Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Cat 4

When I was a kid, I used to tease my brother, who was fanatical about biking and the Tour, by shouting "biker!" whenever a cycle-tourist rolled past our house. He'd race to the living room window, expectations deflated when someone mosied by in full blaze yellow. We still say it. Back on the bike, and in New Haven where drivers on cell phones in SUVs race you to every red light, I am now happily wearing my blaze yellow vest. My Achilles/calf is slowly limbering up from rubber-band status, the switch from Shimano to super-loose Crank Brothers pedals is working and I felt able to spin today. I can begin to imagine pedaling hard, even standing up, not so far from now. Not quite Hilltowns-worthy... In the meantime, I am trying to learn how to swim better. I watched this video of an Olympic 50m free, laughing at the idea of it as instructional video and at the boxer-like posturing of these sprinters. This one that seemed a bit better. Or you could try to recover like Dara Torres. Swimming, resistance stretching, physio ball, they are all refreshingly new.

2 comments:

Heather said...

I'll teach you how to swim if you teach me how to ride cross! They are having a cross series right across from my house...like 20 feet from my driveway! :)

d said...

saaaaay! you get paid by the word to write? or is this a creative writing course? a while back i somehow got diverted onto the bad ass don't-fool-with-me brenda report website. after giving wonder woman a hard time, i finally found time to click the links and got onto your site. you really are an exhibitionist with those xrays. wonder what else you're showing off. some advice from someone who's had their share of broken bones fighting your country's no-win war 39 years ago, before you were probably born. no matter how well they tell you it's healed or how much strenthening work you do, it's never going to be as good as it was before you broke it. you'll always have trouble with it. i still do after all these years. that's the main reason the v.a. sends me a disability check every month. you'll find that out when you start pounding it; leg will only take so much then turn to rubber on you. good luck show-off!