For a few weeks now absolutely no one has been clamoring for an update on my collarbone recovery so here it is.
I'm at nine weeks, today, since surgery and not that I sometimes forget about it, but sometimes I forget about it and reach for something (or try to catch something) a little quicker than I probably should. And not that the collarbone itself hurts but the muscles all around there--biceps, triceps, upper chest and back, etc.--just aren't used to quick motions yet. (I've lost at least eight miles-per-hour on my fastball and my split finger doesn't have quite the same movement, he wrote jokingly.) I've been lifting weights for those muscles, up to 10-12 pounds with a dumbbell, and my range of motion is probably 80 percent. I feel like I can do pretty much everything, just more slowly.
Riding and running have really been coming along well. Been doing a bunch of road riding, up to three hours at a time, with the sleek carbon Tarmac Pro soaking up a lot of the road chatter. (Meanwhile Thor Hushovd, who broke his collarbone and had surgery at about the same time I did, won yesterday's cobbled stage of the Tour de France and is leading in the green jersey competition.)
Tomorrow, the Titanium Cowboy and I are planning a four-plus hour ride, out to Samish Island and thereabouts. Actually, now that I think about it, last week I got in four hours on the mountain bike, but it wasn't mountain biking per se. Mostly dirt roads just to get in time on the bike and a bunch of climbs. My lovely new Garmin Edge 500, which I'm digging to death, told me I climbed 4,300 feet! To the top of Cleator, to Burnout Road viewpoint, Cleator to Two-Dollar intersection, California Street, Sehome Arboretum, etc. I haven't done much MTB-ing on the trails yet; I climbed
up through Arroyo Park but descending those switchbacks still seems too dicey right now. So I'll wait for that kind of stuff 'til at least my three-month check-in at the end of the month. (Really bummed that I'll miss this year's
Padden Mountain Pedal but thems are the collarbone breaks, I suppose.)
Running-wise, in the past three weeks, I've gotten in a few runs in the 30- to 40- minute range and truthfully, the first few left my collarbone area a little sore. But again, I think it was just the muscles getting used to the repetitive motion. Yesterday, I was even able to blaze a run wherein I averaged less than nine minutes per mile (!), according to my Garmin 500 which I stick in my backpocket when I run.
Saturday, I'm likely to head down to Redmond for something called the Super Torture Century. The long ride is 125 miles with some 13,000 feet of climbing; I'll go for the (sorta) metric century though: 58 miles and 6,000 feet of climbing. Along with being a lot of fun and great way to meet other riders, I figure it'll be a bit of research for my road rides of Washington State book.
By the way, I'm always looking for cool new and/or popular road-riding routes, so if y'all have suggestions and/or want to get together for a ride sometimes, please contact me. Along with getting mentioned in the acknowledgements, you might even get your picture in a book. Not just a newspaper, but a book! A book that lasts forever. Even on those newfangled Kindle-iPad thingees.
Check out www.adamleahyphotography.com for some ultra-cool pics from Sunday's Padden Mountain Pedal. He's got pictures from Leavenworth and Whidbey Island too. Loooove the shot above. Whoever it is sure has dainty calves!
In other news, I've been catching some grief lately for racing in the Beginner division this season. My reasoning has been thus: I did my first mountain bike race ever a little more than three months ago so wouldn't that make me a beginner? Also, I thought Beginner corresponded to being a Cat 5 road racer which is what everybody starts out as. But today, a race director of many other local events told me that if he were directing the race he'd have never let me race Beginner, and that the division was for people who've basically never ridden a bike before. Not sure how accurate that is, and I certainly don't want to be a sandbagger so ... hmm, not sure what I'll do for Roslyn. Pretty sure I'll be there; I've had a great time racing the Indie Series so far!
