"Recovery tells you what it needs."
Madelyn, a social worker/addiction counselor uttered those words of wisdom years ago. I worked with her, for a time, when I was conducting writing workshops for kids whose family members were in, or recovering from, addictions.
Her words are making a lot of sense to me now. To her pearl of wisdom, I would add that a recovery tells you what you're ready to do. I want to ride as much, and at the same pace, as I did before my accident. If I'd crashed back when I was working with her, it might have been possible. Actually, I believe that it will be. It's just taking longer than it might've in my youth.
Still, Madelyn probably would have told me--even then--that I was doing well. (She wasn't a cyclist, but I think she spent some time in a gym.) The other day, I did another ride to Point Lookout: 120 km round-trip. Two days before that, I took my first ride to Connecticut since my crash.
My trek to the Nutmeg State was particularly gratifying, not only because it was longer (140 km) and hillier. When I got home, I feel as if I'd finished the trip I took the day I crashed, when my ride back from Greenwich ended in New Rochelle, about 30 kilometers from my apartment.
I was happy to have done both of those rides, but they further enhanced the meaning of my old collaborator's words: I was more tired at the end of the Connecticut ride than I'd been the last time I completed it. Oh, and even though I slathered my skin with sunscreen, my skin took on quite the lobster hue. Whenever my skin absorbs a lot sun, I get sleepy.
I got what I needed before, during and after I rode. Madelyn knew what she was talking about.
