Montage summer

     This edition is a pretty short update on what I have been up to. Over the last few weeks I have completed my first 3 week block of training and my first "rest" week since starting training again. It feels great to be back into a regular routine. Each week my comfort level has increase and my fitness feels like it is improving. I still get nervous while descending which never used to be an issue. Hopefully that feeling goes away with time. Lately I have been really stoked on climbs, riding with Greg trying to smash new climbs has made the experience much more enjoyable. It is also one of the few places I can go 100% without worrying about crashing, could it happen yes but it is much less likely.

Last week was my off week so I tried to get done all the car stuff I could. I finished Sanding the faces of my wheels which was a big job to get all the old paint off. After that I got them painted up and started the LONG process of putting loctite on the bolts and getting all the bolts back into the wheels. This is a job I don't want to even consider in the near future. 40 bolts per wheel X4 wheels makes for some very repetitive work.

I had a bit of an accident while riding some of the Lost lake trails up in whistler. I was feeling off for the first part of the ride just not taking the right lines and not being super comfortable. It was a dumb fall that could have been avoided, I pulled out of a line to late and ended up getting sliced open by my chain ring. We found our way to the hospital and they fixed me up but I decided to pull the pin on riding for the rest of the day. After that we decide to hit up Rainbow Lake for most of the afternoon before heading back to van. Besides the visit to the hospital it was a pretty chill day

As always thanks for reading,

Mike

Over the moon!

Hey all,

     I just finished up my 2nd week of getting back into a regular routine of training. This weekend included my first group ride with the Local ride crew, and an epic mountain bike adventure with Greg. I can tell my fitness is far from what it used to be but at this point that doesn't matter I am just pumped to be back at it. Over the last week I finally started driving again which has made life a lot easier, plus it is a hobby (obsession some would say) of mine. I am still working on the gym/physio side of things but all the weights I am safely allowed to lift are increasing so I feel I am on track and making improvements.

I finally got my new seat installed. The quality of this seat is much better than my previous one. It is very stiff and the shoulder bolsters fit me much better my previous seat.

Here is a shot from todays ride up on eagle (Greg all stoked before we drop in) 

 Part way down Triple T

My favorite part of the ride today was the descent after triple t into white pine its not technical but I had very little grip so I slid down pretty much everything. It was fun to just be in the moment and ride like I am used to. Next up is more riding and refinishing my Impuls so I can finally get my car sitting the way I want!

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Down but never out

Hey all,

     I am please to announce I am back riding. This update is a combo of what I have been able to do lately and is a little different from my usual cycling content. Over the last 5 weeks my range of motion and strength has been improving consistently thanks to physiotherapy. I know I will still have to take a lot more time to get stronger before I get back into the groove of racing but being back riding is incredible. I gotta give a big thank you to Danika of Golden Ears Physiotherapy for all her help in getting me back on a bike. I cannot say enough good things about Golden Ears Physiotherapy and anyone who is looking for a good physio should check them out.

As for non cycling content I have been able to complete some of the work I wanted to get done on my car thanks to Trevor and Jesse(mostly this guy, I am pretty sure no work would have gotten done without ya buddy). I stripped apart my coil overs and replaced the boots, cleaned, and anti-seized them. Next up was my cooling panel which didn't go on as planned and I have wasted hours trying to make it work. Most recently I have been working on getting my seating position as low as possible; lots of s14 drivers have problems with headroom especially taller drivers over 6 foot. I will have more car updates coming up soon as I try to finish it and get back on the road. My goal is to get it done by the time Jesse comes back from Europe fingers crossed I don't have to many hiccups which are often associated with modifying cars.

I have been able to ride my xc bike a bunch over the last few weeks I snapped this after climbing saddle ridge by Buntzen Lake (iphone photography isn't my strong suit if you have noticed already)

Here is one of my early gym sessions while completing physio

I finally got my cooling panel for my s14 but it didn't fit at all so Jesse busted out the dremel and after 8 hours of cutting and dremeling we got it close to fitting. I still have to make more adjustments to get my hood to close not super stoked on that.

Last weekend I went to Victoria to help out the team with feeds and whatever else they needed. It was super fun to see everyone again (team mates and friends alike) 

I did some modifications to my seat rails to gain more helmet clearance before this I had 3cm from the top of my head to the roof on the lowest setting on my Nagisa super low rails!!! Now I easily have enough for a helmet, tall people problems eh

The photo of me doesn't look like my seat is all that low but for reference this is my mom sitting in my car after I got the seat sitting the way I wanted it (she is 5"5)

Today I went out for my first endurance ride with Evan after an afternoon physio session. I cannot begin to describe how good it felt to be drafting and joking around on a bike again (Thanks Evan!)

