Bars and Braces

Sitting on the back of the group all morning.

I woke up this morning with the same dull ache in my wrist I've had for a week and decided it might be time to try something different.  I knew I'd miss the 5:45 group, since the alarm clock is precisely set to allow only the absolute minimum of time needed to dress, roll the bike out the door, and ride the half mile to the meeting spot. I went downstairs and dug up the clip-on aero bars and spent a few minutes bolting them to the bike. The idea was to minimize the repeated impacts to the wrist and hand in order to give them a chance to heal. Since I went down on the same hand I'd messed up a few weeks prior, it's been a constant problem, especially while riding, and most especially while riding on New Orleans streets in the dark.  So with the headlight no 'full' and steering with my elbows I finally headed out to the lakefront.  I don't ride with aero bars on a regular basis.  In fact, I typically bolt them to the bike minutes before a 3 or 4 mile stage race time trial stage, warm up, do the time trial, and immediately remove them.  So I was just a little bit apprehensive about a 2+ hour ride, mostly in the dark, that was going to include sitting on the back of the morning training ride train.

I rode out to Lakeshore Drive, and then town to Elysian Fields, where I looped around the traffic circle to head back to West End, waiting to get swept up by the group. Somewhere around Marconi The long, long line of riders rolled past and I easily latched onto the back, being careful to leave a little extra space between myself and the wheel ahead of me. I was a little uncomfortable having my hands so far from the brakes, but after a while I got used to it. I immediately noticed how much easier it was sitting in the draft in a TT position.  I also was glad to confirm my suspicion that doing so was a big relief for my hand and wrist.  So that was my morning ride.  A little shorter than usual, and a little easier than usual, but way better than sitting on the couch watching the sprained wrist heal.  I'm thinking I'll leave the aero bars on for the rest of the week and hope it helps speed things up a little bit.  Meanwhile, I'm wearing the wrist brace at work, although it does interfere with typing and pretty much everything else.  I guess it's worth a try, but realistically I know that this will just take time - probably a month or so of it - before things are more or less back to normal.