Back on the Road

Well, today marked a pretty momentous occasion—I was able to complete a pretty good (by my standards) long road ride with no shoulder issues. Granted I have been in physical therapy for 2 weeks now and after a tough session last Thursday, my doctor said I am doing really well—ROM is almost all back to normal and now we need to work on strength and re-building some atrophied/lost muscle mass from my shoulder. He gave me the OK to road ride, and a half-OK to mountain bike on non-technical trails.

I've been on two Saturday morning group rides, a 20 and 30 miler, and despite being my usual slow-self, felt pretty good. Hills have been a bitch, but really, when aren't they for me?!

Well today, fueled by coffee, a desire to see how far I could go in a couple hours and needing some serious time alone to help sort the personal issues that have been plaguing me for the past year, I rolled out. My course kinda developed along the way, and ended up like this:

My house to Dry Creek Road and out to Mt. Veeder. My favorite ride in the area, it was complicated a bit by a serious headwind (it was howling this morning) on Dry Creek, but once in the canyon of Veeder, it was perfect. I was anxious for the climb up Veeder. As I said, my climbing skills are not really skills so much as a series of struggles to stay above 4 mph as the grade hits 12% or more. Veeder to me has two bitches of a climb right off the bat, but I settled in and rode and before I knew it (or thankfully soon enough) they were behind me and the rest of the ride past Chateau Potelle is a breeze. I stopped to admire the clear, crisp views and was off. I had an ambitious plan—finish Veeder, descend Redwood and climb up past the Hess Collection on Redwood road, THEN do Partrick Road.

Charged by the 37+ mph descent down Redwood, I again settled in for the climb past the Hess Collection. It's really cool up there as the road is covered by Redwood trees and I always feel like I am Arcata. Pretty much NO cars (maybe two) and silence. Perfect for my uneasy mind. This time of year is so perfect, a crisp, slight chill (especially in the shade) keeps my fat-ass cooler as I struggle uphill.

Back down Redwood and over to Partick Road. I still feel really good, no shoulder pain whatsoever, but I know Partrick and it's gonna be slow and steady if I am gonna make it. Well there's slow and then there's SLOWWWW. I hit that one on the mark, a little paperboy action and I'm going up, up, up. A little break at the top and part way down to shoot pics and a nice fast descent to my house.

All told about 41 miles, 3 hours with stops, 3700' of climbing. All this almost 3 months to the day from my accident.

Not blistering fast by any means, but being out there, alone and riding was exactly what my heart and mind needed.

God, it's great to be back on the bike.