I congratulate myself on how smart I was to stay in LA from Xmas through the end of February and so far, I’m having some great rides. One with the LACBC (the LA equivalent of Transportation Alternatives) along Martin Luther King Blvd, a place I’ve never been by bike. The ride is amazing, informative and scenic: this is outside The Museum.
I've also put together two training rides in Cheviot Hills (videos below):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJDlPG2nCJ8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgldZ1wznO0
I do both of these daily to prepare for upcoming trips with LA Wheelmen, those riders who knocked the stuffing out of me last Christmas (See LA Wheelmen Jan 2015):
In the meantime, I take a day trip with a new cycling friend, R, to her Community Garden plot in West LA.
After doing some planting (her)
There’s swelling, but no pain; it feels kind of like I banged my knee against the bathtub – a burning sensation which quickly goes away. I’m hoping it’s nothing.
But it’s not nothing. By the time I leave the ER, I’ve learned I have a tibial plateau fracture.
Propped up in bed, I google the shit out of my condition, and come up with progressively depressing scenarios: 4 months recovery, 6 months recovery, a year recovery - and chances of arthritis.
I've ridden exactly one month. I try to maintain optimism but gradually, my situation starts to sink in: I came all the way out to LA to escape the dangers of cold weather, and wound up with a worse injury than the one I sustained last year. Perhaps this could have happened in New York, but all I can think is that this is my appointment in Samarra.*
*http://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english320/Maugham-AS.htm