I rode two times this weekend.
Seems like a fairly simple statement, especially on a blog about cycling, but for me it is the biggest of deals.
Last August I was still in a wheelchair. Recovering from a series of injuries incurred when a distracted driver hit me while I was descending a hill. I flew 40' and got broken.
Badly.
I spent the summer in doctors' offices and healing. I fought my way onto a bike before I should have and was actually able to do a few short jaunts in the fall and early winter. I rode the trainer, walked on the treadmill, and got back to strength training, but today was special because it marked the start of my first cycling season, post accident.
So let me type that I again.
I rode two times this weekend.
11 miles on my brand new (insurance paid for) Trek Domane 6.2.
22 miles on my recently brought out of storage 2005 Trek Madone 5.5
Not too shabby for a guy who was pushing himself around in a wheel chair six months ago.
It was a rainy, dreary day today. I was slow. The hills tore me apart, physically and emotionally.
It is hard to not be you.
Not when you were so much more, just last year.
But I finished. And maybe for the first time since that accident, I saw a new me getting ready to show up.
It is going to be a hard road this season. But it is a road that I am happy to be pedaling down. This blog will be my record of the next nine months. My goal is to have a 2000 mile (on the road) year. To ride a century again in the fall. To lose all the weight I've gained since the accident. To become confident with myself again.
It's time to do some farstriding. Feel free to tag along.
