Seeing the Doctor, Seeing the Sea

Trekking out to the doctor this morning, who says just some "significant contusions, but I expect a full recovery." Well isn't that nice--though she did encourage me to take more ibuprofen and gave me a prescription for muscle relaxants to help make sleeping easier. As an added bonus, my lungs seem fine and my PSA came back low normal. When I confessed told her how fast I was going when I crashed, her first question was "why do you ride so fast?" This clearly marks her as someone who doesn't bike much. It's not about the speed, really. But when the bike, your muscles, lungs, and heart are all working together, the speed just comes, unbidden. I was cruising out the Lochside trail today, and everything was in order, I was in the zone, and for several kilometres I was idling along at 22-24 kph on the packed gravel. No heavy panting, my breathing was deep and moderate, legs pumping not terribly fast, but sustainably. Just beautiful biking. Though it might have been better if I'd taken my camelbak bag with me....

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Back On The Horse

Or, you know, bike. Whatever.
Made my first post-crash ride yesterday, a mere 12 km round-trip to Oak Bay Marina. I am actually surprised at how much I'm still hurting. Enough, in fact, that I'm planning another trip to the doctor tomorrow (this time to my doctor, not the walk-in clinic). Breathing is a problem, and not in a "Oh God am I ever out of shape" kind of way, but an "Oh God, breathing makes things move. Must stop now!" kind of way. That and the pretty much non-stop headaches since the crash have forced me to head back into the medical system.
But even though it was a short ride yesterday,I did manage to go to the gym and work out with Lila for an hour or so in the evening. And today the road rash on my arms started itching like crazy. Urrgghh!

original post: 25 March 2009

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Further Adventures of a Hurtin' Unit

Sunday was brutal, as I discovered every pulled and sprained muscle from the crash. By Sunday afternoon I was having trouble getting a good breath--I did some pretty good damage to my chest muscles and my upper arms. About 4:00pm, I wandered over to Starbucks and got a orange mango Vivanno with an extra shot of protein powder in it, and by Monday morning, 85% of the pain is gone. Not saying one caused the other, just that I hadn't taken in much protein in the last couple of days, and I figure it might have helped give my body something to use for repairs. So after getting some chores done, I should be off riding today--weather willing.

Original Post: 23 March 2009

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Hurtin' Unit

10 weeks to go--well, 9 now. The beginning of June is still the still the start date for cycling from Victoria to Edmonton. So it was time to finally buy a bike and get to riding.
Got a Norco VFR4 hybrid (not the disc brake model, but a v-brake one) from Mac's Cycle here in Victoria . I like the beefy frame and the fact that it's new. It rolls like a dream, and even after so long away from biking, my average speed is still 19 kph--about what it was when I last rode. I thought I'd be starting from a lot further back on the fitness scale, but on Friday (20 march ) I did a quick 27 km including hills (and swimming with Jeffery and Thomas) and still had no muscle pain the next day.
Yesterday (Saturday 21 mar) Paula and I met John and Richard at the ORS spring gear sale, and then I picked up my bike from the in-law's place and headed out for another ride. It's going to take a lot of rides between now and June to even be halfway ready (as well as quite a few trips to the gym for core strengthening). About 4 km into my ride, I pulled a John at about 35 kph.
I still don't know exactly what happened, but I was moving nicely past Reynolds School and then I was over the handlebars and sliding face first down the street, shedding speed and parts as I went.
Everything worked the way it was supposed to--my helmet took a shot (when I took it off I found some gravel embedded in the Styrofoam), my gloves shredded, avoiding serious damage to my hands, and so on. Interestingly, it was my left hand glove that shredded the worst, while it was my right hand that took the most damage (all my knuckles are skinned like I punched a grater, and the side of my hand has been seriously bruised).
And, of course, both elbows have significant road rash. The brand new (3 weeks old?) bike jacket is shredded and the zipper destroyed, but the on-sale and quite cheap jersey was left in perfect shape. So there wasn't even any dirt in my elbows.
I did head for the doctor' office immediately afterwards, as I have some quite significant pain in the right side of my neck where the muscles attach to the skull, but the doctor seemed quite unconcerned by it. The muscles over my collarbones are strained, and I appear to have really sprained the pectoral muscle on my right side, but overall, I faired way better than John did when he went over his handlebars.
The bike sustained almost no damage--some tearing to the left handgrip and I bent the crap out of my seat--mostly, I think, because the bike rode most of the stopping distance on my back rather than on the road.

Original Post:22 March 2009

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