CrossGeek

Motivation has been a tough thing this year as I struggled to regain strength in my strained and weakened neck muscles. I suffered two crashes in 2004 that significantly weakened the muscles and one crash in 2007 that also injured my hip. These injuries put an abrupt stop to over 20 years of racing. I have always found it difficult to attend races as a spectator because I would really rather be out there racing. This year has been no different. I didn’t watch even one night of track racing, and I have seen only one cross race this year, yet I ride my cross bike on the road, making me what must be the ultimate cyclocross geek poser.

A great health care team can help motivate you
I have had plenty of motivation to get heaps of chiropractic treatment, a little physical therapy, and some acupuncture, all of which have helped a great deal. Just a little PT goes a long ways. Same for acupuncture. The chiropractic has mostly been utilized to alleviate stiffness and pain so that I can work without pain, yet it has also steadily helped in strengthening my neck muscles so that I can ride with less neck pain. I guess starting from a correct anatomic position is very important. Go figure. Erik Moen at Corpore Sano did some adjustments to my bike position that dramatically reduced neck pain. He also managed to get me past some serious hip pain in just two weeks (after five months of enduring extreme pain). Jennifer Londergan and Natasha Ayers, chiropractors at Wedgwood Center for Natural Medicine, have brought a great deal of flexibility and strength back to my neck. Laurieanne Nabinger at Enerqi provided some excellent acupuncture with electric stimulation that did wonders for my hip.

Neck muscles are apparently quite difficult to strengthen once they are injured. The exercises I have been given are nothing like my normal types of exercise. The movements are so subtle that I can sometimes barely feel any effort occurring, while other times they are just too difficult for me to handle. When I can’t feel the effect of the efforts, I am not motivated to make them. I’ve never been a “going through the motions” type of person, but if I can see or feel the effects, I am super-focused and motivated to work my ass off.

Haven’t we been here before?
I broke my arm in three places and damaged the radial nerve in a bike race crash in 1991. Some guy fell right in front of my at about 30 m.p.h. right before the final sprint, and I was surrounded. I crashed hard, and immediately could not move my hand. That was a scary time because I couldn’t work as a result. After four months, my surgeon started talking about tendon transfers to get movement back in my hand, but the very next week I was able to move the tip of my middle finger literally just a hair. It seemed almost as if the threat of more surgery provided the motivation for my body to speed recovery, and it enabled me to flip the bird to the idea of more surgery.

The reality was that I had been working my tail off in physical therapy. I had sessions three times per week, sometimes twice per day, and I did my exercises at home religiously. The really cute PT probably didn’t hurt my motivation, but more importantly, I wanted to race again that year. It took seven months for me to regain full movement and strength in my hand and arm, but I did it. Ten months after the crash, I was back to racing.

That was then, this is now
I had more focus and self-discipline back then than I do now. Now, I run a successful branding and advertising agency, meet with clients, design print and web graphics, write novels, business books and blogs, partake of the social networking, twitter, take care of a house, cook food requiring more involvement than did pasta back in the day, read tons of books and online resources, and work on my other startups. I have more strong pulls on my time than at any other point in my life, often splintering my focus and all but crippling my ride time. Now, I want to get my body back to race fitness. That means losing about five kilos, riding my bike 4-5 times per week, and very slowly ramping back up to 3-4 hour rides and eventually back to 5-6 hour rides. First things first, however.

I turned 40 last month. My last race was four years ago. I’ve never been one for taking it slow, but age has taught me that taking it too fast will cause injury and keep me from reaching my goals. On goes the heart rate monitor for every single ride. It’s hard to get motivated for a 30-60 minute ride because it’s so short, but it’s better than not being able to ride at all, and it’s about all my neck can handle at the moment. With a concerted effort, I think I can be up to three hour rides by about February or March. Eyes on the prize, which in this case includes stronger neck muscles and a healthier body.

In conclusion: Find motivation everywhere you can
Having great health care practitioners has healped me a great deal. When there is no pain, everything in life is better. Losing the neck pain is motivation enough for me to once again work my arse off in the face of adversity. People tell me my neck will never stop hurting, but that just makes me want to work harder to prove that I can make it happen. Ah, more motivation!