Ok, not really. Same tendon, but it felt pretty damned different the second time around.
Tendon the first
On the 20th of May, we went for a ride. It was a sunny day, a bit warm, and I felt good. I’d been rehabilitating myself — with help from various professionals — after providing myself with a classic overuse/ill-fit injury.
The ride looked like this:
And I looked like this (though I was more often off the front with Nate):
If you look closely, you can see my left achilles tendon preparing to betray me. But first, it required deception. You see, I felt no pain before or at any time during the ride.
But then, time passed. About two hours, perhaps three. Pain, stiffness, and more pain returned. I cursed my fate. And my stupidity for riding to hard, too soon.
Tendon the second
This Sunday past, we went for another ride. It was the first ride — road ride anyway — since the last ride. I was apprehensive — nay, even a mite fearful — of how the tendon, now subjected to even more rehabilitation and rest, would perform. Would it betray me again?
The ride looked like this:
During all of its length and breadth, and even when distracted by the search for coffee and ice cream, I closely monitored the tendon and its deceptive tendencies. Refusing to tempt fate once again, I avoided chasing down breaks, limited my time on the front, and generally soft-pedaled whenever possible.
And that — combined with rest and rehab — seems to have done the trick. No pain or tightness, either during the ride or after.
However, I once again cursed — but only because I seem to have lost the majority of my climbing fitness.
Public Service Announcement
When riding with this group — and when riding alone for that matter — one often wants to stop for coffee and comestibles during the ride. Now that it’s warmer, we want coffee or ice cream (or in my case, coffee and ice cream). Just know that:
- The ice cream shop in Paoli doesn’t open until noon on Sundays.
- The cafe in the gallery in Paoli takes reservations, which we didn’t have.
- The cafe in McFarland is not open on Sunday at all.
- Barrique’s in Fitchburg now has outdoor seating. Shady too.
