Entry from Afar

I’m in Canada for the weekend. Ottawa, to be precise. There are bike lanes, even in the eastern suburb where I’m hanging out. And even on busy roads. In fact, there seems to regularly be a bike lane between any given main lane and a turn lane. Bravo, Ottawa! Of course, I’ve only seen one intrepid bike commuter since arriving, but I haven’t been around the city too much. The main roads themselves are free of snow, but the snow banks are several feet high and it obviously gets tricky on roads less traveled. I’m not sure if I would have the nerve to bike commute year-round here, but that could just be the wrist talking. Then again, everyone here has excellent health insurance, so why the hell not?!

Facing my Fears

6.61 miles! Again, back in the day that would have been nothing. But this was not just my longest ride yet since breaking the wrist. It also took me to the site of my dewristing, the evil train tracks that cross the bike path. I was on the big heavy commuter bike and it wasn’t raining this time, so the odds of coming off were, I know, slim. But still… And to make matters worse, the rail road people had dumped a giant pile of stones across the bike path. Anyway, I got the better of the evil train tracks (twice, as I had to come home), so I feel a minor (if boring for others) milestone has been reached.

Before heading out I sat on the road bike. The various riding positions seem like they’ll be fine on my wrist, but I need to put air in the tires and lubricate the chain before I head out on it.

Trip Planner

So while out of commission I’ve been relying a lot on public transportation. Well, okay, just the MARTA train. I was tempted to finally brave the buses, but given that I do actually own a car and that MARTA thinks that a bus that comes every thirty minutes counts as something worth shouting about (rather than a shameful lack of frequency) I ended up sticking to rail. Luckily I live and work on the train, so I’ve been able to get where I need to go without driving.

MARTA, contrary to the claims of its many boneheaded detractors, is wonderful, at least when compared to the alternative (using a car). But it’s less wonderful when compared to what it could be. To wit, this map, devised by the good people at Citizens for Progressive Transit:

This is what the Atlanta transit system should look like (in zoomable detail here), as opposed to its current pitiful number of rail lines.

CFPT also has an Atlanta non-driver’s trip planner: simply enter your destination, along with whether you will cycle, walk, use transit or some combination thereof, and it will tell you which buses and trains to catch, or how long your walk or ride will be, together with the route. Needless to say, biking is usually fastest.

Back in the Saddle!

Five miles! That’s right, five whole miles. Three months ago I would have sniffed at a five mile bike ride as, well, nothing more than a wee cruise around the neighbourhood (for myself, that is; I’m overjoyed when anyone rides even a single mile). But one bike accident, a broken wrist, surgery, a metal plate, three screws, an arse-load of vicodin (perhaps the wrong adjective, given the constipatory effects of opiates), a gnarly scar and, perhaps most crucially, eighty-six days without cycling and, suddenly, five miles seems pretty damn cool.

Yup, today was the day when my orthopedic surgeon said I could get back on the bike. My wrist isn’t entirely back to normal in terms of strength and range of motion, so I was worried that there could be some adverse effects. But so far so good. I doubt I’ll be standing up and pulling with my arms when going up hill for a while, but I was delighted to find that five miles was a joy.

This was all on my commuter bike. It may be a little while before I can get back on the road bike, both out of post-accident shakiness (that’s the bike I fell off of) and because, perhaps, there may be a different set of strains on my wrist with the slightly different position of the drop handlebars. But hell, the commuter bike is pretty damn glorious.

This was also my first vigorous exercise since the accident. I’ve basically just been walking since then (quite a lot, but it’s really not the same thing as a good bike ride). I used to run, but my knees got a bit ify, so that wasn’t an option. And I couldn’t really face joining a gym and coming to grips with the pointlessness of an exercise bike.

Back in October I aimed for 50 miles a week, 200 a month. If I fell short at, say, 150 or 175 miles a month I felt like a big slacker. In fact, I was wildly obsessed with my mileage. Having gone from 170 miles in October (rudely curtailed on the 24th) to zero since then (with a 2007 total of 998 miles from when I started recording in May, though I’d been riding since the beginning of the year), my mileage obsession has been put in perspective. Probably there’s a lesson in there somewhere about enjoying the cycling itself and focusing a little less on the stats.

I will, however, be charting my recovery with glee. It may take some time before I’m commuting the 15 miles a day to work, but I’m going to get a huge kick out of turning my ten minute walk to the train station into a three minute bike ride. And my twenty-five minute walk into downtown Decatur into ten minutes of cycling.

In short, I couldn’t be happier. And before I know it I’ll be doing the twenty-five mile rides again. It’s good to be back.