SPECULATION

Always SOMETHING. Based on the location and nature of the discomfort I am experiencing from yesterday's fall (mid-chest on the left, and difficulty in both deep breathing and in rotating my trunk), and also based on my memory of the feeling from a fall while running in late May 2006 when I broke a rib, I am going under the assumption that I have done the same now. I was told by the doctor at that time that the only way to be 100% positive was to get an x-ray, but that if money was a factor (as it is now), they would recommend against it, since there is no way they can treat a broken rib—you just have to be patient and wait for it to heal. So now, I am putting my riding on hold for the foreseeable future, and practicing my "gift of patience," as Michelle calls it.

144th ride

After riding to work again this morning, and then working a much shorter day than I wished (getting out just before 1:00), I decided to ride straight home in order to catch the Tigers' matinee contest, and do a long ride (perhaps to Dexter, a 26-mile round trip) after the game. The ride home, however, was unexpectedly adventurous.

The fall-o-meter would have to be reset to 0 days, as I fell not only once, but twice. The first, and more serious one, occurred as I was riding south on State, approaching Ellsworth. I was trying to ride between the curb and a waiting semi-truck, and felt I had plenty of room to do so, but I got a bit too far to the right and hit the curb. This sent me flying, which could have been quite disastrous, of course, but I managed to go off to the right, landing in the grass. After a couple of minutes, I was on my way again just fine.

The second spill was as I was almost home, riding on the sidewalk that connects the housing complex next to ours, to ours. The foliage was quite overgrown, and as I was trying to duck my way through it, with obscured vision, I slipped off the walk to the right, and went skidding down.

In both falls my chain became disengaged from the chain wheel—but I am grateful to Doug for the lesson he gave me on how to rectify this situation a few weeks ago (June 3, as a matter of fact), as it enabled me to continue on my way with no more problem than the need to wash up good to remove the grease from my hands once I got home.

I am noticing since getting home, though, that the first fall, which sent me sprawling onto my back, bruised up my left side (back, chest, and upper arm) pretty good—so perhaps, in lieu of a long ride, I'll just let my 5.5-mile round trip to work suffice for today. Or, as a compromise, perhaps I could "only" do the 12.4 mile trip to Saline and back.

143rd ride

I rode to work again this morning, happy from a small victory that occurred just before I set off. For the last two days my odometer has been resolutely stuck on 0.0, so I decided to get out to the bike a few minutes early this morning and see if I could figure anything out. I noticed a small hinged unit on the front wheel, stamped with the brand name of the odometer/computer. I figured it must be a counter for the revolutions of the wheel—but it was opened so that the hinge kept it away from the wheel. So, deciding to experiment, I closed the hinge, pushing it down to the wheel—and was then delighted to find that the odometer had been restored!

At the end of the day, I was able once again to ride a good ride down to Saline and back up, stopping in at Meijer to pick up a few groceries, and then arriving to note that I had down a 14.6-mile ride today, in 1 hour and 17 minutes.

142nd ride

I wanted to ride today (for the first time) on the broad paved path that runs along (well off) the east side of Platt Rd. between Ellsworth and U.S.12 (Michigan Ave.), so I did a new 15-mile route in order to achieve this. The only disquieting thing was that it meant doing a few miles along Michigan Ave. (against which Doug Franklin has cautioned me) on the way home—but I didn't expect this to be problematic, and it wasn't. The road is broad and well paved along that stretch, and mostly straight and with excellent visibility, and broad shoulders which are largely paved, affording opportunity to ride very far away from traffic. This ride of almost exactly 15 miles took me 1 hour and 19 minutes, and I was freshened by a light rain (of, however, very large drops) during the last few miles.

141st ride

After riding to work as usual this morning, I planned throughout the day to make myself do a long ride home (by way of Saline). But when I emerged, about 4:30, after a longer-than-usual workday, into humid 87° sunshine, my resolve began to melt away. Even during the early part of the ride, before I had yet reached the point where I had to make a firm decision, I continued to waffle about it—but then, I felt it would be OK to cut myself a break today, and not try to be a superhero. So I rode directly home, to settle for a total daily ride today of 5.5 miles in 31 minutes.

