Friday Follies ~~ Reasonable?

The Hard Physical Facts:

There exists a “triangle” of three interrelated factors in any product.  They are

Specification

Cost

Delivery Time

And as the old joke goes, “Pick two!”

Truth it is, and wisely said...

As Spec rises, Cost will rise and Delivery Time will increase.

As Cost is held lower, Spec will fall, and Delivery Time will increase.

If Delivery Time is to be made very short, then Spec will be compromised, and Cost will rise.

Some things are completely mutually exclusive.

Very High Spec, coupled with low Cost, will yield an infinite Delivery Time.

For that matter, sometimes elements of the Spec are not compatible.  It is possible to build a bicycle that is very versatile, but it will be compromised in some of its functions.  Think of it like this.  We can build a really good battleship, or a very capable aircraft carrier, or a terrific submarine, but there just isn’t any such thing as a Flying-Battleship-Aircraft-Carrier-Submarine.

If a very fast light road bike is desired, it can be had, but it won't handle log crossings, ditch jumps, or whoops, and it will sink out of sight in the first mud bog.  On the other hand, an absolutely amazing mountain bike is quite possible, but it won’t put the rider at in the lead group on the Thursday Night Roadie Ride.

The Customer side of the equation: 

Most folks have an understanding of the elements discussed above.  The majority of folks who enter the bike shop are sane and reasonable.  Of course they would like to get the best possible stuff, as soon as possible, at the best possible price, but they have an understanding of things as they are.  Most want their bike fixed for a reasonable price, or they want a decent road bike at around fifteen hundred, or they need a flat repaired, or a new good pair of shorts, or decent tires, etc.  Most understand that we work very hard to provide the best value for the price.  There are, however, some exceptions.

There are four particular and unique types of customers who come to the bike shop.  They are, it should be stated, a tiny minority of our clientele.  But they do stand out.  They are the Center of the Universe, the Man With An Idea, the Madman, and the Agonized Shopper.  Perhaps you have met one or more of these?

The Center of the Universe:  This individual wants what they want, and thinks that constitutes a Natural Law.  It doesn’t really matter how unreasonable or unrealistic the desire is, they want it!  More, it is the job and obligation of the Universe, (specifically the employees of the shop) to produce this thing for them.   And make it snappy!  It’s kind of a waste of time to explain to this individual that no one has a carbon fiber road bike, weighing less than 15 pounds, with “simple” gears, in orange and purple polka dot pain scheme, used but in perfect condition, in a double extra small size, for $150.00.  All that explanation will produce is a blank look followed by anger.  “Why not?  I want it!”  The clear implication is that we shop employees are crooks and we’re deliberately keeping them from realizing their fondest (unreasonable) desire.

The Man With An Idea:  This one is a close relative of Center of the Universe.  This guy starts with the proposition that, since the shop does repairs, and on occasion accepts custom work orders, it stands to reason that we would be only too willing to drop everything and develop his stroke of genius.  He has this Idea!  We should just build him a bike that lets him lie face down, and has lots and lots of gears, with a mount for a gas engine, that could go 150 miles per hour and cost only a couple of hundred dollars.  Or he sees no reason why we shouldn’t modify his extra-small framed, third hand mountainbike to fit his six foot seventeen inch body, and make it entirely suitable for triathlons and mountainbike racing.  Or why can’t we just build him shaft driven, all-wheel-drive tricyle, with a cloaking device?  Out of junkyard parts?

The Madman:  Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result.  The Madman has in mind something with a preposterous spec, at a completely unreasonable price, and is just amazed and astonished at (and holds us somehow responsible for) the fact that the bicycle industry has not spent many years and millions of dollars developing just exactly what HE wants.  The Madman  is firmly convinced that diamonds can be found in Cracker Jacks boxes.  Usually what the Madman desires is a product that defies the first basic facts listed at the beginning of this post.  He is convinced that he can have a high spec, low cost, wonder and have it now.  After exhaustively discussing this with us, he goes away dissatisfied, but he will be back to do it all again!  And again.  And again!

The Agonized Shopper:  This individual is quite aware of those the Spec, Cost, Time triangle, but he is obsessed with fidning the absolute best possible solution to the problem.  He spends hours discussing absolutely every aspect of every finely detailed spec and part on an wide array of bikes, asks for comparisons with other company's offerings, and price matching, and written quotes, and then goes away.   He will return to go through the entire process again, many times, over the space of 1.5 to 2 years, before finally buying something (usually from the internet!)  Then he is shocked and amazed that we are not overjoyed with his purchase, and that we don’t want to fit him on it for free, and sell him accessories at wholesale, and perform warranty service on his shiny new toy.

