It was six weeks today that I fell near the end of a bike ride.  It was not the first time I had a cycling accident but it has been several years since the last time and the first time I ended up with an injury that has taken this long to recover from.  Last week, after 5 weeks of wearing a splint, I finally made my way back on my road bike.   Then last Saturday, Anne and I, completed a flat century ride.  This week I finally made it back on to the tandem, which we rode yesterday and today.

So in celebration of getting to the 6 week mark when bones are suppose to be healed enough, I decided to go on the night ride up Henry Coe, the very same ride when I had the crash 6 weeks ago.

Over the past week I have learned to ride well enough with my left thumb held out by the splint. I just can not shift the front derailleur without reaching over using my right hand.  Braking with the left hand is also an issue, so I have been doing mostly flat riding and just braking with my right hand.  But enough waiting already and I felt okay to do a ride with a significant climb.

About 6 of us showed up for the ride.  With this group I can usually push the pace enough to drop most all of them.  But today I could not.  Taking my heart rate up much higher than I usually do during a climb kept me in front of most of the riders, but not a couple of them who went out ahead.  During the lower section of the climb I was above 170 bpm, going as high as 176.  In this type of group ride I usually never go above 165.   But this higher heart rate is usual when I have been off the bike for awhile and have not been  pushing the pace and climbing.  It seems that at my age, my cardio system declines faster than my legs.  When I am in shape and climbing the legs become the limiting factor, but tonight it was the heart and lungs.  But just as the cardio system declines faster, it also recovers faster so I am confident that with some more work, I can regain my conditioning.

Descending down Henry Coe was a bit problematic.  I can easily brake with my right hand (rear brake) but bicycles are meant to be used with two brakes.  So I had to keep the pace at a much slower decent and even then I did use my left hand somewhat to brake, but I could not wrap my left thumb around the bar when in the drops.  It has kind of made me off balance and I found that I was pushing the inside of my right leg against the top tube, I suppose to get more rigidity with the left fingers pulling on the brake without the left hand with a firm grip on the bar.  With the slower pace, I felt fully confident during the decent.

We have four weeks before out 10 day bicycle tour across the state of California.  I am now confident we will be ready.  Completing the ride up Henry Coe was exactly what I needed to get my confidence back again.  And yes, the spot where I went down last time, I made that turn REAL SLOW.

Categories: Training Log
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