the good, the bad, the batshit crazy

[topaz]

So omegabeth and I rode from Boston to Provincetown on Saturday, on a tandem bike borrowed from moominmolly and dilletante.

What happened?

• Tandems are way cool. Everyone we rode with seemed to be cheered up just having a tandem on the road. We became known to the rest of the riders, and later, by apparently random people in Provincetown, as "those crazy tandem people."
• omegabeth did not keel over and die from biking on her broken ankle.
• omegabeth actually finished in way better shape than I did.  By the end of the ride, she was doing the bulk of the hard cranking.
• omegabeth is clearly a mutant who has supernormal healing powers and possibly an adamantium endoskeleton.
• Good bike fit is really important.  Really really important. Like, as important as you thought it was, and then more important than that.  I did an okay job of sizing the tandem to me, but "okay" is not good enough, especially for a trip like this.  I finished the ride with severe numbness in the ring and little fingers of both hands, and profoundly diminished gripping strength.  Right now I can barely turn a key in a lock, put on my socks, or write my name.  Calling the doctor first thing in the morning.
• As important as it is to wear sunscreen, for the love of god remember not to wear it on your face. Because then when you start sweating, it melts and trickles down your forehead into your eyes, and it stings and you can't see and THAT WILL MAKE YOU DIE.

I have many many heroes today, but especially keyne and kids for their love and ongoing support of my madness, moominmolly and dilletante for the loan of their contraption and for invaluable technical advice, soong and sandhawke for sharing their homes (sometimes unexpectedly), bubblebabble and bitty for sharing their home and for gamely going along with our insane plans, inseriatim for repaying the favor and registering me when I started acting lame, and omegabeth for being such an amazing, untiring, perpetually upbeat and inspiring ride partner.  This life is sometimes an amazing place to be.

Comments

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

ceelove swears by Coppertone Sport as the biking sunscreen of preference.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

By all means see your doctor. This is what s/he will say: you have a neuropraxia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurapraxia) (s/he might not use that word, unless s/he has the same love of obscure latinate phrasing that I do; she might say something mundane like "pinched nerve", when "neuropraxia" is more accurate and *much* cooler sounding). It will go away in its own time, likely a week or three. Nothing will make it go faster, and your hand will feel weird(er) as the process moves along. (The part where there is "less sensory loss" Whatever; almost everyone I've seen with this, including myself, had fairly significant sensory loss, but the deal is that there is more motor loss than sensory loss, usually).

I know this because it's happened to me, and because I went to school for a long time to learn about it.

ANd the sunscreen stuff, oh *hell* yeah. BTDT ow ow ow ow...bam!ow ow ow.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Score one for keyne, who also diagnosed a pinched shoulder nerve based on my symptoms. :-) Thanks for the reassurance. :-)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Ulnar nerve compression. Be very, very careful with that, and get new gloves. I was just off my bike for two weeks-- that's the thing that kept me from riding the tandem to work for you.

So glad you liked it and had a good time! Tandems ARE really fun.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

remember not to wear it on your face

s/face/forehead/. Your nose will thank you.

And if your coloring is anything like mine (which it is), you'd better have some way of keeping the sun off your forehead. (Shadow from the helmet good enough? Can you wear a baseball cap under the helmet?)

[dilletante.livejournal.com]

i'm so glad this worked out well for you! it was fun to see your photo updates from the road. and congratulations on making it all the way!

i hope your hands heal up well and quickly.

[agaran.livejournal.com]

Wikkid pissah. :)