As always thanks for reading,

Mike

Rehab

Hey Everyone,

It has been a long time since I posted. I really didn't have anything exciting to post up....

I am going to write about my experiences since the accident. I was in my neck brace for 5 weeks straight no breaks for showers, sleeping, anything! Yes the collar was looking pretty nasty by the time I got into VGH. Those weeks of waiting feeling lost in the medical system scared me the most as I sat waiting and waiting. Those who have talked to me know the headaches I went through just to see a doctor.

The last 3 weeks since being told I was able to gradually take the collar off have been up and down. My first day I could take my collar off I took it off for 15 minutes maybe before it hurt to much. Each day I worked to take it off longer and longer until at this point I can now go all day without to much pain. After being immobilized for all those weeks my muscles in my neck and back had experienced a lot of atrophy making me to weak to hold up my head. Shortly after the doc at VGH spinal said I would be fine I tried riding my bike on the trainer and remember thinking I needed to go back to vgh my back hurt so much. I stopped riding the trainer or doing much at that point it was to painful. After a few days off again Brian got me back trying to train. It was hard to take a step back and look at what I COULD do not what I thought I SHOULD do but this made all the difference. I am not kidding when I say I rode for 15 minutes some days and would lay on the couch in agony for a couple hours after.

At that point I was back riding which was great but I couldn't really challenge myself that much without my back giving me a lot of grief. Talking to Emile he said going for walks was what helped him last season when he broke both his arms and collarbone. I tried it and man did that make a difference, I experienced less pain and was able to challenge myself more.

The last 10 days I have seen a huge improvements since being able to alternate hikes and riding the trainer and rollers. Yesterday I finally rode a bike outside! I took my mountain bike for a ride on a paved path for an hour, the upright position of the bike made it much easier to ride than my road bike.

Looking back on the last 7 months I have learn't a lot from my first crash in October, the Concussion in December to this. Everyone says I have the worst luck which could be true but I try to look at it as I have pretty good luck. Things could have been so much worse and I am super lucky I can still walk and will be able to return to normal life over the next few months.

As always I have to thank everyone who has supported me, I am worried I have left some one out the last few months are a bit of a blur. Not because of hitting my head or anything like that just all the events seem to clump together.
Shout outs!  
-My folks for dealing with me and taking me to all my appointments over the last 2 months
-My brother for driving me to work, support, etc
-Boris for all his support all while working more than anyone I have ever known
-Meghan Grant for all your advice (I probably asked a ton of really dumb questions)
-Jesse McD for keeping me stoked
-My Coach Brian Walton
-Aidan Caves
-My team mates who by the way have been killing it on the bike all season!
-Barry and the local ride crew (Julian, Rich, Mel, Meghan(listed above), Reddys (listed below) Mags, pretty much everyone thanks for the support)
-Bill of Golden Ears Physiotherapy
-The Mulder Family + Eddie ( hilarious snap chats made many of my days)
-Gord and the Reddy Bros
-All my UBCSCC buddies
-Everyone on Escape Velocity
-All the dEVo riders (Brendan, Tess, T-pain)
-Jeff Ain
 The list could go on forever these are the people that stand out in my mind right now

Please check out our team page(link below) and like on Facebook, follow on twitter for updates hopefully I will get to represent the team this summer once I am recovered fully and fit! My new Tarmac will hopefully do most of the work for me its unbelievable how light this thing is!

                                          http://www.russhaysracing.com/

Also if you haven't had a chance check out www.velofix.ca give them a look. Boris has brought my previous bikes back from the dead many times. Awesome mechanic and a great guy!



Thanks for reading,
Mike

Breakin Necks and wrecks

     Ok so during the final week in Ventura things really started to go well. My heart rate was getting lower and the body started to feel better as each day went on. On March 12th I beat my previous record up wheelers canyon by over 1 minute, stoked when on the way home I had a brutal crash. I went over a guard rail smashed my head on a post breaking the spinus process on my c7 vertebrae before getting caught up in a barbed wire fence. I knew something was wrong immediately because of how hard it was to breath.

