Totally Zeal

I encountered my first challenge this past weekend, and met it head-on:

HUBS OF FURY 5: DEAD MAN RIDING

Since July 10th, I had ridden a bike outside on two occasions. The first was in Chicago, as I rode a little mountain bike alongside Ben, Zero and Brennan on their 20 mile run. The second was just two days later in Louisville as Brennan and I watched Alyssa's Ironman. These were both prior to surgery and I had a better range of motion.

In order for me to be able to ride my bike at HUBS, I'd have to know I could ride my Orbea. Friday, for the first time since July, I was able to pedal down to Physical Therapy, and then did a little more riding around town - maybe 10 miles in total.

I was super psyched for the chance to be able to participate in the Saturday event, and made it without any problems. Here's a little recap:

We met just after 3 down in Fed Hill, and after dealing with a few rookie concerns of flat tires, etc, we got rolling around 3:40 to ride to stop #1, The Dizz in Remington. It was about 4 miles the way we rode from Fed Hill, and we got there around 4. Met a few more people up there so our group was nearly 20 strong.

From The Dizz we headed north another 2.5 miles to The Backstretch Saloon - a very (very) small bar in Medfield, adjacent to Cold Spring Lane. Our group barely fit into the bar, but we met some friendly people and split from there just as it began to get dark. A dark ride down Fallsway was pretty adventurous, and we ended out on Maryland Ave, headed to bar #3 - Dougherty's Pub on Chase St. From here we ordered the pizzas, which were going to arrive at Arjun's.

We hauled down Maryland Ave right into Fed Hill, getting beat by the pizza delivery guy. 10 pizzas later we were energized and ready to go back out to stop #4, The Row House on Light St. It was after 8pm and people were starting to get drunk. A quick stop at Hooters in the Inner Harbor, to reprise our first ever Hubs, and off we went to BAR, another Hubs 1 stop in Fells Point. They renovated the bar and our 17 or so people filled it up and brought life to the empty place.

Now it was after 9pm and we had a few stops left in Canton. We went to the new Canton Station, again it was empty, and then met up with Pat and his wife's bday party at Walt's Inn. Here is where the fracturing of the group began. People were fading, beginning to head home. The hearty forged on, now to Pickled Parrot for a quickie and then to the nightcap in the Square - Claddagh's. The floor was particularly bouncy this evening, giving the distinct impression it was finally going to collapse. No such luck.

Everyone proceeded to go above and beyond the call of duty, and we ended with some pretzel dogs before every person cycled their way back to their respectives domiciles.

No mechanicals, no true crashes, stayed on time - truly a great HUBS.

I was mostly excited that I was able to ride around, and didn't feel too beat up the next day.

After that I made up my mind that yesterday (Monday) was going to be the day, go big or go home. I was going to let ambition get the better of me.

PT: crushed it. Bending is going well, straightening not so much. Regaining strength and stability.

Swim: crushed it. 4200m, 600m warmup, then broken 600s (600 swim, 2x300, 600 pull, 6x100, 600 swim) then capped off with 2x200 and a 200m cooldown. Fastest I've swam in years.

Weights: lifted til the point of failure basically.

BIKE: I was going to go for my first real, legitimate outdoor ride since July. 130 days. I figured I could make it through my just over 20 mile loop that I have, it's a little rolling but the flattest thing I can ride and the only thing I can do from my house really. The temperature was like 70 degrees or something, extremely mild for mid November. Out Route 40, tons of traffic unfortunately. I didn't suffer from any nerves, but I was being a little more cautious, as expected. By 10 miles my knee was getting tight, and since I can't really stand out of the saddle, I was putting a lot of stress on my weaker knee trying to get up the hills. Back on Eastern Ave and I was getting tired. Ass hurt, knee was tight, but I was riding. Finally made it home - the ride passed with little fanfare.

Then I had to ride down to Fed Hill and back for the run. By the time I made it home I was pretty tired and my knee was sore. I had let my ambition get the better of me, but I made it.

Notes:

So far for 2009 I've swam about 25,000m more than I did in all of 2008. By the end of this year it'll probably be 100,000 additional meters.

I've ridden and ran less...a LOT less. Don't want to talk about that too much.

Tonight is our last track workout for the season, I'm hoping to run about a half mile tonight if I can.