In closing, I’d like to thank all of you, my most reasonable and delightful customers.  You are emphatically not in any of the above categories, and you often don’t know just how refreshing you are.

Brakes

Ask 100 people what bicycle brakes are for, and likely 99 of them will respond with a blank look and then say,  “For stopping.”

Well…  yes.  But there’s a bit more to it than that.

A brake is a device that converts kinetic energy to heat.  Roughly (and very loosely) a cyclist in motion has a kinetic energy.  This energy can be measured and is equivalent to E = ½ mv².  In that equation, E is the kinetic energy, m is the combined and total mass of the vehicle (cyclist + bicycle), and v is the velocity at which the vehicle is traveling.  (Please take a deep breath and relax!  We’re not going to turn this into a Physics lesson.)  The important thing to remember here is that two things affect the kinetic energy.  They are the mass of the vehicle and its speed or velocity.  Of these velocity has a much greater effect.

There are a great number of situations where a cyclist would want to decrease velocity without stopping.

Examples abound.  Here are a few:

• I’m going to fast to make that turn!
• That truck won’t be out of the intersection before I get there!
• I’m going as fast as I can, and that idiot Honda is moving into my lane!
• I can’t hear what my riding companion is saying, and she is the one who knows how to get home.
• I’m going too fast to read the street signs, and there is an important turn coming up.
• If I go down this mountain much faster I risk becoming “street pizza”!
• Yipe!  They stopped pedaling!

Personally, I’m not fond of braking.  I prefer to make my ride fluid, using deceleration  only as needed to adjust the line in a curve, or to make necessary full stops at intersections.  Sometimes, when riding with others, I find it necessary to brake, just to stay in contact.  It’s a mild annoyance.

There are those times…  The ones when we are following someone up a hill, and they, for no apparent reason, abruptly slow down so much that we must apply brakes, while climbing.  Lordy!

Most folks don’t pay a lot of attention to their bike brakes…  until they stop working.  Fortunately these devices are fairly reliable.  That wasn’t always the case.

When the Tour de France race started, in the very early days of the 20^th century, all the bikes were fixed gear, and rim brakes were still a thing of the future.  Oh there were bicycles with brakes, but these were deemed too heavy and too clunky for serious racing.

The early Tours did include significant climbing sections, but mountain descending was not a feature.  The advent of the first rim brakes made two things possible.  A cyclist could mount a lower gear on the bike for climbing purposes, and freewheels became practical.  Still, those early brakes weren’t much.  Remember, the rims of racing bicycles were made form bent wood.  The first rim brakes were crude, “single-pull,” and the pads were a sticky laminate of leather and tarry rubber.

I have ridden authentic reproductions of those early bikes.  I can state that the brakes were only slightly more effective than dragging one’s feet along the ground.  By the late ‘40s metallic rims and rubber had improved things considerably.  Road bike brakes were then up to the level of miserable performance.  That’s where things stayed for a while.

When I first got into road riding, the best that we could obtain worked only fairly well.  A good set of roadbike brakes, with the best pads available, was good for three hard applications,  they heated too much and faded to near useless.  And rain?  Fuggedaboutit!

Today’s brakes, road or mountain, are marvels.  And, like it or not, disc brakes are coming for the lightweight road bikes.

A bit of wordplay:

To Brake = to slow down.

To Break = to damage beyond function

I braked = I slowed down or stopped.

I broke = I damaged beyond easy repair.

I braked hard, and the brakes broke, and then I got all broke up.

I Hate following my own advice!

A Diary of Injury Recovery

I’m posting this series in the hope that it will be helpful and instructive for others.

Note the title of this post.  The advice I dispense is the best that I know.  Much (most) of this advice concerns things that I do on a regular basis.  Frankly, some of these things are not always pleasant.  We do them because they yield desirable results.  That last is highly applicable to recovery from an injury.  Many cyclists, and other athletes, are so constituted and motivated that the very idea of slowing down, backing off, or decreasing training is repugnant.

