Unfortunately, I wasn't on it. As my recuperation continues, the beautiful weather just keeps coming out in Fulshear. Debbie sent along these pictures.
I actually considered getting up and driving out to Fulshear on Saturday morning as if I were riding. I would pick Jim up at his house, drive and drink coffee from my thermos as usual and unlimber his bike in the City Hall parking lot. After the usual 15-20 minutes of conversation with the group in the parking lot, I'd sag the ride. I tried to persuade Ken to join me, but he declined. In the end I stayed in bed until 9 on Saturday and caught up on some much needed sleep.
My sleep has been slowly returning to normal as my leg heals. This week, for the first time, I am sleeping through the night and not waking up several times to shift my throbbing leg. Satchel is returning to his routine too. Now that I am staying in bed all night, he is resuming his 7:30am wake up visit to the bedroom.
Ken is still recovering from his December 22 accident. He hit a large dog at speed and then hit the pavement. He developed a large hematoma on his upper leg that seemed to defy the best efforts of his doctors. It's finally giving up the ghost now and Ken has targeted Saturday, March 8 as the date for his first ride after a two and a half month absence. Ken and I have been riding together for 6-7 years now and I thought it a strange coincidence that he would suffer an injury and be sitting out rides at the same time as me. Now I would like to close the circle by returning to the road with him on the same day. So I'm going to use March 8 as my training target for my first ride. If this goal proves to be too optimistic, so be it. I'm not going to start riding again until I'm ready, but it helps to have a goal.
My in home therapy ended this past week and I start outpatient therapy on Monday. I'm going to miss Tracey. She took me from an inert, painful leg to much stronger, mobile one. We exchanged email addresses so she can follow my progress. Meanwhile, I'm trying to ride the trainer everyday and gradually increase my time. I had a few twinges in my knee the first time I got on the bike, but that has disappeared. Now my pedalling is deligthfully pain free. My biking muscles seem to be largely intact. I guess this is because the muscles damaged by my fall and surgery are all high up and on the outside of my thigh.
Although my passion is riding tandem, I plan on staying on the V2 and Tour Easy for a few hundred miles until I get back physically to where I was before the accident. I want to be sure I can ride strong and ensure the safety of my stoker. While I am on that topic, I have changed my riding protocols as a result of my January accident: no more riding on wet roads. I believe the wet pavement contributed to my fall. Added to that, several of our group have had falls on wet pavement and at least one of them has resulted in a broken femur. I did a couple of online searches while I was house bound and found lots of discussion of recumbent biking accidents on wet road. Perhaps I am being too conservative, but I would rather miss a ride or two than suffer another broken bone and miss several months of rides.
