Back for the ride, not so ready yet...

Since my crash and torn ACL back in June in Big Bear, i have only ridden 3 times. The last time, i tried to ride, i started blacking out and i was only at the 4 mile mark.#-o This Last Sunday, i rode. I was invited by a member here and i know it has been a while so i figured i would give it a shot again. So hard to ride after not riding a long time and feeling good about it. I decided i would take it REALLY easy. To my good luck, the member who convinced me to go was a NO SHOW. Im like..i made it a point NOT to flake then i get flaked on so i decided to ride ALONE. My legs were really weak. I could already feel the lactic acids building up on my legs and it hasn't even been a mile! I normally ride the BIG RING at the Fully Loop..but wasn't gonna happen this day. After crossing Euclid, the first steep climb approached and i didn't big ring it but just grannied it up. I was thinking(WHat a WUSS) but the goal was to just finish the ride. I don't think i was gonna do the full 11 miles. After Grissom Park(The long asphalt Climb), i saw Blindman and Dino waiting up top. I realized it was a Sunday and there was a Sunday group that JSD and Dino led so i was glad to have caught up with them. I was happy that they toom the short cut after Grissom cuz right now, it seemed like it will take forever for me to get back in shape. My knee was never fixed and any fast downhill/jump action made my knee hurt. Surprisingly i was fine going down Mormon Hill. We then met the rest of the pack at the lake.
From the look of it...my belly is looking pretty ripe. Dino is OBVIOUSLY taking ROIDS.


One of the longer rests we did..it felt good to gain some energy back.


There were a lot of new people at the ride i have never met before.


And some familiar people as well.




Look..its GREGO!


Now it's time to ride out.


Away we go!


Yeah...this is for you FLAKING M&^*#! haha


In the end im all smiles cuz no one got hurt(including me) and although i took the WUSSY SHORT ROUTE, i was happy to have ridden again.


Im gonna try to ride sometime this week, although i have a lot on my plate..ill figure something out. THanks for reading and thankz to Dino and Tony for being there.:bang:

 

Take care of yourself, man! Awesome that you were able to meet up with that group, looks like that turned it into a great outing!

 

Wow - never got the knee fixed? So you have a blown ACL and you're just living with it? Sounds painful. I am glad to see/hear that you are riding again. I hope it holds up for you.

:wave:

 

I blew my right knee out for the 3rd time in September 2009 playing soccer and I have made the decision then to not get it fixed again. I still play soccer occasionally with a donjoy brace, but for MTB I haven't had any issues and I ride about 3K miles a year almost all MTB. Riding is the best thing for my knee ( I also am missing more of my meniscus and have some really nice osteo arthritis.) The more I ride the less daily pain I experience. Keeping my weight down is key as well.

 

Yeah...since Obamacare kicked in i no longer had state insurance(FREE) so no Operation.

 

I lost my ACL back in 2004 and never got it fixed. For what it's worth it never really bothers me from about 2005-2006 on. It took a while to get the muscles back in shape but it's great now.

 

Great seeing you out there riding again Charlie.

 

It's easy to beat up on yourself when you're coming back from a long break. Just remember to take things easy and don't push yourself to levels of discouragement or worse... injury.

There ain't nothing wrong with the granny ring. So long as you're out there enjoying yourself, that's all the really matters.

See you out on the Loop. :wave: