… rode outside for the first time since the surgery. This was a huge step forward and I had been waiting too long.
Over the past week or two I had been getting really restless. The hour on the trainer every day gave me a workout, but the weather was starting to turn. Spending nearly 95% of my time indoors over the past seven months was starting to really get to me. As goes the quote from “Office Space,” “Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day,” which was pretty much what I have been doing. I would walk back and forth from the Computer Science office and that was about it in terms of getting outside. Something was about to give.
It gave this weekend. The Colonial Relays was this weekend, and on Friday I walked over from the office and watched some of the distance races. The hour or so that I was out there had been the longest I’d been outside in quite a long time. That night, I went back and talked to a few of my teammates and alumni that had come back to watch. It was a great change of pace and was good to see everyone run. I talked to a lot of people that I hadn’t talked to in months, some even longer than that. A lot of people asked me when I would try running again, since the doctors have given me the okay to start. I replied that I wasn’t sure, but it would be soon. In talking to my old teammates, I had forgotten what I had left behind. For quite awhile, I’ve been in my own really tiny world, working on my projects.
Until now, the only times I would be shocked back into reality was when I would be having a discussion with my adviser in the late afternoon. We would be having a discussion on the whiteboard in his office and I would happen to glance out the window and see all my teammates run by in a blur. It’s a real kick in the butt to see that and remember what I used to do. In the world of computer science, the atmosphere is mellow, but determined. In the world that I came from, it’s about getting on the track and suffering. Unfortunately, in the context in which I live now, I don’t think anyone says, “I really dominated in that conference paper.” You don’t sweat and breathe hard while thinking up and coding a slick algorithm.
On Saturday, I got up, ate breakfast and prepared to do what I had done since before Thanksgiving: get on the trainer and pound away for about an hour. I would open the window, turn on the fan, and listen to music while I looked outside at the law students coming and going from the library. But on Saturday, the sun was shining and it was getting warm. I couldn’t take it any longer: it was time to go out.
It was about the best feeling I’ve ever had. I was uncaged, released into the wild, my natural habitat. I hauled it out past the state park at York River. The weather said the wind was blowing 30 mph gusts from the west, but I didn’t notice a thing. I powered up hills where over the summer I remember being exhausted and downshifting into the lowest gear. I remember trying to upshift, only to look down and see there were no more gears to use. A dog bolted out from its house and chased after me for nearly a quarter mile, but I kept it at bay. I turned around right before the road ended at the river. As I got closer to home, I never got tired. I looped around campus and got to the track just in time to watch the 4×800.
Yesterday was the first day in months that I didn’t do any work before dinner. I still did a little before I went to bed, so I couldn’t call it a complete day off. I was outside at the meet all day and got a nasty sunburn. I guess that happens when you don’t have a built up tolerance from running or biking outside every day. I watched all the distance relays and hung out with everyone some more. By the end of the day, I was exhausted. On the bike, I’d gone 45 minutes over an hour, and despite feeling much easier than the trainer, was enough to make me not want to move for most of the afternoon.
Today I went out again, but took it easier. I was definitely more tired today and felt more normal as compared with pre-surgery rides.
As for my knee, I was out of the saddle several times and really hammered up some hills without any real discomfort. I might have felt something this afternoon walking around, but I can’t be sure. I do know, that if my knee could handle what I did today and yesterday, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to do at least some running. Sometime soon, the same thing will happen with biking outdoors and I’ll just start running on a whim. It won’t take much to push me over the edge.
I finally broke down and got a new bike. For awhile, I’ve been worried that the rear cogs are so worn that someday I’ll go up a hill and the chain will just rip off. I tried a few new bikes out at the bike shop, the first one being a Specialized aluminum frame. It felt like my old one, nothing really special about it. But, I tried a Giant TCR-0 with a carbon frame and it felt like a rocket. It was an unused 2006 and I think I got a pretty good deal on it since equivalent new models of just about every manufacturer go for about $1000 more. I’d been to bike shops quite a bit in the past few years and I don’t often see anything older or discounted. It seems most owners keep a limited stock. The components had been switched up and have a combination of Shimano Ultegra and 105. I really don’t need the way high end components since I don’t care too much about saving some fraction of an ounce of weight. As it is, the bike feels like a feather compared to the steel Bianchi. Since my shoes and pedals were a mess, I went ahead and replaced those. Hopefully I’ll be able to try out the bike before the weather crashes this week.
If I can bike or even run outside more often it will provide more of a balance to my life. I really can’t just hole up and work all day — there’s got to be a balance to the equation. The recent discussion about goofing off boosting productivity probably has some merit in it. Biking or running isn’t really goofing off, but it provides the same release.
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