Back on my bike

Still recapping, 2009 swings in and I am heading back to work after a month off.

With a new baby at home, it is easier to try to get on my bike instead of trying to coordinate getting the little one up and out of the house in time to get to work. I should point out here that we only have one car and I would prefer that my wife has it at home to use instead of having it be parked in a car park all day long until it is time for me to return home.

The weather is still cold and the mornings damp so I figure I don't really feel comfortable getting on a bike that is set up for triathlons, especially the thought of clipping my feet in and the look of those slick racing tires. I have the jitters but I really want to confront my fears and get back in the saddle.

I decide to compromise and use my wifes commuter bike. It is a Giant FCR3 and I think it is even a male frame due to the colour being more appealing than that years female alternative. I only needed to make minor adjustments to get it to fit me. Okay, the frame is a little small so even though I can get the height right, the geometry or length is a little short. It makes for a safe feeling, upright position so I am happy and setting off to work at a sedate pace makes me feel good. I'm wearing Jeans and a fleece so this indicates that this is not a training ride by any means but I am back on a bike and feeling good for it.

As the days pass, I realise that jeans are not appropriate attire for cycling, especially as I am starting to build up a pace. I have no clips and chunky tires but even so, I am cycling at a faster pace every day.

One morning, I decide to adorn my cycle jersey and shorts with all of the cold weather trimmings. I can cycle at a faster pace but I am feeling a little out of place all tarted up but not on a race bike. Oh well, I will have to take things slowly until the weather improves.

Incidentally, we have been experiencing lots of rain for California so I am definitely sticking to my wifes bike for the time being.

Back to the beginning

Okay, This isn't actually the start but it is my first blog so I owe everyone a bit of background and a recap. I intend this blog to track my decisions and the progress I make as I meander down my random path to this years Malibu Triathlon. Let me introduce myself.

My name is Dan and I am a keen cyclist. That is to say I am one of those people that actually enjoys propelling myself around using only my own power. I like to run, but I have a bad knee. I like to swim but I don't really make the time to visit the pool at the moment so cycling is my thing. Adding to this the fact that I am a bit of a speed freak, somehow travelling under my own power whilst going faster than my body alone allows seems to make up the perfect scenario.

Right, Lets travel back in time about 4 months so that I can fill in the gaps. Myself and my pregnant wife Sam lived in Marina Del Rey, CA. Due to lack of space for the impending baby arrival we sought a new residence. Finding a nice apartment in Playa Del Rey seemed perfect and within 3 weeks we were moving in. The great thing about both locations is my route to work. Actually there is a problem with the latter location that I will get to in a minute but the important part is the access I have to what is known as the Ballona Creek Cycle path.

This essentially runs from the mouth of the Marina inland to and past Culver City where I work. Pair this with the California sun and I have the perfect cycle route into work. I believe it is about 8 miles each way including the small sections of street at either end.

Now for the problem. The california sun which we come to rely on so much, does actually grow weak in the winter and typically on days where I would prefer to stay warm and dry, I had grown accustom to taking the Culver City bus to work from where I live. This offered great flexibility and was plane old convenient. The new place is relatively in a dead zone for public transport. There is a bus, but I don't really need to head towards Compton so for the moment, I just ride.

So I was getting used to the new location and really enjoying the route into work, but on day three, things went slightly wrong. A combination of a cold, damp day, newly pressurized slick racing tires and
an ill judged tap of the front brake saw me not so upright any more and in fact sliding to a stand still from a speed of roughly 20mph.

Let me add into the equation that I have tri bars fitted to my bike as well as clipless peddles. My Elbow, Thigh and Wrist essentially took the force of the impact and off to hospital I go.

It turned out the I had a fractured Radius, a broken bone in my wrist and a good old helping of road rash to add to the equation. The elbow I suspected had something wrong as soon as I tried to get up. The wrist progressively got worse resulting in repeat trips to the doctors before actually working out it contained a broken bone and my wife had the pleaser or revealing the extent of the road rash while pealing away my cycling shorts. To put is simply, she did not hide her anguish at the sight. Even after clean up, it looked pretty sore.

I suppose the point of this initial round up is to highlight that I was put out of action as far as cycling goes and I resigned myself to being taken into work by my lovely wife. This was aided by the timely arrival of our baby boy, Benjamin in December, which allowed me to take off a whole month of work for paternity leave as well as recover from my injuries.