      Initially the doctors looked at my x rays and said I was fine, I was so relieved to leave the hospital and go home. I had a shower and skyped my folks when Jeff's phone rang. It was the doctor he said I needed to go back. This was the scariest car ride of my life thinking if I turned my head I could cause irreversible damage. Jeff and I spent 5+ hours in the ER, I was braced up and put into a CT scanner as and we awaited the ER doctors prognosis. When we got home I couldn't sleep I don't know if it was the stress of being in the hospital all day the new neck brace I was sporting or just the unknown of what was to come.

     I got up the next morning opened my computer to email and facebook people back home but the screen just went black. I thought to myself "Oh it must have turned off" so I tried turning it back on......nothing. Perfect timing. I now had 4 days to kill before my flight home. I wrestled with the idea of flying home early but because the ER doc said not much could be done and the fracture was stable I decided to stay. Its been exactly 14 days since the accident and I am improving, and still waiting to see a specialist back home in Vancouver. I am super lucky I can still walk or to be alive for that matter. A huge shout out to Jeff Ain for helping me through this, carrying my stuff in the airport and spending hours and hours with me at the hospital. Don't know how I would have made it home without ya buddy!

     Once returning home I helped out with Cycling BC's spring break camp, it was great to see all the juniors and dEVo kids again. I could only help at the track sessions because I cannot ride but it was nice to get out of the house. I am hoping all goes well with my recovery and hopefully I can get this brace off in the next 4 weeks. Less would be awesome but at this point I really just want to get back to 100%. Hopefully I have something to write about in the coming weeks.

As always I gotta thank everyone for all their support it means a lot.

cheers,
Mike

Ventura 1.5

We are 11 days into our camp here in Ventura and time is flying by.

The riding is incredible tons of climbs, awesome twisty descents and generally excellent weather. Of all the places I have been for training this is the most well rounded for weather, and riding terrain. We haven't really had a chance to go to the beach, although Aidan and I did find a good mexican place during our easy spin of the beach.

The first couple days shocked my system hard, lying in a dark room or on the couch for 2 months really didn't help. As the days have gone on I have been able to get my heart rate up high without symptoms, I am very happy about this and can now just focus on riding. Its difficult to second guess how hard to go, or will this effort put me back. The scene where Michael Clark Duncan in Green Mile pleads to Tom Hanks not to be put back in the dark sums up what I was thinking about being back in my room for any more time. We also discovered we have a cat in the house, not so much we as Aidan did when he got up one morning. The tiger in the bathroom scene from the Hangover mimics his reaction while being sleepy in the morning. This is the clip I am talking about here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqxJ-MvrDRg

At the end of the first week the team headed to Goleta for the Island View Classic Criterium. We decided it was best for me to sit this one out with the risk of hitting my head again being the biggest reason. I shot some video and watched the race unfold, the whole time wishing I could have been out racing. The others rode really well crushing the race by taking 7 of 9 primes, Adam De Vos soloed for the win and Aidan finished 4th.

( Here is Adam Soloing in for the win)

This week we have logged more miles, and took a trip to the LA velodrome. I have always wanted to ride LA and finally got my chance. Walking into the facility is crazy when comparing it to any other tracks I have been to; the layout, tons of seating, weights on either end and fully netted volleyball area in the center. Its well organized minus having bathrooms upstairs from the rider area. We rented some of their bikes, non of us knew we would be riding the track so we didn't bring our bikes. Their entire fleet is made up of Felt tk2s, a solid bike for sure. The track itself is super smooth and very tall compared to my home track of Burnaby. We did a usual warm up then a points race drill after that I jumped in on the workout that was going on already and finished with some flying 1.5k efforts.

I couldn't think of a better way to get back into shape for racing than this, thank you to all the sponsors, Jeff Ain, Richard Wooles, and Cycling BC.

Thanks,

Mike

Rebuilding phase

     Well it has been a while since I have had anything to post(2 months!). After my crash at the Burnaby 4 I had to take a 6 week break which sounds awesome just hanging out but in reality was very very boring. Normal daily activities would only aggravate symptoms so I spent a lot of my time sitting in a dark room, no tv letting my brain heal. I have crashed many times but never had symptoms like I have experienced in the last 2 months. Vision lag, headaches, dizzy ness and being super sensitive to everything. I would like to thank to Bill Macdonald and Andrew Kerr of Golden Ears Physiotherapy for their help in getting my injuries pre (my knee from team camp) and post crash sorted out. Also thanks to everyone who helped me out at the track as I have been recovering, my memory of the few weeks after is not all that great. Also thanks for the support from my team Russ hays Accent Ins pb Pacific Cycling center for their understanding as I try to recover. Missing the last 3 training camps 1 which included 2 weeks in Tucson, Arizona. Missing out on the training and getting to know my team mates better sucked but it was necessary for my health.

