Sagebum

Been thinking about you a lot Daniel......so good to hear of your excellent progress.

Lanceoldstrong

Update and Silver Lining for 7/7/12

I am still making steady progress and I am still grateful for all the support and well wishes. What a community this is.

Here is a silver lining: Every year in the late summer I read the same article in various cycling magazines. It always talks about how a hard season can leave you physically worn out and fatigued. The article that always makes the rounds then suggests taking 2 weeks off the bike. Saying "you won't believe the benefits of rest and recovery". Every year when I encounter this article in one of the mags I think, "hmm... good advice" then I ignore it.

Well here I am for once taking the break all the mags suggest. A concussion induced break that started on 6/20/12.
After over 3000 miles in 2012 with 4 Double Centuries and 3 Centuries ridden, can you believe I am feeling the advertised good come from the rest?
My knees have not felt this good in years, and my right hip is very happy again too.

So always one to look on the bright side. I am now a believer in this rest stuff.

gw_12

Daniel,

Every year I read that same article, think the same "good advice" thing, and ignore it too. Now, if I can just find an easier, safer way to heed the advice .

You've got a great attitude. Glad you're feeling better.

-Glenn

Red Rider

Glad to see you so upbeat. Attitude is everything.

Be sure to post your trainer rides on Strava, so we can give you kudos there as well.

Keep going on your recovery -- you're doing well!

bigbossman 

Yes, please do..... so we cab take a crack at beating your time.

Lanceoldstrong

Feeling the love, and the jibes. You are both great friends, each in your own way.

Midland

Happy to say I had lunch with LanceOldstrong today and am thrilled with his continued recovery.

gpelpel

Already on the trainer, Dan??? You are way ahead of a normal recovery schedule. What a fighter you are!!!
Very happy to hear this kind of news even if I would question the wisdom of visiting a "cyclist" neurologist. Would you, after all, really expect a 'stay away from the bike' recommendation from him?
Many thanks to Julie and the kids to take such great care of you.

Lanceoldstrong

Lucky for me you work so close to my house. Thanks for spending your lunch hour with me. Visits like this boost my morale sky high and keep me on the road to recovery.

Lanceoldstrong

Merci, mon ami.
We have to trust Dr. Michael Nelson in Lafayette, the Cycling Neurologist, who suggested I ride on the trainer for concussion rehab. There is supposed to be a benefit from oxygenating the blood and increasing circulation to the brain. He is treating me like an athlete with an injury to rehab and not just as a "patient". I am responding well to his prescribed care. Lucky for me Mrs. Oldstrong found him.

Red Rider

Oh, man...now I want the Strava segment to having lunch with you. And if it doesn't exist, it will shortly.

Seriously, I have asked to help Julie and received no reply, so I'm putting it out there in public: We'd love to give Julie a break, and promise not to spur you onto new Strava trainer scores...definitely would enjoy a visit, however brief. Just say the word.

And happy to see you pedaling again. Srsly a good sign!

bikingshearer 

Don't get so gushy, Dan. He only came over for the plums.

And don't worry about Dan on the trainer, Georges. Julie, ably assisted by their great kids, is keeping an eagle eye on him. She is doing a phenominal job of making sure Dan doesn't overdo while still letting him progress and do as much as the doctor says is okay. (And it really is great for the morale to be able to actually do something.) If, God forbid, any of us had a major health crisis we would be very, very fortunate to have a Julie on our side.

Lanceoldstrong

Hi Red Rider, your posts and well wishes have helped so much. You asked me to post my trainer rides on Strava so you could give them kudos. That gave me a much needed chuckle. Then I did it and you have led the way for giving my low key trainer rides kudos. That has given me a lot of spirit raising joy.

Also, Julie has enjoyed your posts on this thread very much. She knows you have Chris and how you would feel if he was hurt. Your support as a woman cyclist who can also relate as a a wife has buoyed her spirits a lot. Julie reads me the posts on this thread every morning since my improving double vision still makes reading a pain for me. This brings her a lot of joy. So you are helping Red, a lot. Thank you so much.

