Black Rock - Sunday, 10/21/07

Sunday was interesting. It's been less than four months since I broke the tibia and fibula in my left leg (June 23rd), yet two days shy of that four month mark, there I was at Black Rock. The leg is feeling good except for some nerve pain hot spots (interior knee and ankle), and I should be cleared for actual riding by Christmas, but I have been going stir-crazy to get back on my bike and Noah extended an invite to ride, so down to Black Rock we went.

We got lucky and didn't see much rain while we were down there, but you could tell pretty quickly that the ground hadn't had much of a chance to absorb what had already fallen on Friday and Saturday. Everything was covered in trail snot, which made for a super greasy ride. We hiked up to the top of Upper Banzai, which my leg handled better than I anticipated. Other than the occasional sharp pain in my knee reminding me a doctor had been dicking around in it a few months earlier, it felt pretty normal and not as weak as I thought it might. The snotty trails were sketchier than I thought they'd be. A lot of that may have just been me not being on a bike for a while (balance was a tad off, and the left crank arm is definitely bent from my crash in June, although not so bad I'm going to rush out and buy new cranks), but it was cool at the same time because you had to ride faster to keep speed up and brakes were next to useless on the trail grease. It was weird: I found myself avoiding stuff I'd always done and should have no problems with while healing (ladder rides on Banzai), yet at the same time was hitting all of the little booters on the way down and actually got more distance off of the last two hits on Lower Banzai than I had up to now.....Figure that out!!

It's funny to me: when my body and bike were more than good to go, it was my fear and my mindset holding me back. Now my fear is under control and my head is in the game, but common sense is holding me back so I don't add insult to injury because I'm being impatient. It's a hard pill to swallow, but all part of the sport we enjoy.

I'm just stoked to be riding singletrack this soon after having a limb completely snapped, and even more stoked at the possibilities for progression going forward. Yeah yeah!!

Soon, guys.......Soon!

Recovery Update / First Post

Well, I'm finally out of the leg hardware I'd been married to for the last three and a half months and back to a matching pair of shoes. It truly feels odd. Bones are more or less repaired, and now the focus is on getting the muscles in my left leg back to 100%, which, with all of my work obligations, has been harder to do than I expected. That, and the fact that I get extremely lazy after work, hasn't helped. Mentally, I am more fired-up to go and "give 'er" than I ever have been since getting back on a squishy bike last year, and have quite a few things I need to prove to myself (not to mention the bulk of the WSFR/WTF crew, that have heard me talk and talk and talk some more). I've been visualizing being back on the trails almost constantly for the last month or so.

Yesterday, Jamie extended me the invitation to tag along down to Black Rock and fart around. I just put new pedals on my bike, and am pumped to start riding it again, so I took it out and did a few laps around my apartment complex last night to get used to the feel of being back on the bike. Unfortunately, my left knee and ankle weren't feeling as robust as I'd hoped they would at this point. My cranks also felt a tad weird, so I'm wondering if I may have slightly bent my crank arm or the splines on the left side of the bottom bracket. It's probably just the fact that I haven't been on the bike in almost four months and am not used to the pedals, but I'm going to pull the crank arm off and check it just to be sure before I go ride it again.

I REALLY want to start riding my bike again, so here is hoping next weekend is better. In any case, back on the trail full-time by Christmas!