We tend to be goal-driven folks.  But sometimes we suffer a set-back.  When this occurs, it gives rise to an internal conflict.  Almost all of us know that injury requires treatment and recovery.  However, if that recovery process interferes with training, and there is a goal involved, we agonize.  It’s hard to stop, and it’s extremely difficult to let go of a goal.

The proper course of action is to make the healing, and recovery into the goal.  After all, failure to do so may jeopardize more than just an event.  Attempts to continue training, and vigorous intensity activity, can retard recovery, or even increase the severity of an injury.  So the job of recovering, in a healthy and correct fashion becomes the goal.

I’m not all that different from the athletes I mention above.  There are things that I use as goals and training-motivators.  I absolutely hate to postpone, cancel, or fail in achievement of those things.  I know that the advice I dispense regarding injury recovery is correct, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it!  Nor does it mean that I enjoy following it.

Progress to Date:

It has now been six weeks since I injured a rib and a fair amount of soft tissue, and connective tissue around it.  The healing process is not complete, but it is advancing well and in a normal fashion.  (I have been told I am recovering at an exceptional rate for one of my age.  YAY!)

For the past two weeks I’ve gradually (and most carefully) increased the amount of physical activity, primarily riding.  That’s in increase in volume, but emphatically not in intensity.  This has not been the time for stress exercise.  Also please note, that volume increase was not over my “norm” but rather from a very low level.  I am a long way from returning to “normal” volume levels.  This has brought me to a milestone of sorts.

This is the point where I should be able to stop the gradual decline in fitness.  If I can hold steady at this level for a week, I should then be able to start the long process of regaining previous fitness levels.

Next Phase:

For the next week I will decrease volume, while adding a carefully measured, and very nominal increase in effort level.  In the week follow that, if all goes well, I can bring the volume back up slightly.

That’s the balancing act.  First extend volume, the amount of exercise, watching for any signs that the body will not tolerate the increase.  Then, if successful, reduce volume slightly and bring effort levels up.  With luck and care, I should be pretty much back to “normal” levels of activity by the end of June.  Then I will be able to really train again.

Fingers crossed.  I’ll keep you posted.

Thursday Thoughts: Heat and Light ~~ Sunscreen!

Spring has sprung…  FINALLY!  With it come some inevitable issues.  The weather is warming.  We are all going outside more, and we’re staying outside for longer intervals.

I’ve been hearing it a lot…  “Wow!  It got hot  all of a sudden!”

Actually, it didn’t.  We’ve been through a long and gradual (some would say very gradual!) warming trend since January.  We’ve had little bouts of warmer days all along.  They just haven’t lasted.  And then, with seeming suddenness, our climate “flipped” to late Spring mode.  Only lately have we been experiencing strings of days with highs in the low to mid 80s.  The switch seems sudden, and the temperatures seem, by comparison, much warmer.  After all, the chilly lasted so long.

Now lets be reasonable for a moment.  Days with highs in the low to mid 80s are not hot!  Note that the highs don’t occur before 3:00P.M.  Yes, 85 can seem warm, especially if one is performing physical work, and is exposed to the sun while doing it.  But the heat, the real heat, is still to come.  And make no mistake, come it most certainly will.

It’s time to start getting acclimated.  Don’t hide form the heat.  Go out and greet it.  Ride and work outside at every opportunity.  Do outside work as close to the heat of the day as you can possibly stand it.  Only as the high temps increase, should you allow yourself to be moved to earlier or later in the day.  The idea is to accept and adapt to the increased heat as gradually as possible.  And…

STAY HYDRATED!!!!

Really.  Start right now!  Focus on drinking while you are riding.  It’s time to be carrying a minimum of two bottles on every ride.  It’s time to get back into the discipline of drinking before  the ride.  (Most dehydration incidents begin 24 hours before the emergency.)  It’s time to get back in the habit of chugging the water down regularly while riding.

And another thing…

WHERE IS ALL THE HEAT COMING FROM?

The answer to that is, of course, glaringly obvious.  We havbe longer periods of sunlight now.  We cyclists and outdoors folk need to pay attention to that.  We like to be outside, and we like to do that during the day, and we like to do it when the sun is shining.  Nothing wrong with that,  but…  Good old Sol does a lot more than just light and warm us.  He dumps a lot of Ultraviolet (UV) on us.  We have a problem with UV.  It burns us.  Sunburn is skin damage.  That’s an inescapable fact. That fact gives rise to several serious implications.

