I’ve been going about my business and crossing my fingers that all this little issues I’ve had occur the past couple months will just take care of themselves. They might be, but not quickly enough to appease me.
I’ve gotten pretty beaten up the past couple years. Just beat up enough that I can still ride a bike, but doing daily tasks and normal life things is a struggle. It is hard not to get frustrated on an hourly basis.
Right now the list of injuries that are still mending are as follows. My right thumb and ring finger are still broken. The thumb feels better than the ring finger, but that can change in a second if I hit a big bump in the road. I tweaked my neck when I broke those fingers and it bothers me in the morning and then after I ride for more than a couple hours. I had a x-ray done and it wasn’t broken, so I guess the diagnosis is something akin to whiplash. This actually seems to be getting worse than better. Plus, my right thumb is still achy.
The big injuries from the past couple years, right rotator cuff/surgery and then a left broken hip are just what they are. The rotator cuff is never going to be back to normal, so it is what it is. The hip has been hurting more this year than last. Mainly around where the incision scar is right over the IT band. I’m just going to keep an eye on this and hopefully it is just a short team mending deal.
Last week, my left ankle hurt riding. I couldn’t remember twisting it and sort of forgot about it over the weekend. On Monday when I was riding, my ankle hurt pretty seriously. So much that I couldn’t really stand up on it while riding. I ate a bunch of ibuprofen and iced it. Tuesday I rode and it felt pretty normal, maybe a little achy. Then Wednesday morning, the first step, I could hardly walk. It was seized up. I iced it again and more ibruprofen. Yesterday riding it was fine. Then this morning it feels alright.
Cycling isn’t really an overuse type sport, it is very easy on your body. You have to do something really dumb, like putting your cleats way, way off, or taking a challenge to ride huge gears up an mountain pass to injure yourself. I didn’t do either of these things. I’m not sure if this is just a passing problem or is going to become worse. I’m thinking passing, but nowadays, I never know.
Man, after writing all this down, I’m not feeling all that great about my body and the prospects ahead. I was hoping to be racing the Fatbike Birkie on Saturday, but can’t hold onto my MTB bars, thus I think it would be impossible to hold onto a fatbike’s handlebars. It is strange that I can hold onto brake levers when my wrist is in that position, but if I rotate my hand flat, my thumb doesn’t work too well.
Okay, glad I got all that off my chest. Recently, I’ve felt like the little boy that had to put his finger into the hole in the dam, but there are too many holes and not enough fingers.
I had another prescription for an x-ray of my left hand. I’ll probably do it after this weekend. I guess I’m racing a local criterium here and then driving down to Tulsa for a 70 mile road race. I need more race miles and this is the best I can do as of now.