Spring is Sprung???

What a difference a week makes! Last Thursday I began my morning commute to work over ice covered roads from Monday/Tuesday's blizzard and a temperature of 2 deg. F. This Thursday, it was still below freezing (25 deg.F) but the weekend temperature of 75 on Saturday and Sunday pretty much made light work of the foot of snow and the light rain from the previous day had ended around 8:ooPM with a setting full moon to greet me as I wheeled the bike out of the garage at 5:00AM. The roads looked dry and the forecast for the rest of the week looked good so I brought out my second set of wheels with my late/fall-early spring Armadillos and swapped this set out for my winter 35mm Nokians. The extra 5-minutes it took to make this wheel swap was easily made up with the lighter/faster Armadillos (this is relative as many would regard the Armadillos as "unridable" due to their weight, steel beads, and stiff casings.) Without the constant "din" of the 106 studs on the pavement I could "actually" hear the early morning birds, as well as the tires of the cars as they overtook me, and as I approached the various intersection. In the morning this isn't a problem as it is still dark, but now that it is light out, it is nice to have another sense to draw upon for safety. With the switch to daylight savings time, it is nice to now be able to see the views along the roads in the portion of the commute that is in the more rural areas of NJ.

The weather looks to be good through the weekend and into Monday but since they're forcasting rain for Monday afternoon that is expected to change over to sleet, freezing rain, and possibly snow, I'll keep the Nokians in the garage next to my bike so that I'm ready. Winter isn't yet over, and in previous years, we've had blizzards in late March and I've run into ice as late as April 16th.

The One Month Anniversary

Today marks the one month anniversary of my little fall. Since my wife (and mother) possibly read this drivel, I was a little vague in describing the full extent of my injuries. One month later I'm almost fully recovered so I'll "fess up." As I went down, my back pack struck the ground, along with my head/helmet, and the force of the impact, resulted in the back pack strap ripping out a 1 1/2 section of my collar bone. Fortunately it was a good break so when it was reset, the sections healed so well that I can't even feel where the bone had come out. When I mentioned that there was some internal bleeding, as the bone broke, the blood drained into my pectoral area and although I didn't suffer any damage to these muscles, the draining blood made it appear as if I had really bruised myself. The doctor suggested that he aspirate the pooled blood but I chose to see what happened if we just left things alone. Fortunately the blood was all re-absorbed.

I probably could not have injured myself at a more fortunate time as I had completed the requirements for my second R-12 award the Saturday before and didn't have another brevet until this last Saturday. We're still a couple of months away from out ACP Brevet Series and the Fleche.

As I recovered, I still managed to continue my bike commute to and from work (didn't miss a day although with my arm banded to immobilize my collarbone, it wasn't to pleasant to bike the 30 mile round trip commute) but my day was pretty much, get up, (slowly) get dressed, (slowly and CAREFULY) ride into work, put in a full day's work (attempting to find an excuse to sit at my desk as much as possible - even if it was still painful to type on the computer), (slowly) bike back home, eat and lay down with a hot pad on my shoulder. For the first two weekends, I eliminated the commute into work and just stayed in bed with the hot pad.

It is amazing what a little time will do. Last week, I began to feel more stength in my arm, and I was even able to stand up on the bike. I threw all caution to the wind and even managed to get in a 200K Brevet last Saturday. My randonneur bike is a little more stretched out than my folding commuter bike which resulted in my collar bone hurting a little when I stood up (did I mention that the doctor told me that it would take 6-8 weeks for the collar bone to heal and the brevet was at 3 1/2 weeks?) Needless to say, I took all the hills in my 30X34 gear - it wasn't pretty but I DID manage to get around the course in 10:20 so I'm 1/12 the way into my third R-12. (I ride report will follow shortly.) One of those I rode with admitted that he had broken his collar bone 4 times (all bicycle incident related.) He said that the last time he saw his doctor, the doctor admitted that collar bone fractures pretty much took care of healing themselves. "All one need to do is make sure that the two broken ends were in the SAME room and they'd manage to find a way to get themselves connected back together."

As much as the collar bone appears to have no apparent funtion, I did manage to fine ONE activity where a fully functional collarbone is required. It is a fundamental part of the bowing motion. Monday was my first rehearsal since the accident. (I play the double bass.) We were sight reading the pieces for our upcoming Spring concert. One selection will be Haydn's Nelson Messe (Mass). I had a heck of a time playing all of the the sixteenth notes in the piece - especially those movements marked with a tempo of "Allegro" and "Vivace." We'll see what next week brings.