The immediate one is a risk of heat injury.  Hey!  We use our skin to help us cool.  We do that by sweating.  The problem here is that skin has to function properly if we are to gain the benefit of that cooling function.  “I don’t see a problem,”  you say?  “My skin is working!”  you add.  Of course that’s true, but…

Skin stops working when it is injured.  Burning is injury.  At the very moment that skin begins to sunburn, it loses most of its ability to cool you.  Oops.

A second implication of sun related skin burn is longer term and far more serious.  Repeated doses of UV induced damage can result in skin cancer.

So how do we avoid these problems?  There are several strategies. 

One) Stay indoors and do our outside stuff at night.  Most folks will reject this option

Two) Cover the body completely with “SPF clothing.”  Likely most of us will find this expensive, uncomfortable, hot, and likely to induce heat related injuries.

Three)  USE SUNSCREEN!!

We’ve heard all the excuses:

• It’s messy and icky.  So is skin cancer!
• “I don’t burn.”  Yes you do!
• “I won’t be out that long.”  Yes you will, and the effect is cumulative.
• “It makes me feel hot.”  Not as hot as burned skin will make you feel.

~~ Next week we’ll get into a discussion of some of the real issues surrounding Sunscreen ~~

A few last good precautionary suggestions:

The burning effects of the sun are the greatest when the sun is highest in the sky.  Try to avoid prolonged exposure between the hours of 11:00 A.M and 3:00 P.M.

Inevitably, when we are riding, there occur unscheduled stops.  When this happens, Get off the road, and do what you have to do in the shade!

Injury Recovery: “How’s the rib?”

I’ve had that question a lot lately.  It’s touching.  Folks are concerned.  It’s now been five weeks since I took a spill and cracked a rib.  I’m happy to report that I’m well, and recovering nicely.

I’ve now spent a week of gently testing and probing.  I’ve done a bit more on the bike, and have (cautiously!) increased my stretching drills.  I’ve also started to add just a very few core and abs strengthening exercises.  I find that I’m not yet ready to do much in the way of core/abs work.

The high point of my last week was the Bike to Work Day commute.  It was successful.  I took the long way home, without undue strain.  I did feel it a bit on Saturday morning, just a residual stiffness.

In short I’m doing about half of my “normal” ride volume, and the intensity is much lower than I’m used to.  This seems to be about right for now.  The idea is to do enough exercise to promote more rapid healing, without doing so much as to aggravate the injury.  It’s good to be moving, but I must confess, it’s also frustrating to be hampered.

I do look forward to better days ahead.

Ride Report: Ride of Silence ~ the view from the back

Last Wednesday was the annual Ride of Silence.  This is a memorial ride to commemorate cyclists who have been injured or killed in traffic.

We had a large turnout.  Good weather helps with that, and the weather last Wednesday was excellent.  There were 70+ riders (and one shop dog in a trailer) along.  It’s an impressive sight.  That many riders, when proceeding in single file stretch out over a quarter mile of road.

We followed our usual procedures.  That means that Southside Cycling Club President, Dan Christensen led the ride.  Dan follows our usual route, and keeps the speed down.  It’s difficult to hold a group that size together.

I take the “drag postion,” riding at the very back.  My goals in holding this post are twofold.  My first goal is to provide blocking and safety for the riders ahead.  My other function is to render aid to any rider who needs mechanical assistance.

As it should have been, the ride was one of silence and simple intention.  To see over 70 cyclists on the road at once is really impressive.  When this large a group proceeds slowly, with intent to keep the group intact, it’s even more attention grabbing.  Yes we encountered a few motorists who were displeased with us.  On the other hand, we saw drivers who “got it.”  For example, as we were moving down the Peachtree Parkway, there were two drivers who pulled up abreast of each other, and behind us.  They then stayed there and “blocked” for us.  I can’t imagine that they knew why we were there, but they sensed that this was something to be respected.

Friday Follies ~~ My First “Bike to Work Day”

I will be riding my bike to work today.  This is sort of a celebration.  I’m recovering from and injury, and I haven’t been able to bike-commute yet this month.  It’s an activity I truly enjoy.  My best days are the ones on which I ride to and from work.

“Bike to Work Day” was invented by the League of American Bicyclists*, back in 1956.  I didn’t know about that at the time.  I hadn’t yet started to work a job.  (Believe it or not, I was once that young.)

