Thursday 8/14 rides

[OakLeaf]

I'd skipped the club ride Wednesday night. I was a little afraid of large amounts of climbing, bumpy rough roads, and generally trying to keep up with the boys. Plus, since it was already mid-afternoon by the time the surgeon called, my head was still spinning by the time I would've had to leave for the ride. So I hadn't had any cardio since Saturday, which wasn't doing a single solitary thing for my state of mind.

Yesterday afternoon, even though I hated to drive so far for a solo ride, I drug my bike out to the MUP and rode it to the end and back. Nice and flat (there's a very slight grade, with the western end about 300 feet higher in elevation than the start); very smooth except for a few small sinkholes and frost heaves that are well marked (by clubs who've used parts of the trail for organized rides and races); hardly any traffic once I got out of town. Plenty good to get and keep my HR up. (Well, okay, my HR has been through the roof just from stress, but you know what I mean.)

On the way back, just outside the city limits, I came across a dead branch that had fallen across the path. A kid on a recumbent trike had run over it with his front wheels and was unable to get his rear wheel over it. I stopped, dismounted and pulled the branch out from between his wheels and off the path (it was about 4" in diameter and 8' long, but very light).

The kid was in his early 20s. I'm guessing that he was post head injury. The only obvious scars on his body were from an apparent skin and muscle repair of one forearm, and his bike was pedaled, not a hand cycle; but from his posture and behavior it seemed that it would have been a big deal for him to get off his trike and move the branch by himself. His speech was very slightly slurred and he was chatty and inquisitive as people with TBI can often be. As I was already on my cooldown, I didn't mind standing there and talking with him for a few minutes, answering his questions about my bike and tires, listening to his stories.

As I rode off, I thought to myself, "At least I've got my health." Which is exactly it. I do have my health. I just know now that I'm at "high risk" of not having it at some undetermined time in the future (T = median 15 years). High risk, meaning that instead of the 95% chance of not getting breast cancer that the general population has, I have a 75-80% chance that I will never get breast cancer. What exactly have I gained by knowing that?

34.66 miles, average outbound speed 15.5 mph (slightly upwind and uphill, counting warmup, in-town traffic and several public road crossings out of town); average inbound speed excluding in-town cooldown 18.9 mph; OakLeaf 1, cobwebs 0


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Oh, and when I came back and was loading my bike into my car, there was a dried dead slug stuck to the frame under the bottom bracket! worse than ralphing in the TV, yuk!