I rode a bike, more!

It is somewhat unfortunate that I have more than once exclaimed riding a bike, yet, from a different perspective, I rode a bike, exclamation! A couple weeks ago, I was moving around with crutches to keep weight off my right leg, and any transportation beyond the end of my driveway relied on the the help and generosity of wonderful friends, to whom I'll once again say THANK YOU!

So, it's from that more recent perspective that I exclaim my recent ability to not just bike a bike, but also progressively increase that distance. On Saturday, after helping at the Bike Lab (something I'd missed two weeks prior, as I was further west in town at the Cooley Dickenson emergency room), I attempted the full seventeen miles home rather than wait for the single weekend PM bus that would drop me and my bike four miles from home. That ride was a success with me not just beating bus transit by a couple hours despite a few rest and stretch breaks, but also because the last few miles, including the most substantial climb of the trip, felt even better on my body.

Then there was Sunday, lo, more a day of rest, but I still included the flattest short loop I can manage from my house, following the Batchelor Brook valley. I even added an extra out and back bringing the total distance to nine miles. I enjoyed that ride and appreciate that I was riding just to ride, to move my body. Have I mentioned, I like riding a bike?

Gentle rides stop to picture the flowers.

Poison ivy swayed me from smelling them.

Monday I went big, or at least large from my new perspective. There was no urgent need, but I rode over the ridge on Harris Street to run errands in Amherst with the confidence that the more frequent weekday bus schedule meant I had a bail out for returning over the hill if I needed it. Well, while the weekday bus schedule is more frequent, when I was ready to head home and checked, the bus was passing my preferred pickup in five minutes, but alas, I was over ten minutes away, and that route runs every two hours. I could ride home, gently, in one.

I rode long enough 

to need more than a stretch stop!

I made it, and swelled the distance of my pedal to just over twenty miles, a new record for the new less able me. I'll take it, but I was also taking a bit more discomfort with it. On the flip side to hurting being bad, that was also more data. That morning I'd conferred with my sister, the registered nurse who negotiated similar nerve pain in her arm last year, asking if Thursday's scheduled epidural shock still made sense in my improving condition. Her take: it was my call. Well, I'd like to ride more than twenty miles, and running again would be great, so I'm convinced to keep the appointment.

I was also convinced to take my evening dose of the nerve pain medication early, and that's when the pill organizer informed me I'd never taken the midday dose. I'd been sure I had. Oh well, more fun with TBI, I suppose, and while that did have me briefly ponder if maybe I don't need the epidural, I then realized life and mobility without pain meds is my preference, and not just so I can't forget them. For now, at least they'll help me ride part way to Thursday's injection.