Reluctant Riding

Not exactly scenic

Well, it'll be three weeks next Wednesday since my unfortunate accident, and my perception of progress seems to have reached a bit of a plateau. For the most part, the ribs and scapula and whatever else was damaged don't bother me much as long as I'm vertical, and don't have to lift my right hand above the shoulder. Unfortunately that includes things like brushing teeth, shaving, and pulling on T-shirts. None of that is unexpected, of course. Lying horizontally in the bed is still pretty unconfortable, especially since I hate sleeping on my back.

So last Monday I decided it was time to climb onto the old Orbea, mounted on the even older wind trainer, and at least move my legs. It does still hurt with my hands on the bars, even with most of the weight on the left hand, but it's not intolerable. Every now and then I'll sit up to give it a little rest. Anyway, I at least managed to ride a little bit each day this week, accumulating a weekly total of 98 miles, keeping in mind that mileage on a trainer doesn't really mean much, intensity is low, and sweat volume is high. I've mostly been watching whatever cycling videos I find on YouTube to minimize the boredom. It doesn't seem like it would be worth setting up Zwift or Rouvy, since I'm not really inclined to put much intensity into my rides at this point.

Yesterday I got the Bianchi more or less back in shape. It suffered surprisingly little damage. The bottom of the right handlebar near the end was pretty well ground down by the long slide on the asphalt, and the brake hood on that side was torn, but other than a little scrape on the saddle, I can't find much else. So I re-taped the bars and ordered new brake hoods, and we'll just have to see if everything holds together when I finally get out on the road again, hopefully in about a week. I already have a replacement for the helmet, and a little superglue stuck down the edges of the ripped parts of the right shoe nicely. Fortunately, I had been wearing an old kit, so tossing it in the trash wasn't at all painful.

I have a followup appointment next week, so we'll see how those x-rays look and take it from there, I guess. I should be in a pretty deep hole by then, and it'll probably take a good month to climb out of it. The might be a little PT in my future too.