All posts by Mike

First post-cracked-pelvis bike ride!!!

Personal stuff, Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

It will be 6 weeks this Tuesday morning since Kevin and I crashed on black ice, putting my cycling on ice and doing a real number on my sanity. The ortho doc said 6 weeks off the bike, period. A couple weeks ago I asked for updated x-rays to see if that could be shortened a bit, but no, he said things looked just as expected, everything right on plan. Just not MY plan.

I gave an update to the doc a few days ago, pointing out my capabilities (can get around without crutches, climbing stairs normally, etc), reminded him of what a nice day it was going to be Sunday, and asked if I could have my sentence reduced by 3 days. HE SAID YES!!!

Not wanting to risk a setback, I planned a flattish route where I could draft Kevin as much as possible, keeping the watts relatively low. The minimum ride would be “the loop” and, if I was up to it, extending the southern end to Los Altos. I told Kevin he needed to keep the watts down a bit, because I didn’t know what would happen if I tried to push things. Not just from the standpoint of recovering from the injury, but also because it’s a virtual certainly I’d be in terrible shape. The Garmin was confirming my lack of shape, giving me an initial fitness score of -4 I think? No wonder; in the past six weeks my weight drifted up slightly to 173 and since then dropped to 161.5. Especially the past two weeks I haven’t felt like eating much and have been pretty anxious.

That weight thing. On the one hand, it’s been a long-time dream to get my weight down to where it presently is. The problem? This isn’t a “real” weight loss. Most likely muscle that’s missing, and I need that! We’ll see how it plays out over the next few weeks.

A very rare selfie, with a Kevin photo-bomb
Getting back to the ride, Strava clearly shows how much out-of-shape I was, assigning sky-high “effort” numbers despite pretty low wattage. Which means my heart rate was much higher than it normally would be. In fact, my heart rate was tracking effort in an overly-reactive manner. Nevertheless I felt like I could develop a bit of power when needed. Peaked at 675 watts. Average was pretty low (148 watts) but truthfully, that’s still higher than expected. Had coffee and food at the Peet’s near our former Los Altos location (which still hasn’t been rented, by the way) before heading back.

It’s good to be back.

He’s got a ticket to ride… this Sunday!

Personal stuff

My cycling exodus is nearly over!

It was with some measure of fear & trepidation that I emailed my ortho doc this morning, giving a progress report and asking if I could maybe start riding Sunday, a few days ahead of the 6 weeks I was supposed to stay out of the saddle. As you can see above, he said I could!

It’s not going to be much of a ride; I really don’t know how my hip/pelvis/hamstring area is going to feel. If it’s really painful, I’ll cut it short, maybe even call in a sag wagon. I don’t want to set back my recovery. But if it feels OK, the plan (remember, there’s always a plan) is to start with “the loop” and, if at the far end of “the loop” I feel good enough, continue on down to Los Altos before turning back. It could be anywhere from 20 to 35 miles. Don’t think this will be something that goes into the way-beyond-expected category, but I won’t entirely rule that possibility out. I’m pretty stupid that way.

Karen (my wife) will be very happy to see me get back into a normal routine. I’ve had way too much extra energy bouncing around inside, creating the anxiety that I’ve mentioned previously and creating something that could be considered almost “clingy” in our relationship, and that’s definitely not like me. Except that, these past couple of weeks, it has been.

I look forward to getting back to normal, or almost normal. While the introspective opportunities have been excessive, I’ve learned a few things about myself, and my relationship with Karen, that I can do a better job with. Not quite sure if this episode has qualified as a late mid-life crisis. Or maybe I hope it’s exactly that, mid-life, so I’m going to be around for quite a while.

Whatever. Sunday, I ride! –Mike–