140th ride

I left just past 6:30 this morning and rode my now-familiar route to Saline and back. Due to the suboptimal lighting at that time of day (not dark, but certainly far from bright daylight yet) and patches of fog which lay in our area, I was happy to have my flashing headlight (courtesy of my loving sister Marianne) and flashing taillight.

I thought I was making pretty good time, as I did the 12.4 miles in an hour and 2 minutes, and I was thinking that my best previous was about 1:08. But I had forgotten how hard I pushed last week, riding it in 58 minutes. Oh well! Today's was still a good ride.

When our worship schedule changes from 10:00 a.m. back to 8:45 in a couple of weeks, I haven't yet decided whether I'll still try to squeeze in a pre-church ride. With my lights, and my fondness for early morning, it would be feasible—just. But I need to do some more pondering on whether it would be prudent.

139th ride

Like last Saturday, I went up to Brighton to ride again with Kahle Strickland, arriving earlier this week so that we began our ride just about 6:50. (Today, however, we found more bikers and runners in the park.) But, whereas on that previous occasion we confined ourselves to riding in the Island Lake State Recreation Area, today we stretched it out a little more, taking a path that goes beneath I-96 and connects you to Kensington Metropark (one of Michigan's most popular parks, a part of the Huron-Clinton Metroparks system). Kensington contains nearly 4500 acres of wooded, gently hilly terrain, in which there is a nice paved path that gives you an 8-mile loop around Kent Lake. So, all told, my odometer showed a ride of 21.5 miles, in 1 hours 52 minutes. The map here, while giving a good idea of our ride, is not precise, since I don't yet know Kensington well enough.

138th ride

As mentioned in my previous post, written early this morning, a problem with my front brake prevented me from riding to work today. However, unbeknownst to me, my beloved wife Michelle took the bike in to the bike shop during the day today so they could make the (relatively quick and easy) adjustment, and when she picked me up after work, the bike was in the carrier on the back of the car. So, once I got home, I was able to ride after all, and went to church to do my weekly work of preparing the projections for Sunday's worship. I have been going there directly from work on recent Fridays, and then doing a longer ride home, but since the plan was necessarily a bit different today, I elongated my ride to church and then came home afterwards for a total ride of 11.5 miles in 1 hour and 6 minutes.

It was fun, too, that on the way home a driver coming in the other direction passed me, rolled down her window, clapped, and yelled, "GO ALLEN!" With my substandard vision, I couldn't be absolutely positive, but I think this was Michelle's teaching colleague Beth Nazario.

New technical glitch

For some reason unknown to me, my front brake has come unhooked—and, as I am unable to hook it myself, I am driven back to riding the bus to work today (for the first time since early spring) and will hope to be able to get the bike to Wheels in Motion late afternoon today for repair so that I can do a ride this evening and also tomorrow.

137th ride

I rode to work again this morning, and then, following a shorter workday than I like, I decided to come directly home in order to catch the last half of the Tigers' rubber game against the Minnesota Twins (Minnesota won the first game, and Detroit won last night). I have so far ridden 5.5 miles today, in 29 minutes, but intend to go out and do a ride to Saline following the conclusion of the game.

LATER

This afternoon's Tigers contest was a dispiriting affair. After going down 6-2 early behind the guy who is nominally our ace pitcher, Justin Verlander (he won both the league's Most Valuable Player award and the Cy Young Award, given to the league's best pitcher, in 2011—and this is a very rare combination—but this year he has been maddeningly inconsistent), we battled back gamely to tie the game at 6 on a big 3-run homer in the 6th inning. Then, however, we surrendered the decisive run in the 8th inning, and lost 7-6. And this loss was all the more galling because it came to our divisional foes, the Minnesota Twins, and I went to college in Minnesota and lived there for many years, still having many good friends who are avid Twins fans.

Despite this, though, I carried through my plans to ride following the game. A series of minor technical glitches delayed my start, so I chose a slightly shorter route than I had originally intended—but still got in 7.7 miles, to give me a daily total of 13.2 miles in 1 hour and 6 minutes, thus making the daily goal of 10 miles that I like to shoot for.

