canklecat

I understand, especially the occasional wallow. As I often say in passing my neighbors who ask how I'm doing, "Oh, I could complain. Doesn't do any good. But it feels good."

I'm still kinda surprised I can ride a bike at all. My neck and back were broken in a 2001 car wreck. For years I needed a cane to walk. I resumed cycling -- slowly -- in 2015. By 2018 I was able to keep up with the local club B-group pace.

Then I was hit by a car in May 2018, breaking and dislocating my shoulder and re-injuring the neck. My C1 and C2 are permanently screwed up. Feels like bone on bone grinding some days. Took awhile to recover, and a lot of physical therapy. PT is a daily thing now, with massage and stretching at a minimum. Body weight calisthenics about twice a week.

I'm back to B-group pace, and on a good day I can hang for awhile with the A-group although over distance I get dropped. I'm still competitive by nature, but I've learned to adjust my expectations and feel better about just hanging on for awhile, even if I'm not even fast by old guy standards. I'm still the slowest of the strong guys in the 60+ age group. But Strava says I've improved from dead last on every segment in 2016 to the upper third, pretty typical for the 40-60 y/o men and women locally.

Gotta admit, I'm surprised I managed to improve that much. If anyone had suggested in the early 2000s after my first bad injuries that I'd be riding a bike again now, I'd have laughed.

Some days the pain is so bad I can hardly get out of bed and hobble to the bathroom. But even my oldest cat (I think she's 17 now) manages to get out of my lap long enough to hobble to the litter box. She's much older than I am now.

And the good days are good.

Today started kinda slow. Lotta aches and pains. But by this afternoon I'm feeling pretty okay and plan to do a 20-30 mile ride.