I rode home last night. Originally, I had planned to hit the pharmacy, but I realized that particular ride was going to involve more hills than I wanted to cope with, given my 'bum leg' and reduced gearing. Thus, I rode a gentler version of the route that would normally take me through Cherokee Park and up Baringer Hill. The route in question deviates from the Baringer Hill route at the intersection of Lexington Road and Grinstead, where it follows Grinstead to Cherokee Parkway instead of following Lexington to Cherokee Park Road (which leads to Baringer Hill, AKA Dog Hill, AKA "It's not that bad a climb! Really! I swear!").
On the 'easy' version of the route, there are only few minor (noticeable) climbs — the meandering ride down the Riverwalk and through Butchertown avoids the big climb out of the flood plain into the Highlands through a series of small, gradual, largely unnoticeable climbs. Only the climb out of the Beargrass Creek Trail and the one up Willow from Cherokee Parkway were painful. However, they're short climbs and I, of course, was too stubborn to get off the bike and walk (walking would've hurt more, anyway). I did, admittedly, make use of my smallest possible gear.
The most difficult part of getting home was climbing the stairs to my apartment — but that would've been a thousand times worse if I had, say, broken a leg instead of just severely bruising one and lightly straining the other.
Last night, once I got home and got some work done on my side projects, I found myself completely exhausted. I made some pasta for dinner and an ice cream pie for a picnic-y thing I'm attending tomorrow (btw, happy Bike To Work Eve, y'all!), and then I pretty much died.
I don't think I even managed to stay awake through all of Mythbusters, which is saying something. That's happened roughly twice in my life. I did wake up long enough to catch the denouement of yesterday's myths, though, both of which were a lot of fun (and, as always, made me wish I worked for the Mythbusters). My rommate, Cam, was nice enough to get my bedclothes and phone charger down from the loft where I normally sleep, so I crashed on the couch. I think I was out cold before he left the room.
This morning, my leg feels signficantly better. Walking hurts 'purty good,' as it were, and coming down the stairs was really quite nasty. However, and perhaps ironically, riding the bike is, for the most part, just fine (having to dismount sucks, so I practiced my trackstand and judicious stoplight timing a lot). I rode in the flattest way I could think of, though, and took my time. Because historically I haven't tended to let injuries heal, I'm trying to take it easy — especially with Bike to Work Day tomorrow!
This morning's ride was quiet and calm. I wasn't pushing for speed or cadence, the drivers were all apparently wide-awake and taking it easy, and I ran into another cyclist (no, not literally! :D)at a stoplight. We had a nice little chat about the beautiful weather this morning (he also informed me that my helmet blinkie had died — thanks! I'll see about replacing the battery at lunch time).
Apparently, however, it's supposed to rain tomorrow. I guess there was a mix-up in the Weather Scheduling room at LouMetro.
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