136th ride

After riding to work again this morning, I experienced a longer than usual workday that kept me from being able to do the long ride after work, to Saline, which I had planned. However, I am not complaining—the long workday was a good thing! Because Michelle and I had planned to meet at the 5:15 Weight Watchers meeting, I had to limit my ride—but even so, was able to squeeze in 9.3 miles, to give me a daily ride of 13.6 miles in 1 hour and 13 minutes.

135th ride

Another fairly typical weekday ride—almost identical to yesterday's (right down to riding home in warm—82°—sunshine). The only difference was that I elongated today's route ever so slightly, in order to stop by Meijer on the way home, and thus rode today 14.6 miles in 1 hour and 13 minutes.

134th ride

A fairly typical weekday ride today—after riding to work this morning and working a relatively full day (over 7 hours), I rode a 12.1-mile route home, by way of Saline, to give me a total of 14.2 miles in 1 hour 15 minutes. The ride this morning was brisk (though not cold) in my short sleeves—but I was sure glad I had them for this afternoon's ride, in bright 82° sunshine!

133rd ride

As the weeks of summer dwindle down to a precious few, I enjoyed another early ride to Saline today before church. Pushing myself real good (wondering if I could break an hour), I did the 12.4-mile ride (by my odometer) in 58:27, really clipping along (for me, anyway) in the calm, crisp morning air.

132nd ride

I was blessed this morning to go up to Brighton to ride with Kahle Strickland. Actually, I was doubly blessed—by both a glorious ride, and by Kahle's friendship. Starting out just a little past 7:00 a.m., we enjoyed riding in early morning sunshine and quiet—riding on the smooth paved roads of the Island Lake State Recreation Area, just east of Brighton, we hardly saw another soul, only a few other bikers and a couple of runners. We took it easy today, easing my way in, and my odometer showed a ride of 13.4 miles, in an hour and 3 minutes. But in the future we hope to chain this ride together with a ride along the path that runs under I-96 and joins it to the 8-mile loop at Kensington Metropark, and then perhaps also sometime to continue on to the small town of Milford.

POSTSCRIPT

Michelle and I did a short ride (1.6-mile round trip) down to Nick's House of Pancakes early this afternoon for a lovely lunch date.

131st ride

After riding to work again this morning, and then a fairly full workday, I rode to church to do my weekly work of preparing Sunday's projections, and then did a long ride home. Setting off from church, I prayed kind of a silly prayer: "OK, Lord, if I've reached Scio Church and Wagner and have at least 6 miles on my odometer for the day, I'll turn on Wagner and head home by the shorter route. But if I haven't reached 6 miles yet, please give me the discipline to keep going all the way out to Zeeb, and then up to Jackson and back to Wagner." When I reached Scio Church and Wagner, my odometer read 5.8—so, even though I was eager to get home, I pushed resolutely onward, and once I reached home, I saw that I had ridden 17.6 miles today, in 1 hour and 38 minutes.

130th ride

After riding to work again this morning, I then worked a shorter day than I like, but they had nothing for for me by early afternoon, so I used the opportunity to do a good, long ride, out to our credit union on the west side of town. I only had to cash a small check, but figured it was well worth the exercise. And along the way, since I went right by Varsity Ford, I stopped to see my friends Rob Worden and Steve Burkett who work in the Parts Department there, and whom I got to know in previous years when we were doing a lot of business with them and I frequently had to go there to pick up parts.

Then on the way home, I stopped in at Meijer (since I was going right by it) to pick up some more fruit, and when I got home I was happy to see by my odometer that today's riding added up to 14.8 miles, which I did in an hour and 24 minutes.

129th ride

After riding to work again this morning—in long sleeves, as they were speaking of wind-chills on the morning news today!—and working a good full day, I rode to Saline and then back up to meet Michelle at our weekly Weight Watchers meeting. My odometer showed the day's ride to be 15.2 miles, which I did in 1 hour 24 minutes.

