So Dan just set me up to blog here and in an attempt to rejoin my community of friends, clients, teammates after hibernating for the first 6 weeks of my broken hip & pelvis experience. Needless to say, I've been in a funk.
Everyone who has known about my injury has been wonderful, supportive, perfect--especially Dan, Cookie and Anna who has checked on me daily,; Dorette who keeps pinging me with "write about it" and "what/where is your story"; and Jenn who gently nudges me and let's me know that it is ok to be human and have all kinds of emotions which aren't all pretty; Jake who says now's the time to blog and what about Facebook; and Samm who makes me laugh and Dale who keeps letting me try to come back to work and understands when I can't and don't; and Bruce who offers to tie me to a chair so that I don't hurt myself during his workouts; and Peter who knew I was seriously injured before I did.
What/Where & When--I joined Dan and his father and brother on a week long bike ride across Oklahoma from Texas to Kansas in June. The trip is an annual affair called the Oklahoma Freewheel. The route varies from year to year but many of the event participants (surprising particularly given the average Freewheeler's fitness level and physique) do not. For me, this was a lovely ride (mostly flat) that was not too challenging so it was giving me a chance to connect not only with Dan's family but also with my bike and myself as a non-competitive athlete and I loved it! While I am deeply thankful that I don't live in Oklahoma (no offense to you all who do), it was one of the most beautiful weeks of my life and my favorite bike riding of all time--given that I started long distance cycling specifically to do ironman distance races and that I live in the very hilly Marin County halfway up Mt. Tamalpais and I really suck at riding hills, I am sure you can understand.
On day three of this ride, after subconsciously acknowledging that I was riding a too close to Dan's wheel to be in my aero position, I half-wheeled Dan and was knocked down when he changed directions. Going from 20mph to 0 in .5 seconds managed to fracture my acetabulum (socket of hip), my pubic synthesis and ramis (two pelvic bones) and tear up some of my soft tissue in the area. It is all good--the breaks are non-displaced and I should be running again in about 12 weeks. However, it has been incredibly irritatingly painful to do anything and it is as interesting as watching paint dry. And, 12 weeks is a long time! I am acknowledging that I am not a physically patient person when it comes to myself and I know that someday I will look back at this time with fondness and wonder why I didn't enjoy it more. Anywho--the last 6 weeks have been a disappointing blur of emotions that weren't pretty. Pain is a real downer no matter how wonderful your life is. I prefer to have my pity parties alone so that's what I've done. Lack of endorphins aside, taking a big break from training and work in the middle of the most beautiful summer I can remember is not all bad: I have a world class tan and I have gotten to know our yard/garden much better!
Now we are on week 6 of my healing adventure and we are in Middletown at the Lucchetti Ranch where we (Dan and I + Cookie too) were married 9 months ago. It is beautiful and hot. I am having my first fairly pain-free day--wahoo!! I have hope and a new mantra--I am going to heal!! And, I am taking on a couple of projects to diversify my interests a bit from a laser focus on swimming, biking & running and physical training. I am going to learn how to make ceramic tiles so that when we remodel the Duck Shack we can tile something with them. I am going to clean out the rest of the yard and learn more about landscaping it. And, I am going to blog.
How am I doing?
