Tuesday Toolbox: Brandon Sommers

Brandon Sommers threw us a curveball when we called him up for this week's Tuesday Toolbox. Sommers found out just last Friday that he has mono and might not be able to race the first round of the season in just a few days. For someone who had a solid 2009 season, that had to have been bad news, but Sommers finds the gold lining in his situation. Read on to find out Sommers plans for Florida and beyond.

Hey Brandon, how are you doing today? Oh, I'm alright.

Are you sure? The Brandon Sommers I've interviewed has never sounded that down in the dumps.
Well, I have mono, actually.

Oh wow. Mono? Are you sure you're up for an interview? Yeah, that's fine. I'm still working and stuff. An interview is actually easier than that work I've been doing. (laughs)

Ok, then. When did you find out you had mono? I just found out Friday I have it. I'm not sure what all happened, but from signs and everything, I probably got it in November from my surgery. I've been working so much and I just kept pushing, pushing, pushing. In December, I got strep throat and got over that, and then when I started training after, I just never felt the same. I had no motivation. Then I got really bad strep throat last week and was spitting up blood, couldn't breathe, couldn't eat.  I went in to the doctor and she gave me antibiotics. She told me to come back if I didn't feel better, so I did and she took a test and found out I had mono.  I'm going in tomorrow to get an ultrasound and see how my spleen is and go from there.

So there's a chance you might not race in Florida? Well, maybe. Basically my spleen is swollen, which is common with mono. So when you're active you have a risk of having it explode on you. So I have to find out how much time I have to get to the hospital if it does.

Yikes! When will you know for sure whether you can go to Florida? I'm coming down for sure, I'll be there whether I race or not. I'll get the ultrasound tomorrow, but I won't know until Thursday or Friday.  My doctor will call on my way to Florida. So, I might not sound chipper but I feel a lot better. I had to stop training a week and a half ago, which sucked and then we have Florida coming up. It's been a little frustrating.

I bet. So you're going to prepare and pack as if you're going to race? Oh yeah. It kind of looks like I won't be racing though. I've raced 6 years now and I've never missed a race.

You said you've been racing GNCCs for six years, and you've never missed a race? I've been sick but I don't think I've missed any GNCC races or any local races until this past fall when I broke my leg. I didn't finish Ironman and now who knows about the start of this year. Diarrhea is probably the worst case I've had before the leg.

When do you think you'll be able to come back and race, then? I don't know, if I actually had it in November already, that's something that's got me worried. What's it going to take for it to go away? What's going to make it go away in a month?  I asked the doctor about the ultrasound, and she got pretty upset with me because she said that whether it's swollen or not I shouldn't be racing, that I should take a month off and do nothing at all, but I don't know! We have races to race! I've been taking a lot of vitamins, and some witch doctor crap (laughs) like Cat's Claw and some juice I'm taking that I keep putting 5 drops of water in and whew, it's some strong stuff. I think that's more for the strep throat.

Well, according to your dad you just got back from washing your bike! Don't you think it would be better to just rest, watch some action movies? Well, I just found out Friday, and I just felt like I had responsibilities.  I'd spend time resting and then I'd go out and work for half an hour. I laid around most of the day Sunday because I felt so gross and so terrible.   I don't know! Maybe I should be, but right now, I feel like I have work to get done so I can get down to Florida.

Well last year, before you broke your leg at Ironman, you were having a really awesome year. Before you found out you had mono, I'm sure you felt really good about your prospects this season.
I was excited about everything. I'm running the same bike I was running last year. I had some struggles last year but once we got it dialed in it was working really well. The bike was just amazing by the end of the year.  By then, I wasn't changing anything on the bike, and then I broke my leg at Ironman. Once I started riding the bike again in December, I figured I had two months to get ready and I was feeling better about it. But the more I trained the worse I felt. It didn't feel like my endurance was holding up. The whole mono thing sucks but it's kind of a relief, because I was worried I was just being lazy. I was getting really tired and I didn't want to do anything. I was just convinced that it was just laziness.

That's terrible, because you probably pushed yourself even harder because of that. You probably felt like you had lost your drive. I almost felt like I was getting burned out. It took so much mental energy to just go do stuff. Normally when you work out you feel great, like you've accomplished something. It just sucked for me. I just wasn't seeing any improvement. Hopefully we can get it taken care of early and still get a decent year in.

So you're thinking if you can't come back for Florida and Georgia, we'll see you out there at Steele Creek? We'll see. That would be about a month. So if I just laid low and hung out I could probably be back, with no problem then. But If I go out and race those first two races, it might set me back. There's a lot to think about right there.

Well it has been done. Look at Bill Ballance, he came back to fourth overall after having a rough start to the season. Obviously, it's possible that you can bounce back and maybe have a run at the championship? Last year I put a lot of pressure on myself, maybe I shouldn't have focused on some of the things I focused on, and it took a lot of fun out of it last year. Last year I just felt like I wasn't having fun. I didn't care about the politics, I just wanted to go out and have fun. That's what I'm shooting at this year. Obviously, this is a career for me but it's a hobby as well. I just want to go out and have a shot at that championship and have fun. I know right now I'm not in the physical condition to ride up front with a lot of those guys and be a contender. But maybe at the end of the year, I know the bike is working really good. I just need to get myself there.

What have you been doing to get ready for the season right now? Right now I'm finishing up bikes, and setup is where we want it. I've still been doing a little bit of training, but instead of long periods of time, I'm doing really short workouts, getting my heart rate up as high as I can. I'm trying to keep my muscles fresh and blood flow up so my body isn't sitting idle. Right now the best thing for my body is getting a lot of rest.

Your dad is obviously a huge component of your racing career, how does he feel?
I don't know, we talked a little bit about it and I think it's pretty rough on him because of the end of last year. But I also think he sees that I'm having more fun and doing the program the way I want to do it instead of like last year. I think he sees that I'm not beating myself up over everything all the time. Obviously as a father, he wants his son to be happy. We don't really have too many heart to hearts about emotions and stuff.

What have you changed about your program? I haven't really changed my program or training, it's just that I'm going back to my roots with some of the things I used to do. I'm more focused on getting the bike set up and not changing things all the time. Sometimes when you get in situations like this you have to deal with companies or people that try to get to you or maybe push you around. I just laugh at  those people now and won't pick any contracts that could hurt me or anything like that. I might step on some toes here, but, myself included, when people become pro riders they get a bad attitude and expect everything, and I know I fall into that trap and I think I still struggle with it. But a lot of issues come from that and make the year suck.

It looks like, despite being sick, you have a really positive attitude about this entire situation.
I think the motto of the week is like that country song where the guys goes "sounds like life to me." I don't know, I've just been saying that a lot. That's life and you can't control what happens. You take what life throws at you, and you make the decision about how you're going to take it. You can take it and lay around or take it and jump doubles and triples over rough areas and enjoy life. It sucks to be in a bad mood, but it definitely helps when you're not.

That's definitely a good attitude, I think. When are you headed to Florida? I'm actually leaving Thursday at noon and I will stay down for the whole week. They are going to check me out tomorrow and then the doctor will call me and let me know if it's a boy or a girl(laughs) I should know by Friday morning what I'm doing.

And if she says you can't race, you'll listen, right? Absolutely I'll listen. If she says there's absolutely no way I should be racing, I won't. But this is my life and passion.

Well we all hope you feel better soon! Thanks, Rachel. See you in Florida!