 

And in a very welcome safety note—yesterday my helmet mirror popped off its bracket when I was at work. I didn't notice it until I had set off on my ride home, and, at that point, I figured, "Well, I'll find it tomorrow—I'm sure it's probably in the file cabinet drawer where I keep my helmet." But today, it wasn't there, nor was it anywhere else I could find. So, riding carefully, but feeling virtually naked without it, I did this route to Saline after work, and on the way to Weight Watchers I stopped at Performance Bike, where I had gotten it, to pick up another. But, alas, they were out! They told me they'd order some and have them in a couple of weeks, but I could not bear the thought of riding without it for two weeks. So, after we got home, I drove over to Wheels in Motion. But I wasn't able to get there until about 7:20, and, unknown to me, they had closed at 7:00. However, one woman employee saw me disconsolately staring in through the window, and she came to the door, spotted my name tag from work, and said, "Allen, is there something specific you were looking for?" I pulled my note of explanation for my facial wounds out of my pocket, and pointed to the empty end of my mirror bracket, and said, "I was hoping to get another mirror." I think she must have assumed that I lost it in my fall, but at any rate, she took pity on me, let me into the store, and I was soon equipped with a new mirror. So I commend Wheels in Motion on their sparkling customer service!

128th ride

After riding to work again this morning (in surprisingly cool weather, that made my short sleeves feel almost too brisk), I worked a good full day, and then rode home by way of Saline again - a 13.7-mile route, that gave me a total day's ride of 15.9 miles, in 1 hour 17 minutes.

127th ride

I rode to work again this morning, and then, after work, I rode what I texted to Michelle would be a medium ride—neither long, like when I ride to Saline (13.7), nor as short as going directly home (3.4 miles). Instead, I chose a 5.6-mile route that was enough to give me a taste of exercise, but not enough to push me very hard. Perhaps a more accurate label would be "medium short." (Or, in musical terms, mezzo forte—medium soft.) Anyway, this gave me 7.8 miles for the day, in 44 minutes—a bit short of what I like to do on any given day.

I was glad to be able to ride at all, however, since rain filled much of the day. In fact, there was a steady, medium-hard rain throughout my ride to work at 7:30, and it left me quite thoroughly drenched. Then the rain was ceaseless throughout the morning and early afternoon, and in fact past noon it was coming down "in buckets," as one of my colleagues put it. However, by 3:00 it had stopped, and by the time I left at a little before 4:00, even a little sun was coming through.

AFTERWORD

My good friend Tom Brown (a science teacher, not primarily a musician) points out my error above, when I said mezzo forte was medium soft; in reality, mezzo forte is medium loud, and I should have said mezzo piano. As I told him, I can only plead a temporary brain fart.

126th ride

I was happy to be able to go out for an early morning Sunday ride to Saline again this week, before church. And although I left at 6:30, it was plenty light enough to ride safely—but I threw on my flashing headlight anyway, just for good measure. Also, the construction at State and Ellsworth has now proceeded far enough to allow me to go that way, which makes the ride more convenient.

The gmaps-pedometer measures this route at about 12.48 miles, and my new odometer on my bike shows it at 12.4, so I was glad to see this near-agreement, and I rode it this morning in 1 hour 7 minutes, with a happy heart, looking forward to a visit from my in-laws today, with whom I am greatly blessed.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHT

One more thought has come to me regarding Thursday's fall. When the paramedics were first tending to me, unsure if I might have incurred a head injury, they asked me what date it was. I quickly wrote down, "Thurs. 8/8/13" but then almost immediately grinned to myself and thought, "I should have written down some crazy date way off." Later, though, I realized how spectacularly inappropriate that would have been at the time.

125th ride

Today, two days after my latest falling incident, I chose to ride laps in the circle of our complex. It is not at all that I am afraid to ride on the road—but rather, I just thought a little restraint would be prudent right now. However, I do plan to ride down to Saline early tomorrow, as I have also the last couple of Sunday mornings.

Anyway, riding laps was not the most exciting thing I could imagine doing today. But I made myself do an hour, which my new odometer showed to be 11.1 miles—I believe I did 24 laps (which the pedometer measures out to be just over .46 miles each).

124th ride

I rode to work again this morning (though some of my colleagues were incredulous at this when they saw what had happened to me yesterday), and then after work, I rode to church to do my weekly work of creating Sunday's projections for worship, and then, honoring Michelle's request that I forgo a long ride today, I rode directly home, giving me a total ride of 7.0 miles in 45 minutes today.

A couple of additional notes about yesterday's aftermath. When we were waiting in the ER, Michelle took a picture of my face to document what had happened. But I was strictly forbidden from showing it to anyone, as it is "too gruesome." And, to tell the truth, it does display a very vivid use of color. Apparently, blood to the face is highly oxygenated.