Fast forward to a time when I was in my early twenties.  I had discovered road cycling in a big way.  I had also discovered organized, sanctioned, bicycle racing.  I had, as many before me, and many since, entertained the idea that my early success in racing indicated that I would be something.  I succumbed to the “I need more stuff syndrome.”  In fact, I contracted a particularly nasty form of the disease, the virulent, “I must have a faster bike” strain.

I didn’t want to settle for just any faster bike.  I felt that a mighty man such as I deserved only the very best faster bike.  Unfortunately, this particular bike cost a bit over $1,800.00.  In 1972 dollars no less.  I was working a job, but it didn’t pay enough to keep me in cheese sandwiches.  So I hit on a rather radical solution.  I sold my car. 

My reasoning was simple and direct.  I could use my then-current bike for transport, and with the money from the car, and the money I saved by not putting gas in a car, I could buy the bike.  Done.

I completed the car sale on a sunny and balmy May Thursday afternoon.  That meant I had to ride to work the next day.

On that fair Friday, I woke up at my usual 1:00 P.M.**  I rode into town on my bike, rode directly to “my” bike shop, and placed the order for my “bike of all dreams.”  While at the shop, I explained how I had managed to afford the thing, and mentioned that I was now without a car, and was, basically on my way to work.

“Far out, man!”  said my friendly bike sales guy.***  “Like, you’re starting riding to work on Ride Your Bike to Work Day!”

Truly, I hadn’t known there was such a thing.

*Back then the “League” still went by it’s original name, the League of American Wheelmen.  You see, the “League” was founded  on May 30, 1880.  In those days bicycles where the “Penny Farthings,” or “High Wheelers.”  Bikes were often referred to as “Wheels,” and the people who rode them as “Wheelmen.”  By 1994 the term “Wheelmen” was both increasingly obscure and somewhat sexist, so the League changed it’s name to the current League of American Bicyclists.

**The job that didn’t pay enough for cheese sandwiches was also a midnight shift job.

***The one with longer hair than mine.  We all spoke like that then.

Thursday Thoughts: A Fantasy

A couple of days ago there was a huge incident on I-75.  It blocked traffic in both directions, and fouled things up for hours.  I wasn’t traveling on the highway that day, but it reminded me of another time.

I was returning from a long driving trip.  I was coming into Atlanta from the north east, moving briskly along on I-85.  Traffic had been light down from the Carolinas, but it was picking up as I neared the outskirts of the metro area.  I was looking forward to getting home and getting out of the truck.  I had the thought,  “It’s Sunday afternoon.  Traffic shouldn’t be too bad.  Home soon.”

I passed the perimeter junction.  Traffic was, by then heavy, but moving.  Then I got to the merge for the connector.  Brake lights!  Full stop.  Five minutes later I heard the traffic report.  “Big jam downtown, take alternates.”  Now that was helpful.  Nothing around me was moving, and I could not get to an exit.  It took me three hours to cover the next 30 miles.  Two and a half hours of that were spent just getting below the “split.”

It occurred to me that I was moving at a much lower speed than casual cycling.  I had the thought (and not for the first time) that these interstates would be so much more fun and so much faster on a bike.  If only there were no cars here.

I started to imagine that, and suddenly saw a vision.  Imagine if there was one, just one lane of the urban interstate system that was dedicated to cyclists.  It would have to be barrier-protected, but what if?

What if I had a dedicated lane?  What if, I was in dense cycle traffic, in a lane dedicated to cycling.  That would allow about eight bikes to ride abreast.  On such a lane, it would be so easy to cruise along at 15 to 20 mph.  And what if the “Bikintersate” became crowded?  Wouldn’t that imply a lot less traffic on the motor lanes?  Certainly it would be more interesting.  The cyclists could actually talk to each other.

Wouldn’t this make so much more sense than constructing a “Lexus Lane”?

Your thoughts, please.

Civility

Maybe it’s just me.  I see a lot of people on the road.  I see a lot of bad behavior lately.  It’s not restricted to motorists.  I see a fair number of cyclists acting rudely, or badly.  Some of this is due to distraction.  Cell phones and texting.  (And yes, I’m sorry to report, cyclists are increasingly of this too.)  Maybe our recent changeable weather is partially at fault.  Weird weather makes people cranky.  Certainly the political climate, and the constant barrage of “news,” doesn’t help the general morale.

