Time heals

I've been a Graeme Street fan, customer, and friend for a few years now, having found him through a random search on the net a couple of years ago. That was my lucky day for sure, although after some of his genius workouts I wonder :)

If you're reading this, then you're probably a fan as well so no need to brag on Graeme too much but suffice it to say, we as cyclists are better because of him. So keep on keeping on what you're doing Graeme.

A little about me...I'm 47 years old, a mom of 2 wonderful boys, a wife of an avid cyclist (more on that later) and on the side I pursue my own fitness business for women. I grew up in the midwest loving all sports and practically lived at the gym, rolling from one season to the next. I was always motivated by the team sports and think that's why I love trianing groups of women so much. Seeing and feeling the synergy and the relationships that are built with women helping women is incredible.

I've been teaching Spinning classes for a number of years, having started in a traditional women's gym and then moved to other gyms and eventually decided to take my knowledge outside of the walls and start training women how to ride safely and effectively on the road. So for the past few years I've trained lots of women how to ride metric centuries. It's been lots of fun, some bumps in the road, but overall an amazing experience. As a result of these trainings I've met some of my closest friends and cherish those relationships as much as I do the training itself.

Which brings me to why I'm setting new goals...it's a long story but I'll give you the condensed version.

In April of this year, my husband (the avid cyclists and racer) was out on an easy training ride when hit by a car. He suffered broken vertebrae in the cervical and thoraic spine, along with a broken clavicle and loss of hearing in one ear (being thrown into a eucalyptus tree at speed).
Fortunately, he is alive, walking, hearing (with a hearing aid now) and is back to work after months of recovery and is now working on rehabilation. He, believe it or not is anxious to get back on the bike because that is what he loves to do.

After this happened I had to sit back and reflect on just how much I want to invest from a risk standpoint in this sport of cycling. What started as a fun hobby and then business gave me new pause now to think if it's really worth the risk (considering a family and other things).

At the same time, I was encouraged to try a new, much safer sport (e.g. no cars to contend with) called track cycling. A lot of you probably know this sport and love it. So, on May 24th, 2008 a girlfriend of mine, Paige and I decided to try it out (after some persusasion from our husbands who had told us how much fun it was). We went for what was to be a "beginner's session" and the short story is that at the end of the session my girlfriend and I were completing a flying 200 and as she came across the line she did what was instinctual to her from road riding, and that was to stop pedaling. Tragically, this slight hesitation in the pedaling effort (remember no brakes on these bikes) threw her off the bike resulting in a traumatic brain injury. More on Paige can be found at http://caringbridge.org/visit/paigeconnard

So for the last few months I've gone through every range of emotion having experienced my good friend suffer such a horrible injury and realizing that things will never ever be the same. I vowed I would NEVER ever ride again after that day. How could I? The road would never be the same again after my husband's accident, and now a place that I thought we would be safe ended in tragedy.

Then I learned that things will get better in time. Never the same but time does heal. Never forgetting and always feeling a deep wound but healing on my own time, no one else's calendar. And believe me I've received lots of gentle prodding from some of the same women I've trained and encouraged over the years -- now they've become my inspiration.

So...on 9/11 for some odd reason I woke up and got the pedals back on my road bike and went out for a short ride on my own. It felt good. Different, maybe even more cautious than ever. Not as intense for sure and just a good ride. I needed that.

Yesterday I rode with ladies from my group in the Princess Promenade - a ride to benefit women's charities. I ended up doing 40 and it was on a paved trail along the American River -- just perfect for me.

Since then I've ridden once or twice a week, now with a couple of ladies. I may even try mountain biking soon (again one of my girlfriends asking me to try it out).

So goals -- just to ease back into this idea of cycling and do it on my own time. I am committed to getting stronger again and back to my routine of working out with Graeme. I've got lots of other new ideas for workouts that incorporate Graeme's stuff as well as new things too - I'll try and post a video eventually.

until then, ride safe
Joy