Secondly, as stubble is beginning to protrude through the wounds, it's driving me nuts not to be able to shave. But the two worst place are under my nose, which is severely lacerated, and my chin, which is manifestly impossible to shave because of the grotesque swelling. (It looks rather like I have a staggering wad of chewing tobacco in the lower left part of my mouth.)

123rd ride

Today's ride was much more adventure filled than I wish. After riding to work this morning as usual, my workday reverted to another short one, as I was done by 1:00. So, I decided to do the long ride I had hoped to yesterday, up to the northeastern part of Ann Arbor (Huron Parkway and Plymouth).

Since my route took me very near to the shop where I got my bike back in April (Wheels in Motion), I decided to stop in and have them install an odometer for me. (I had in mind a low-cost analog model, with dials, such as I knew as a boy—but of course nowadays, they are all digitized, small multi-function computers). After that I continued north along Huron Parkway to Plymouth Rd., then west on Plymouth and then Broadway. When I told Doug about this route during our lunch today, he exulted, "You'll get to ride down Broadway Hill!" He was quite right—but neglected to mention what I should have realized anyway, that first I would have to ascend a fairly daunting hill to reach the summit. I continued on Broadway to Fifth Street (as Doug had suggested), south to Madison, and then west as far as Main St. Madison was closed to further travel, so I headed south on Main, and after I crossed Stadium I rode on the walk. "Thereby hangs a tale," as the phrase goes! Doug has kidded me that we should erect a sign in the garage: "X days since the last fall." But today it would have to be reset to zero.

After passing Pioneer High School I was trying to pick up speed in order to climb the significant hill, when, shortly before reaching Scio Church Rd., my front tire went into a sizable rut. It jerked the wheel violently sideways, causing me to lose control and flinging me face first to the paved path. The helmet protected me, of course, from head injury—but, like in my June incident, did not protect my face. I landed fairly hard and incurred a sizable number of lacerations and abrasions. Fortunately for me (thanks be to God for His never-failing protection and mercy) a Huron Valley Ambulance was passing by right after my fall. Another man had first tried to help me, asked if I was OK, and then motioned the ambulance crew over. They were quite alarmed at the appearance of my face, but I told them I was in no pain (this surprised both them and the personnel at the hospital later). Later, as we chatted (with the aid of a pen and notepad they had for me), I asked the two paramedics their ages (32 and 28) - and they were amused when I told them that, though I still feel young, clearly, at 56, my best days are behind me now.

After cleaning me up, they asked if there was someone they could call, and I said, "My wife—but I don't want to worry her." However, I was left with no other option, as I declined their suggestion that they take me to the hospital, and they would not allow me to ride the 3 miles I had left. So they called Michelle for me, and when she pulled up a few minutes later, we soon had me loaded in the car and the bike strapped onto the carrier, and she then insisted on taking me to University Hospital (even though when she asked me what facility I wanted to go to, I said "Millbrook Trail"—our home address.)

So—I am writing this on my bed in the ER at University Hospital (Michelle thought to bring my laptop), with the curtain drawn, while we wait for personnel to become available. I continue to experience no pain, but Michelle says my face is beginning to color up quite dramatically. Oh well—again, I thank and praise God for His care, and note that, even having come short of what I wanted to do today, this 13.4-mile ride gave me 15.6 miles for the day, in an hour and 25 minutes. (My watch strap broke when I fell, but I either remembered to stop the timer, or else the fall stopped it).

122nd ride

This morning I rode to work in a heavy, heavy fog—making me extremely glad for my blinking headlight and taillight. I made it without incident, although after just a few hundred feet my glasses were not usable due to the moisture covering them. I had to bring them down on my nose and peer over the top. As I am exceptionally nearsighted, this would have been unworkable if I were driving a car—but for a bicycle, and particularly on a short route with which I'm very familiar, it did not pose a problem.

Then after work, I had hoped to do a long (13.8 miles) ride to the northeast part of Ann Arbor, and then come back down and end up at Weight Watchers at 6:00 p.m. for our weekly meeting. But another long workday (a good thing, of course!) forced me to change those plans, so I ended up riding a route of "only" 9.6 miles—but at a fast clip (for me), doing about 5-minute miles. Then after the meeting, I rode home, to give me a daily total of 12.7 miles in 1 hour 6 minutes.