Tragically on Sunday Jeremy Storie my co-worker of the last 5 years and was previously my coach passed away. I can recall my first learn to ride when I was maybe 13 years old as the only one in the class and Jeremy instructing. I was terrible riding mountain bikes really didn't prepare me for riding the steep banking of the Burnaby Velodrome. I can't count how many trips I have done with Jeremy from my dEVo junior days to provincial team training camps and racing; We will all miss him and everyone at the Burnaby Velodome will have a lot of work to fill the void. Thanks to Paul Craig for organizing a memorial ride for Jer, around 80 people came out from various clubs to pay their respects.

On a lighter note I just arrived in Ventura, California with the Cycling BC junior/u23 guys doing a warm weather camp with the one and only Mr. Jeff Ain. It has been 8 weeks since the crash and have only been able to do light activity for maybe 10 days now;so this camp is going to be very difficult to say the least. Hopefully the fitness comes back quickly so I can get back to racing when I return home to Vancouver.

Thanks for reading,
Mike

Introduction + 2012 recap

Hello reader,

     I have started this blog as a way to keep track of my racing experiences this season and as a way to keep myself busy after my crash at the Burnaby 4.  

     For those that know me, they probably know why I was given the nick name "Probie". For those that don't know the origin of this I will explain. Probie was a nick name given to me as a junior cyclist by the dEVo coach at the time. I was the new guy on dEVo and my dad was a fire fighter it seemed appropriate because it is like being the probie on a fire crew.

 I am a aspiring professional cyclist, sports science student at Douglas College, and currently work for the Burnaby Velodrome Club. I am pleased to announce I will be part of the Elite team for Russ Hays/Accent Ins presented by Pacific Cycling Centre for the 2013 season. If your on Facebook please like our team page here
 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Russ-HaysAccent-Inns-Elite-Racing-Team/320201954669609?group_id=313214832052050

My 2012 Season Highlights Included
Palm springs with the Cycling BC junior program, this was my second time helping out the talented juniors in a warm weather camp. Thanks Jeff Ain for letting me help out!

Aidan and I on the longest ride of the camp

Did my first of many AutoX events this past year. Thanks to UBCSCC for putting on these events. This photo was from autox 101 driving school. That much track time made a world of difference to my driving and I would strongly recommend anyone do this. Even if you don't plan on being a competitive race car driver it is a fun way to improve your driving skills.

Banff bike fest with the Garneau boys, this was my most enjoyable team race for the entire year. The whole experience was incredible. "Its business time" in the criterium

                                          Before this we had to check out Lake Louise

Right after Banff I had the chance to try out rowing at Burnaby lake, I don't have any pictures but it was an awesome experience and I want to do it again! The next day I left for  Philly to race at Trexlertown or T-Town for short. The racing was incredible with star studded fields and prize money I have never seen in Canadian track racing. Thanks to the Walton family for putting me up.

I got a pretty serious lung infection after that which put me out for Speed week in Philly, BC Super week, Alpenrose and Marymoor grand prix. On the bright side I was able to race in August. GVVA put on 2 events Track Fest and B.C Provincial Track Championships.

What are the odds that Track Fest and BC drift finals happened on the same day in Victoria! Super rad getting to race bikes and watch drifting all in the same day.

2 weeks later this happened! I won B.C Provincial Match Sprint Championships

October this happened- Aidan ripped his left pedal out of the arm in front of me while training













3 days after my last exam I went to the Russ Hays team camp. It was great to meet most of the team, do testing with Houshang Amiri, and explore Victoria's awesome roads.
2 weeks later was the Superior Glass Burnaby 4. I had a knee injury that developed during team camp which prevented me from training the 2 weeks leading into the race. So I had my knee taped up just to attempted to ride the event.

 Night 3 I got caught up behind a crash which put me over the bars into the officials table, garbage cans, and even a ladder (so I am told). At the time I thought I was ok but I later found out I had a concussion.(Thanks to everyone who helped me out after the crash Meghan Grant, The Mulder family, and everyone else)

(It was super cool getting to race Tyler Farrar after the crash he gave me some advice on concussions)

That was the quick version of 2012, right now I am still feeling the symptoms from falling at the Burnaby 4. I am doing physio for my knee and trying to limit doing anything else to get over my concussion so I can start training again.

Thanks for reading,
Mike