Return to the Levee

After another 940 mile drive on Wednesday, I wasn't too sure I'd make it out the door Thursday morning, but the weather was nice and after sitting in a car for the better part of fourteen hours it seemed worth the effort. So with a grunt and a moan I rolled out of bed, climbed on the bike, and with my right hand gripping the bar near the stem rode rather gingerly through the quiet neighborhood out to the levee. The 6:15 group was pretty large. Even that 40 year old guy, Kenny, was there. I figured it was safe riding alongside him as we started out. After a few miles the pace started to ramp up, so I politely excused myself and drifted to the back of the paceline. Actually I drifted a couple of bike lengths behind the back of the paceline. No point taking any chances. For the most part, the collarbone and ribs weren't a problem, although I am strongly favoring my right hand over my left as you'd expect, and there are lots of places where my left arm does not want to go. I'm also being extremely careful to leave myself a lot of room to maneuver should anything sudden happen up ahead. Anyway, somewhere out past the country club I looked down and saw that the speed was approaching 30 mph, so I decided it might be a good time to back off and ride solo. At the 10 mile point I turned around and had a nice relaxing ride back home, occasionally sitting up with both hands off the bars to give my very confused and inadequate shoulder muscles a rest. For the rest of the work day I strapped the brace back on.

Friday morning was kind of a repeat of Thursday. I met the group, rode with it out to the pumping station at 10 miles, and then turned around and rode back. It was a bit more of a workout than yesterday, but still a very long way from a 'normal' morning workout. Baby steps.....