It doesn’t really matter what the cause is.  The simple fact is that folks on the road are behaving rudely.  That’s sad…  And dangerous.

A problem that we cyclists face is the “vulnerability issue.”  Simply put, it doesn’t much matter who is wrong.  In any altercation between a cyclist and any motor vehicle, the cyclist will lose.

Civility, courtesy, good will, and attention.  If we are treated rudely, we do not improve things by returning rude behavior.  We do not live in New York City.  Let’s be kind to our neighbors, and be polite to others, even when they don’t deserve it.  This applies to all our interactions.  We live in our society when we are in the office, the store, the car, and on the bike.  It’s a simple equation.  Rude breeds rude.  Polite and courteous encourages polite and courteous.  The former escalates quickly.  The latter takes a bit more time to nurture and grow, but it’s well worth it.

I Hate following my own advice! (Week 4)

A Diary of Injury Recovery IV

Make a Plan

Act on it

Test and Measure

Correct and Adjust

Those four steps outline a good method for accomplishing almost anything.  In this case, we’re talking about the process of planning and executing a recovery from injury.

Today marks the fourth week since I fell and cracked a rib.  I’ve already mentioned that the healing process seems to be going well, that it was time to start planning my recovery work.  In doing so, I will be adhering to the four step method outlined above.

It’s not possible to do a complete, long-term plan for an injury recovery.  To do so is to invite trouble.  The problem is that injuries don’t always follow a smooth and linear path to full restoration.  There can be setbacks.  It is possible to miscalculate and over, or under work the recovery.  So part of the Plan has regular periods of assessment and evaluation built into it.  The idea is to apply calculated loads, and then observe and measure the result.  If the body is responding well, good.  If the body shows a negative response, or a setback, the Plan must be adjusted.

I’ve made my initial plan.  It consists of the three week periods.  At the end of each week, I will be evaluating.  Is it working?  Are there symptoms of having gone to far, too hard, too fast?  At the end of each three week period, I’ll be doing some testing.  Will the body take a slightly increased performance load without undue pain or other symptoms.  If so, then the next three week period can be implemented.

If, at any time I experience a setback, then the Plan must be altered and reset to allow for it.  The idea is to recover and heal, not to conform blindly to a schedule.

The Plan

1)   Stretching and flexibility:  I’m adding a bit more stretching exercise, and doing so cautiously.

2)   Core Strength:  After the third week (Injury + 7 weeks) I will begin to add some core and abs strengthening work.

3)   Bike Work:  Increase cycling activity, focusing on volume first.  No more than a 5% increase per week, and no more than a 10% increase on any given day.  (Intensity and interval training will have to wait until after the first of the three week periods.)

This post marks a milestone of sorts.  I won’t be doing these on a daily basis now.  I will keep you updated on progress, but only on a weekly basis.

BTW, two features of this first week of active recovery include The Ride of Silence on Wednesday of this week, and a planned Commute on this coming Friday.

For all of you who have contacted me with notes of concern and support, please accept my heartfelt and humble thanks.

Timeline

Wed 8 May:  Did a light (and short) morning spin.  Time to begin developing a fitness recovery plan. 

Thurs 9 May:  Mowed the front lawn.  I led the beginner group on the Novie Road Ride for 17.1 miles.  This was the first fully “NSAID-Free” day!  (Not pain free)

Fri 10 May:  An easy and needed gentle post work ride of 11.2 miles.  Continued “NSAID-Free”

Sat 11 May:  Did 19.5 miles of easy riding on the Saturday Morning Path Rides.  Still a bit stiff and sore, but still “NSAID-Free”

Sun 12 May:  Did household chores and a 21.1 mile pleasant afternoon ride.  Wanted to do more!

Mon 13 May:  Rest and recovery.  No training or exercise.  

Tues 14 May:  Begin light recovery training.

I Hate following my own advice! (Week 3)

A Diary of Injury Recovery III

I’m posting this series in the hope that it will be helpful and instructive for others.

Below you’ll see the “Diary” continuing.  The idea here is that I’m constantly evaluating the state of healing.  I want to stay active enough to promote faster healing, without do enough to aggravate the injury.  There’s nothing big here, but a lot of smaller milestones.

Note the entry for Monday.  Things are looking up, and it is time to begin to plan a bit more active recovery.  That will be the topic of the next post.

