An Extraction Distraction

My riding plan for this weekend was in question all week. I eventually settled on a mountain bike ride with my friend and teammate Trace Nabors. On Thursday it was still good to go. On Friday I had an appointment with my dentist, Stephanie Greene, to check out my back tooth. It was becoming increasingly sensitive to cold and heat. When I got there I was all smiles and giggles. When I left there, on my way to the oral surgeon, I was... not. Just to be clear, my mouth is in pretty good shape. I brush'em twice a day whether they need it or not.  But here's a little nugget of truth you can file away; if there's a cavity under a crown it won't show up on the xray. My thought was to get to the dentist before a little sensitivity became a real costly problem. Oh well. Under that crown was evidently some toxic waste because she had to leave for a minute to clear her head. When she came back she sat next to me and delivered the bad news. My next stop was to have my tooth extracted in preparation for an implant. Yippee.
This little adventure was about to ruin my day. But at least it gives me some material to blog about.


Waiting for the bad news.

I arrived at the oral surgeon's office to find two sweet ladies smiling and laughing. I was their last patient for the rest of the day. It was 12:45pm. I filled out all the forms in triplicate and they called me back. The nurse hooked me up to the "system" which promptly started beeping at her. It monitored my heart rate. She stared at the noise maker for a few seconds and then walked over, tapped a button to shut it up and looked at me. "You must be a runner." she said. "Your heart rate is so low the machine thinks it's a problem." I told her I'm a competitive cyclist which my wife will tell you sometimes is a problem. The Doctor came in and began to look at the xrays from Stephanie's office. "You want me to pull that thing out now or schedule a time for us to put you to sleep?"  I decided that since I was still numb from having the crown cut off earlier and since he could enact some compound numbing AND hook me up with some HAPPY GAS that I'd let him jerk that rotten sucker out now. They both smiled and began happily preparing to commit an act of piracy on my mouth.

The Doctor couldn't believe it when I withdrew my phone for a picture.

Here's where things get a little cloudy. He numbed the entire left side of my face. Bill Cosby comes to mind for some reason. His nurse put the gas hose on my nose and I started to not really care. That gas is some amazing stuff. I closed my eyes and didn't mind at all that he was standing on my chest ripping the tooth from my skull. I could hear the grinding and smell the blood but hey...we're floating around the room...cool. It was like having an out of body experience.

Looking back on it I'm a little uncomfortable. I mean he could have pulled all the teeth out of my head to make a necklace and I'd have kept on floating.  Anyway, he sewed up the hole in my mouth, I paid him to do it and left them there to laugh about whatever I said while under the happy gas. Then I did what any other red blooded American would do...I went to work. The way I figured it I had at least 3 hours before the Novocain wore off, I'm in accounting which doesn't require me to talk with the gauze in my mouth and finally...I'm a guy. I can take it.

I lasted more than 3 hours before finally succumbing to the pain and constant bleeding. I went home and slept as if I just won the battle to save middle earth. My weekend was then filled with salt rinses and playoff football. I did manage to get on my trainer and spin out 5 hours of endurance though. So... I didn't loose a single bit of fitness. If you are reading this and don't think that last sentence was ridiculous then you are as addicted as I am. Admit it.

IWBMATTKYT - If you know what it means you're an addict too.

Ceramic Bearings

For two years now I've periodically logged onto VCRC Ceramic Bearings Facebook page and asked when they plan to make a Ceramic Bottom Bracket for my Giant TCR Advanced SL. I became addicted to ceramic bearings early in my cycling career when I read about how all the pros use them. Ceramic bearings are harder, rounder, lighter and smoother than steel bearings of even the best quality. My first purchase was a bottom bracket for a Litespeed Vortex I wish I still owned. It's the only thing besides wheels that I've ever bought that I could actually feel the difference. So I wanted them on my race bike.

One month ago I received a message from VCRC that they wanted me to test their prototype SRAM bottom bracket. Umm...Yeah! And this weekend that bottom bracket actually showed up at my house!


VCRC Ceramic Bottom Bracket for GIANT road bike.

I called Joe Elam to tell him and we installed it on Monday. This will be a great test for many reasons. Since purchasing the Giant I've also discovered training with a power meter. I've become so addicted to it that I can almost tell you what my power output is without looking at my Garmin. I'm very interested to see if my power output changes based on the "ceramic factor". It may also be a placebo but if it really works can you actually call it that? I mean if you go faster because of physics OR because you think you're better than you are I say it's a positive investment. Although in this case there is no investment, but you know what I mean. 

On with the NEW HOTNESS!

This weekend I hoping to test it at the Winter Bike League ride in Athens. Hopefully it will help me get through 80 miles in freezing temperatures. Otherwise I may call one of you from someones house near Homer, GA to come pick me up.

Have a great weekend my friends!

Chad