting nerves then my power would drop off and I had to slow dramatically. I think doing 49 races last year with NO brake going into this season and then jumping up to CAT 1 put a strain on my body and now I'm paying for it. I decided to take a brake from racing XC to let my back stabilize, but I can still race Super D which I've been doing with very good results.
I've had 1 steroidal injection (epidural) into the disk and so far it seems to be helping. I will do 1 more in hopes that it will shrink the swelling in the disk and that I might be able to train a little harder for longer, we shall see.
Our small team Montrose Bike Shop has really been lighting it up. Santa Ynez we had every rider on the podium, Sea Otter 3 out of 4 riders on the podium, every race most if not all of us podium'd so thats been really fantastic.