Time Line:

Wed 1 May:  Did my day at work and then led the Wednesday Evening Path Ride.  The ride was 10.7 miles at a recreational and easy pace.  I felt just it.  I wasn’t in great pain, but I wasn’t happy either.  It was good to be on the bike, but…

Thurs 2 May:  My day off.  I took it easy, rested, and continued popping anti-inflammatory pain relievers.  I was only feeling slight stiff, so I went out and led the Novice Road Ride.  I chose a somewhat hilly route, but kept he effort level down.  Ached a bit while riding, but the 16.8 miles went okay.  Only aches after

Fri 3 May:  Rode an easy, post work 11.8 miles in a relaxed hour, on the road.  It was good to be able to breath (but not deeply).

Sat 4 May:  The morning rides were rained out, and I was kinda glad.  No other riding or workouts.  I was restless, but I slept okay.

Sun 5 May:  Decided to stretch out a tiny bit.  Rode an easy 18.9 miles in just under two hours.  It was good to be out in the sun, and I needed  it!

Mon 6 May:  No exercise except beginning modified and light stretching.  That went okay.  It’s time to start thinking and developing a “Recovery Training Plan.”

Tues 7 May:  Very light and short spin before work in the morning, followed by light stretching.  Then a one hour easy road ride, post-work.  All went well.

I Hate following my own advice! (week 2)

A Diary of Injury Recovery II

I’m posting this series in the hope that it will be helpful and instructive for others.

So, the first two weeks of this weren’t a lot of fun.  I didn’t need to work too hard at not overdoing it.  Just about any time I tried to do much of anything, it turned around and bit me.

I wasn’t doing any training.  My usual routine includes morning stretching and core strengthening and toning exercises.  Those were just out of the question.  Yes I did ride, but at a very easy pace, and for much shorter intervals.  My morning spins or rides were dropped from my schedule too.

None of this took a lot of discipline.  Frankly, things just hurt too stinkin’ much to allow for more.

Basically, in this, the second week post-injury, I was kind of probing at the edges of the thing.  I was testing.  I know that exercise promotes healing, but…  too much, or too soon and the effect is to aggravate the injury, prolong the recovery period, possibly even do more damage.

I was testing, attempting that third step in the injury recovery process

“During the healing period, maintain light, healthy, non-aggravating exercise.”

I was trying to determine if I was ready for step three, and just how much was “light” and “non-aggravating.”

Below is the timeline continued.  This is the second week of the whole thing:

 Wed 24 April:  No riding.  The usual evening Path Ride was rained out, and I was Thankful!  Not doing much more than going to work and hurting.

Thurs 25 April: I led the easy part of this year’s first weekly Novice Road Ride.  It was a pleasant ride of about 17 miles, but I was being nagged by low level back and rib pain throughout.  I caught a ride home.  By the time I got home my back was on fire.  By this point I was getting really tired of taking NSAIDs.  My stomach wasn’t liking t much either.

Fri 26 April:  NO RIDING!!  I can take a hint already.  Took the day as easy as I could, and did nothing that was not absolutely necessary.

Sat 27 April:  I slept a bit later and drove down to Peachtree City.  I was able to ake the Saturday Morning Path Ride out.  It’s a very mellow, recreational paced, short ride.  It didn’t seem to trigger any kind of bad result.  This was my Saturday off for the month, so I didn’t need to work.  I spent the day resting, with the occasional NSAID dosage to reduce pain.

Sun 28 April:  I was feeling better for the rest day on Saturday.  I wanted to get out and move around a bit.  Of course the weather was pretty awful.  So I geared up for the rain, waited out one strong thunderstorm, and went.  It rained.  A lot.  I got soaked and a bit cold.  The ride was only 19.5 miles, and I took it easy, spending one hour and forty minutes.  I felt “okay” while out ther, but after I got home and cleaned up my rib and back went into extreme pain again.  Okay.  A bit much right then.  Clearly I needed to back off more.

Mon 29 April:  I went to work, was careful about lifting and moving, and went home.  I wasn’t comfortable, but things were showing an incremental improvement.  No riding and no training of any kind.

Tues 30 April:  After work I went out for a gentle and short road ride.  It felt goo to get out, and the short duration, low effort ride of 11.9 miles in just over an hour  didn’t trigger any unpleasant side effects.  Good!