Oops

 

For a number of years, I posited that I could've been a more successful runner than a bike racer. In addition to a generally twiggy build, I have legs with atypical length proportions: probably about average femurs, but my longish length comes entirely below the knee. A friend, who was studying biomechanics, so he knew what he was doing, once measured our leg lengths above and below the knee, and my lower leg was a half inch longer than his. Half inch, no biggy, right? Well, he was seven to eight inches taller overall, with long legs to boot.

He then explained that the leg functions as a double pendulum, and a long lower makes for an efficient, long stride. See, maybe I would've made a better runner, and that's beside liking to wake and start moving early, which definitely seems a runner thing, like how I met three friends to run Mt Tom trails at 6:30AM yesterday.

Conjectures aside, I was a better mountain bike racer, and I still hit the ground a lot less from a bike than from my feet. Part of the stride efficiency comes from not actually lifting my feet off the ground, so I trip. A lot. But a half hour into yesterday's run, I tried something different. I didn't fall and hit the ground! Instead, I rolled the top of my foot onto the ground, which in addition to not being the part of shoe with tread, also requires an in advisable ankle angle.

Crunch! That's what I heard, which definitely didn't sound like a good sound. Ouch, but ok, a few quick moments, and I tried walking on it, and that felt ok, so I kept walking and within twenty feet eased back into a run, which felt better than I expected, so we continued trotting a couple more miles up to the high ridge. Yay!

Then we turned around to run back down. Less yay. Not awful, but definitely not good, so when we reached a trail/road junction, I left the group to take the more direct and far gentler pavement with the idea I could reach the next junction at a similar time at a walking pace, saving the injured joint some wear and tear, and hopefully recovery time.

Back to yay! We were almost simultaneous reaching the junction, and I ambled gently down the less rocky final trails to our start point. OK, gently four mile ride to my friend Adele's apartment, maybe some ice and elevation, and we could still hobnob as planned. Riding felt good; it usually does, although I did ride the last hill up to Adele's neighborhood as gently as the single speed I'd chosen would allow.

Ice, check, elevation, check, rest, definitely, but four hours later my ankle had swollen to fifty percent larger than usual and taken on some far too exciting colors. I was pretty certain I hadn't run the last five miles on a broken ankle, but I also have a history of more-than-advisable mobility with broken parts, so yes, age and a modicum of wisdom meant accepting Adele's offer of a ride to urgent care, and hey, look, someone is offering a free set of crunches on Craigslist a mile down the road from there!

I like medical workers, even love the two in my immediate family, so I don't dislike my interactions with them, even if I'd prefer to not need them. Alas, I didn't receive reply from the Craigslist poster until five minutes after arrival at urgent care, so the staff had the amusement(?) of watching me hop, or hobble with the broom handle we'd brought as a cane, although I was given a wheelchair ride down to xrays.

Yup, spained, so I left maybe an hour and half later with my ankle in an air boot, making a stop on the way back to Adele's for the new-to-me but no-charge-to-insurance collection and reuse of old crutches. I consider myself lucky, but still appreciate it extra when it's so timely.

For a combination of simplicity, rest, and more visit, I slept last night on Adele's floor, waking well rested this morning. Adele had a morning work call, but definitely wanted to protect me from myself and the hilly end of the ride back to Granby, so I had the morning in Northampton. First thought was to catch a PVTA bus to the library, but second thought was that it might be gentler to ride to the bus stop rather than crutch it.

Then third thought: if ride to the bus feels OK, why not skip the bus and just ride to the library? Someone might have an answer to that, but I didn't, and it did feel ok, so maybe a five mile ride later, I locked up outside the library and found I was hobbling noticeably less! Yup, bikes make everything better.

Still, even with another five miles of gentle recovery ride back to Adele's, I happily accepted a ride in the car, extending the already needed errand a few miles, but happily sparing my ankle the push of huffing a single speed over the ridge that separates my abode from the happy valley proper. Thank you Adele!

And thankfully, I can not only still ride a bike, but I expect it will be a helpful tool in my recovery, especially since now at home, I can access my choice of bikes with gentle gears. Yay bikes, especially lots of them.

As I said,

Oops.

At least you're spared my ugly toes!