Good Luck Frozen 40ers!!!

Happy Valentine's Day to all the cuties out there!

The importance of February 14th, 2015 isn't that it's Valentine's Day, it's that it's the Fat Bike Frozen 40 in Elm Creek, Minnesota!! The Frozen 40 is forty miles of single track on some really fun trails that I wish I could ride on every day. I'm really excited for everyone that gets to race on this course this year. Good luck to everyone, I can't wait to see how well you do!! There is an incredible roster of super fast and awesome ladies signed up for this race and I think it'll be a nail biter to see who makes the top 5 top 10. I wish I were out there with them, duking it out and cheering them on, but alas I will resort to this:

Maybe I'll close my eyes real tight, put ice in my jersey pockets, and pretend I'm out there at a -2 degree start...

This year, I'm showing my body a little love on Valentine's Day.

My left hand has been a little numb since January and I've been doing a really good job at ignoring it. After spending time in the car last weekend, it became harder to ignore when I realized the discomfort had spread up my arm and that my shoulder was feeling pretty fatigued. After racing at Cuyuna it became impossible to ignore when someone approached me after the race and asked if I had recently been injured. Something's off and it needs to be fixed. Taking a break and allowing your body to rest is super important. As much as I love racing, I need to take some time to let my body relax and to get things working correctly again.

C'mon left shoulder, whats up?

I made an appointment with Jason Ross at Train out Pain to figure out what was wrong with my left side. It's been getting weaker, my scapula was winging, and I began thinking of the worst possible scenarios which involved surgery and never being able to ride my bike ever again! Luckily, I can be a hypochondriac and a bit dramatic sometimes when it comes to my health, and my left side isn't that bad. Jason is amazing and I'm so lucky that he's willing to work with me to fix this! I think the best guess as to what I've done to my poor shoulder is that I fatigued it and then got whiplash and upset a nerve or some muscles when the minivan flipped. Ignoring it hasn't helped. I'm really optimistic about working with Jason and am going to work my hardest on all of my physical therapy homework assignments! So this Valentine's day, I'll be vicariously living through all of my friends racing at the Frozen 40, wishing I were there, while treating myself to some take out on the couch in my pajamas and simultaneously doing some armpit exercises. If Ninja is really lucky we'll go for a little hike today and I'll wear my pajama pants under my snow pants. 

Yup, he looks lucky.

Be a sweetheart body, and heal up soon, okay? <3