This article now means more to me as I have just returned from hospital where I was undergoing surgery for a broken hip ( metal plates and pins) sustained after slipping on some black ice last Sunday. It was a bright sunny morning, the first for a while and it was too good to miss – now i am off the bike for at least six weeks but I fear it could be much longer. Plus I need to go for a full skeleton scan to rule out bone weakness because apparently 34 year olds should not break their hips!

Wow, heal up mate. Hell of a way to start a year. Slipped on some ice myself and came down hard enough on my hip to punch the pedal through the crank arm. It took ages to get back to normal, but I was lucky not to have broken anything.

I am craving the ‘ride’ and all that entails in a way I have rarely craved anything outside of my VMH!

Nice One!

Second time was a week after a vasectomy… Sweet Jesus, I have yet to experience testiclular pain like the moment one of my nuts strayed out of the comfort of chamois to sit between thigh and saddle… Ended up walking 2 miles home as riding was excrutiating!

I have been uncharacteristically banged up this fall

Here in the UK, being “banged up” is a slang term for being imprisoned for a crime. That would seriously restrict your riding!

I’ve been cycling a lot less than I used to a few years ago. But, that’s okay. New things in life have come up, I still thoroughly enjoy the hour of riding I squeeze in a few days a week, and I still think about cycling, the steeds, and my next ride as soon as I get out of bed in the morning.

Higher quality can be found, even if lower quantity.

Sometimes we have to stay off the bike to fix the body, but it is getting back on the bike that fixes the head.

agree V00%; many thanks to Mike_P for the article–looking at a few months off post-crash, and starting to see some minor improvement this week, so the encouragement is most welcome

@ChrisO

@Puffy

Some say to get fitter, you need to get unfit….

Do you have a source for that ?

Maybe related to the Law of Diminishing Returns?

Hmm based on the training I did over the weekend I’d say it’s actually bullshit.

@Puffy

Some say to get fitter, you need to get unfit….

Do you have a source for that ?

Maybe related to the Law of Diminishing Returns?

Some say to get fitter, you need to get unfit….

Do you have a source for that ?

It’s funny how this stuff always seems to happen just when you think you’re reaching some acceptable level of fitness. In the last two years alone I’ve managed a fractured skull, broken wrist, a stroke and a surgical procedure on my heart; just as I’ve bounced back from one thing, something else has knocked me for six. One constant has been the desire to get back on the bike – any bike, even just for a short ‘fix’.

Last weekend I managed my first 200km ride in well over a year (smashed it, in fact), and we’re just coming into summer here in Aus. Perfect timing.

By all that is Merckx, Chapeau there.

Last weekend I managed my first 200km ride in well over a year (smashed it, in fact), and we’re just coming into summer here in Aus. Perfect timing.

Thanks for the comments, folks. I’ve just got to fight off this mornings Xmas party hangover now!

@Teocalli for sure it’d be great to get out over the hols. Isn’t @ChrisO home too?

Yes I am. And work has been a blessing and made it so that I have to stay longer for some meetings in January so I’ll be around for three weeks. Which means I have more leeway for going out on rides.

I’ll be home from this weekend (20th) and there until after the first weekend of Jan (6th).

I was planning on doing a couple of races at Hillingdon (28th and 1st) but still up for a mini-cogal between Christmas and New Year or any other rides really, but I will claim Dubai weather exemption if it is really awful.

Nice article too. I sometimes contemplate what it would be like if I just couldn’t cycle for some reason for any length of time. I think it would largely depend on whether I could do some other activity, like swimming. If I couldn’t do anything I fear it would make me quite depressed.

I can’t remember any period of my life where I haven’t taken part in some regular activity or training – sure sometimes more seriously than others but it has been a constant and something that is very much part of my self image.

When I did get back on the bike, I was asymmetry embodied, looking like some bizarre combination of Sean Kelly with Fernando Escartin. To say I resembled a lop-sided monkey fucking a football would be charitable. And any form was shot. I was riding the granny gear up small rises in the road that I could crank over before in the big ring with just one or two pedal strokes. It was hell watching the group, in full flight of summer fitness in June, ride away on the first hill of the day. It led to a summer of solo rides.

But slowly, agonizingly, the the arm came back to some semblance of normalcy and the form slowly returned. Now I’m stronger than I ever was before the crash over 18 months ago.

Don’t sweat the lost time. You’ll be back to full speed before you know it.

With you all the way back, I missed the most important bit of my season with a chest infection, just begging back on and loving the sensations coming back.

I hear ya. Enjoy the journey.

@Mike_P great!

Grazie!

S

@Teocalli for sure it’d be great to get out over the hols. Isn’t @ChrisO home too?

“…Shedding the mental atrophy one gets being far too long from the Cave..”

This.   How strange that being too far distant from the Pain Cave leads to an insidious and far more virulent strain of suffering.  How wonderful that we go out to meet suffering on our own terms in spite of everything.  This is the essence of Rule V.

I was going to be sure to look good doing it.

Oh man, I can relate to this and the article as a whole.  After spending years with the nose to the grindstone and the arse to the trainer I guess this year was an “I need a break” year because my riding time was about half of the norm (if that).  But over Thanksgiving weekend my training partner coaxed me out.  It was very cold and when we met on the road he was in thermal tights, full winter jacket, etc. whilst I was in the same Flandrian Best V-Kit as @Mike_P described above.  Nate commented on me wearing the “Hard Man Kit” and my response was similar to @Mike_Ps – “I may not be able to play the part but at least I can look the part.”

Thanks for the timely article Mike, maybe it will kick some life back into me.

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“I may have been about to do myself no good at all, but I was going to be sure to look good doing it.”

Spoken like a true Velominatus. Well done.

Quote of the month right there!

Glad you’re back on the road to recovery – literally and metaphorically – and I hope all goes well. Fine piece of writing.

Spoken like a true Velominatus.  Well done.

Coming back can be expensive.  I Lost The Way a couple of years back after a mystery virus.  Finding the way again over the last 18 months or so leaves me 3 bikes better off.  Though my VMH may quote that the other way round.

I love this part here. I spent around a month and a half off the bike due to several factors recently and I can say that these demons are very real. Shedding the mental atrophy one gets being far too long  from the Cave, and stripping the mental doubt that clings to you like a scab. The first time back on the bike is always a stark realization of what we took for granted before. The unrealized level of fitness we had achieved and now lost. It does help to serve as a reminder of what we can accomplish. I remind myself that sometimes to build something better it’s best to start anew.