Doohickie

I've mostly seen you as just another name on the forums, Lance. I read about your accident and was horrified. I've now caught up on the last couple of pages and I'm so glad you're doing better. Keep it up.

Red Rider

You're so very welcome. After how you took care of me after my crash 3 yrs. ago made an impression -- we were committed to riding together, and you honored your end of that, and I will not forget that.

Any trainer rides you do on Strava are worthy of kudos -- it shows that you're on your bike and participating -- and as long as you do that the kudos, the fitness, the "you" you need to ride for the road will show up.

I'll find a post about Chris's crash and share it. It was brutal, and he forged ahead and ran a 1/2 marathon with just one arm -- very inspirational -- and will send you the YouTube link to his hang glider flight in Yosemite. Just another way to pass the time.

Midland

Happy to report I had lunch with LanceOlstrong again today & he is doing great. As a longtime friend of his I want to take this oppurtunity to thank all the others on here that have showed their support & friendship. Daniel is a great guy in no small part because of all his BF friends. Thanks everybody.

Lanceoldstrong

Update

Bigbossman came by to see me today and was his usual mean, horrible, nasty self.
(he told me to lead with that so he does not lose his gruff reputation)
Actually he was and is a real prince.He even brought flowers for Mrs. Oldstrong.

Don't tell anyone. He has an image to uphold.

For those of you scoring at home...
I continue to improve daily. My double vision is getting better daily. It is not gone yet, but the neurologist says it is a function of how swollen the mouse under my left eye is. As the swelling goes down daily the double vision has been getting better like the doctor said it would.

The fog continues to clear from my head, I am clearer and clearer.
I can focus and concentrate for longer and longer periods of time before mental fatigue sets in and it is not nearly the problem it was a week ago. I will take it gladly, considering I crashed and smacked my head on 6/20 then was out cold for nearly 2 days.

I go back to work on Monday, part time: Doctor's orders.
My company has been tremendous and they are being great about letting me return part time. Good on them! I called the head of HR today to check in and confirm again I am coming back Monday and he said they will have a team of people assigned to making sure I leave when I am supposed to, dragging me out by force if required. It was very funny and a great attitude from him.

If you are still following this thread, wow are you a dedicated and patient person. Also, you are one of my favorite people. All the support and well wishes from Bike Forums members has been the best get well card I could ever wish for. You have all kept my outlook positive and my spirits up, which makes a body heal much faster.
A million thanks.

Beaker

Holy cow. You've made superb progress right there.

DiabloScott

OK, I finally figured out where this happened. Hope Dan doesn't mind a little accident analysis..

Here's the map from the Strava file. It appears that we're seeing one path going up, one coming down with a crash, and another one going up which is the bike in the back of a ranger's pickup afterwards.



Here's the overhead big picture. It's about 2 miles up from the Gate.



I call this the ZigZag - there's a sharp right, then a short section (Penny Lane where there used to be pennies embedded in the pavement), then this sharp left where the crash happened, then a sweeping right turn that you can take at full speed and get into a full tuck.


The ZigZag sign and the sharp right.



This isn't an especially tricky corner, although it's easy to take too much speed coming in to it. The turnout there is gravel so there might also have been some on the road that could be hazardous.

Anyway... I'm going to play it ultra safe around that corner from now on.

Lanceoldstrong

Good expert analysis, you are an expert on Diablo, and I concur with your analysis of the crash location. I looked at it the same way when I put it up on Strava.

The sharp left is exactly where I went down, maybe gravel in the road, like you suggest.
Bigbossman is a smart guy, who really knows cycling. Yesterday, during a visit, he offered a theory of the crash based on my impacts and where they were located...

• Hard primary helmet strike above the left temple and above the left eye (stitches in left eyebrow).
• Hard strike of the cheek bone below the left eye.(left eye ended up swelling shut)
• Secondary helmet strikes on the right side of the helmet opposite the main strike on the left side.
• Patch of Road Rash about the size of a dollar bill high on the back of my left shoulder.
• Significantly there was no other road rash.

These impacts and the absence of road rash formed the basis of Bigbossman's theory: ( I paraphrase)

"It seems like you knifed in to the ground with the left side of your head and left shoulder at a very sharp angle.
This is usually caused when leaning over into a left turn and the front wheel suddenly goes out from under the rider in a violent turn to the right. Then, over you go to the left onto your head and shoulder since your were leaning that way in the left turn. The sharp angle you knifed in at in a crash like this keeps you from sliding much and getting lots of road rash. You bounce for secondary head impacts, but don't slide. This type of crash is usually caused by the front wheel hitting something while you are in your left lean. Something like a rock, a rut in the road, gravel or even a ground squirrel"

DiabloScott, thank you for posting this. It is a good advisory to others, and to me in the future.

DiabloScott

You know the other thing I noticed this morning was that the shadows from the trees in there kind of obscure the edge of the road - that is the road and the pull out area don't have a distinguished edge separating them, so it can seem like your line through the turn is fine when really you're already off the road.

SClaraPokeman

This crash analysis makes it sound like the head took most of the energy. I'm convinced from reading this that the helmet must of saved a life here. I'm curious how much damage there is to it.

We all seek out roads that are tough, scenic, lightly travelled and we feel the risks involved are worth it (or otherwise we wouldn't be "out" there). Eventually, for almost all of us, after hundreds (or more) descents over many years in varying weather/lighting conditions, luck will inevitably run out. We hope it's nothing too serious when it does. This sounds like a very close call and is a very sobering to consider.

Beaker

Actually BBM's analysis sounds like a description of a "high side" crash. I had a similar problem at the start of April when I hit a patch of gravel on the way into San Bruno Mtn State park, started sliding out on a 90 degree right hander, front wheel (presumably) hit a rut/rock/etc. and threw me off violently to the left (i.e. opposite to the direction I would have expected to go down if I had slid out.

It seems really hard to work out what would have caused you to crash though - it was evening if I recall your post correctly - maybe a shadow hid a dip in the road, perhaps an animal lept out, or as you suggest, maybe gravel on the road. As we've said elsewhere, I'm impressed that your helmet did it's job (shudder) and that you've made such great progress from what appears to be a terrific blow to the head.

bigbossman 

My "analysis" was really whole-cloth speculation derived from the location of the damage on the helmet and the area of physical injury. It just looks to me like Dan washed out his front wheel in a hard left turn, and went head/shoulders into the pavement on the inside of the bike before skittering into the far side slope on his back and coming to rest.

I base this solely on my experience doing the same thing on Glorietta one day - similar helmet damage and similar (but much less severe) physical injury.

I'm no crash analyst expert, and I don't even claim to know all that much about it.

You're right - we will never know what caused the crash - I remember mine vividly but did not know what caused it until I went back and examined the road. Dan does not remember, and he was the only eye-witness. But my speculation is that something caused him to lose his front wheel during a hard left.... squirrel, sand, alien being testing a new ray gun - something.

It would be interesting to go to that corner and inspect it for sand, gravel, or other debris, and maybe even shadow line at that general time of day. In my misfortune on Glorietta, I went back a week or so later and found a nice fissure with uneven sides that had caused my my wheel to wash out..... small consolation, but made me feel better about the crash.

toytech

Sounds like a really good analysis to me. One of my crashes on my MTB (not nearly so serious injury wise) happened almost exactly as described. Rounding a corner lost front wheel and ended up about 6 feet or so ahead of my bike on my left cheek and shoulder. Fortunately I only had nice soft dirt and rocks to land on, and a hard head
It is great to hear how well you are improving.