This was the weekend! I officially made my come back on the bike! It was slow…not a lot of Strava trophies, but I was on my bike. I was with my friends and I was in my happy place! We rode 40 miles. The ride we did was from Newport Beach to Seal Beach, along the Pacific Coast Highway, and it’s knows as the “recovery” ride for our team. It was great because we started out with the team…I got to see a lot of people I hadn’t seen since before surgery, but our small group broke off and made it more of a coffee and scone kind of ride. It also turned into a ride with a lot of flats! I had a flat before we even started. We met our friend Jen, the QUEEN of Strava, about 8 miles in and she had already had 2 flats AND had to go back and change her tire. She had been using that tire on her trainer and I guess maybe it was worn out. Regardless we all made it to Seal Beach and in light of the cold, damp weather we stopped at Le Crème bakery for the BEST coconut scones and hot coffee EVER! Highly recommended.

On the way back Dominique also had a flat at the fault of a random staple in her tire.

Despite the various mini clinics on tire changing, it was a great way to start the year. It’s hard to believe I’m going into my 12^th week of recovery. When I was contemplating surgery the recovery period seemed SO long. Don’t get me wrong, it has been long. I have had many ups and downs, but I am well on my way to recovery and I am so thankful for that. The challenge now is to not do too much too soon. Even if I’m feeling good, it doesn’t mean I need to push it. Right now I am struggling big time with work and physical therapy. I am struggling with work because the time I had off really made me reflect on what I was doing, how I felt about it, and how it aligned with my values. But more on that later. As far as PT goes, it’s great. My therapists are great, they are triathletes, fun to talk to, etc. But I have such a hard time spending a few hours there. It’s like everything else seems to be more important because I am not in pain. At the same time I think about how neglecting the preventative and maintenance exercises that keep our bodies going can be so destructive. Foam rollers, R8 Recovery, tennis balls, etc. are all part of working out the muscles. Strength training prevents injuries. Yoga prevents injuries. So WHY am I so dedicated to my workout but such a procrastinator when it comes to recovery?? I really do need to get better at it.

The end of the weekend was fun too. Dominque, Marjan and I did perhaps one of our longest swims ever. 2.6-2.7 miles. It was again cold and rainy, but we did it! And we wrapped up our workout with a Blogging and WordPress gathering at Barnes and Noble. There was a lot of other shit that happened this weekend and today but as I wrap up the weekend I think about how lucky I am to have found people that share this same crazy obsession of swimming, biking, and running AND that I love to hang out with. I can train with them, drink with them, laugh with them, and cry with them. Cheers to that!