121st ride

After riding to work again this morning, I planned to do once more a good, long ride home at the end of the workday. But as the afternoon dragged on in the direction of a second consecutive full day, I began to get drowsier and drowsier—due in large part, no doubt, to my typically poor night's sleep last night (up between 3 and 4, with very little sleep thereafter). I was sent on a 90-minute errand in mid-afternoon (to pick up a tire from our store in Wayne), and when I nearly missed an exit from the freeway on my way back, that was the clincher. I decided prudence would have to trump ambition today, and so rode directly home, giving me 5.6 miles for the day in 30 minutes. "Better than nothing," I told myself—but not much better.

Were I a coffee drinker, I would have stopped somewhere and tanked up before riding home. But that's one habit I've never picked up (yet—maybe when I grow up!). So I just exercised all the caution I could, and was fortunate to make it without incident. And now I'm going to tumble into bed for a bit of a nap before the Tiger game. (Priorities, priorities.)

120th ride

This morning I rode to work again, with long sleeves feeling good (the temperature was just a bit over 50°), and then was fortunate to work one of my longest post-accident work days, clocking a full 8 hours. (It's a little pathetic that this 'normal' length day should seem like a big accomplishment to me—but I am grateful for it.)

After this good day, I decided to dig in and do a good, long ride, and so went down to Saline. This gave me a day's ride of 1 hour 22 minutes, which I'm estimating to have been about 14 miles (as the pedometer is once again not working).

119th ride

I am really enjoying my Sunday morning rides! As the days are getting shorter now, though, I left a bit later than I was a few weeks ago, not going until 7:15. I rode to Saline and back (though by a slightly different route today), for a ride of 11.9 miles in 1 hour 4 minutes, and all the way the lyrics of "Morning Has Broken" were sounding in my head as I enjoyed the quiet early sunshine.

Morning has broken, like the first morning.
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning,
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.

Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlight from heaven.
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness where His feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning.
Born of the one light Eden saw play.
Praise with elation, praise every morning;
God's recreation of the new day.

Morning has broken, like the first morning.
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird.
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning,
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.

118th ride

I chose not to do a long ride this morning in order to spend the time with Michelle, and we highly enjoyed our time together. We rode down and had a breakfast date at Nick's House of Pancakes, a place we've found that we really like a lot, a little less than a mile from us.

Then afterwards, we decided to take our bikes to Gallup Park and ride there. Getting the bike carrier fastened to the car and both bikes securely on it ended up being kind of a comedy of errors, taking us three or four attempts to get it really done right. But I'm glad we persevered, as it was a lovely day for a ride—sunny and pleasantly warm—and once we got to Gallup Park, we did an easy ride down to Parker Mill, where we rested and talked a bit, and then headed back to our car, for a total ride of about 4 miles, in 25 minutes. Along with our ride to Nick's this morning, we did about 5 and a half miles on the day, in roughly 35 minutes—not pushing ourselves in any way, but thoroughly enjoying the time together.

117th ride

Last Friday afternoon, I encountered tire trouble during my long ride, and it eventually resulted in a flat (which I got repaired Saturday morning). I felt today I should "get right back on the horse that threw me" and ride the same ride—so I did. Although my time of 1:27 for the 15.5 mile ride was significantly better than last week's 1:56, it was not as good as I had hoped for—but I'm still glad I did it. That gave me a daily total of 17.7 miles in 1 hour 39 minutes, and pushed me over a total of 1400 miles for 2013—since I got quite a late start this year, I'm wondering now if 3000 miles for the year is feasible. We'll see!

                   

116th ride

After riding to work again this morning, I had planned to do a long ride to Saline on the way home. However, circumstances forced me to change those plans. When I went into the airport to take my by-now usual shortcut through it due to the road construction at State and Ellsworth, I got most of the way through, but then found that the road I needed had been gated off (presumably due to the construction). So, turning around, I went a different way home than I have gone before, in order to tack on the miles I wanted to. This route of 10.8 miles gave me a day's total of 13.0 miles in 1 hour 9 minutes.