And the Pain Was Tremendous

Oh the pain! Yesterday I rode to work. This was my first attempt at riding two days in a row. After I got on the bike I noticed it was quite a reach to get my right foot up to the pedal. I thought, "This could be fun!" However, I pressed on and managed to get started. I rode up the hill out of the apartment complex and stopped at the top.

While I was at the stop sign there was a SUV behind me. He went around me and turned left. I guess he decided he needed a smaller hole in traffic than I did. I just smiled and waved as he went by. Shortly I got started again. The first thing I noticed was it was easier to get clipped into pedals today. Maybe I'm figuring it out...

So I rode south on 1900 West. I really noticed how stiff and sore I was. I had a lot of trouble pedalling smoothly. Again I pressed on.

At 5600 South I hit the sidewalk and used the crosswalk to make my left turn like I always do here. This is just too crazy an intersection to join with the cars in the left turn lane. So I always ride through the intersection and up onto the sidewalk on the south side of the street. Then when the light changes I ride across in the new direction, East. Then I ride up the sidewalk for a few hundred yards to the railroad crossing. Here I get off the bike and walk. The side walk after the railroad crossing is very bad and often covered in sand. Beyond this is a freeway on ramp and somemore really bad sidewalk under I-15 with lots of wire, nails, glass, and stones. So I always walk here too. After that is another freeway on ramp combined with a freeway exit. Here at 5600 South in Roy, all the freeway access is on the south side of the street where I have to ride when I'm going to work. They terrify me! So I walk. Wednesday morning I did see two guys actually ride through that area so I guess it's possible. Maybe when I'm stronger I'll try again.

After walking under the freeway and crossing the entrance and exit area I crossed the road leading to the Roy gate at Hill AFB. To reduce congestion in the early morning they shut down the outbound lanes at the Roy gate so there are more lanes for traffic to get onto the base during the morning commute. One of the benefits of this is that the farthest left lane is always empty. So I walk my bike over there and mount up and ride up the hill to the gate and then on to work.

This was the second day in row where I always kept the wheels down. That is a good thing.

Stats: Dist- 4.77 miles, average speed- 6.2 mph, max speed- 21.3 mph, ride time- 46:19. All in all a good ride just 0ne minute slower than Tuesday.

After being at work for a little while I noticed that I was very, very sore. In fact I was limping and had a hard time standing. This continued through out the morning. At lunch I went to the Health and Fitness Fair on base. I got two short massages there. That helped the pain quite a bit. However, I still didn't feel well enough to ride home. So I called Christopher and he brought the bike rack and the car and drove me home. 800 mg of Ibuprofen later I felt sort of human. Needless to say I didn't ride in today.

Keep on spinning!!!