very, very recently<\/a>. \u00a0I've experienced it. \u00a0I'm STILL experiencing it. \u00a0As I\u00a0sit in convalescence, a million things run through my mind. \u00a0From the obvious “what will my fitness be like once I get back on the bike” to the absurd “will my teammates want to ride with me again when I'm so slow and unsure of myself?” \u00a0At one point, I may have even asked myself “will I even be able to ride well again?” \u00a0Certainly, these questions sound borderline ridiculous, and indeed, I know that. \u00a0Deep down in my brain somewhere, I know the answers to each of these pieces of idiocracy.<\/p>\nEmotionally, the lack of activity to burn off stress, the inability to ride and feel the freedom of the open road, the inability to compete and the loss of most of my weekend social structure (save the incessant hanging around the bike shop, drinking coffee and writing blog posts and training plans on my iPad) has been difficult. \u00a0Looking back on photos of races past and thinking about the performances I SHOULD be putting in this season twists the knife a little more. \u00a0Watching the pros race the Giro d'Italia, seeing their feats of athleticism and being unable to go out and ride while being inspired in such a way is near heartbreaking. \u00a0Oh, there's a biochemical aspect to it all (after all, emotions are just biochemistry of the brain) which can't be addressed by the riding, training and racing, so there's that little issue to contend with as well. \u00a0To put it absolutely bluntly, everything that revolved around this way of life has come to a complete, grinding halt…<\/p>\n
Until recently.<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago I was able to ride again. \u00a0I was able to get on the trainer and start the comeback from the crash that broke not only bones but my spirit as well, if only for a little while. \u00a0I won't lie about it; that first half hour on the trainer was difficult. \u00a0It was depressing to see how far my fitness has fallen in the 5 weeks since I crashed. \u00a0But the important thing to remember was I was back on the bike.<\/p>\n
It's time to reset my ambitions. \u00a0It's time to reset my expectations. \u00a0Compared to lying on the pavement with my collarbone in 4 pieces, I've come a long way. \u00a0It's undoubtedly a long road, but I've ridden that road before. \u00a0I've ridden it every season. \u00a0I've ridden from flat to fit in a few months time more times than I can count. \u00a0I'll get back there…<\/p>\n
But to counter the emotional toll, I can't think of where I was, only where I can go from here.<\/p>\n
That's how I'll relieve the burden of those ridiculous questions. \u00a0One day at a time, one ride at a time, as I start the ride back to fitness. \u00a0Before I know it, I'll be back to where I was and beyond.<\/p>\n
The emotional rollercoaster is just part of that ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Financial costs of cycling aside, the emotional cost of cycling is arguably much higher. In the past months, I’ve had no choice but to learn this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,118],"tags":[91,187],"yst_prominent_words":[1397,1386,1379,1380,1387,1393,1390,1391,1382,1383,1396,1385,1384,1392,1388,1378,1389,1381,1395,1394],"wppr_data":{"cwp_meta_box_check":"No"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/bondbrookedited-e1452365921884.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6434"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13428,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6434\/revisions\/13428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6434"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}