Getting back in the saddle.

As many of you know, I had a serious injury to my leg last year while riding my motorcycle.  It required 2 surgeries and several months of recovery.  I was out of work for over 7 months, luckily I was paid for all of it.  I still have 2 surgical plates and 12 screws holding my bone together.  They are there for life.  Here is what they look like:

[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/542/asfn.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/543/my2z.jpg[/IMG]

It has now been over 10 months since the injury.  I still walk very slowly.  I can't run, jump or go up and down stairs like a normal person.  At work I take the elevator to go up one floor.

At my last checkup I asked my doctor if it would be ok for me to ride a bicycle.  He said yes and encouraged it because it is very low impact.

So with the money I got from selling my motorcycle, I bought a new bicycle.  It is a Trek 7.7 FX flat bar road bike.  Here is a picture of it:

[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/849/preu.jpg[/IMG]

I bought it on June 3rd and did my first ride on June 4th.  That first ride was a little painful.  I only did 10.8 miles at an average speed of 9.6 mph.  My right leg was really sore, but it felt good to be back on a bicycle again.  Since then I have been doing longer rides and getting faster.  My leg still gets sore, but not as bad and it recovers faster.

Here are the stats from my latest ride:

[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/850/8kzc.jpg[/IMG]

I use an app on my iPhone called MotionX-GPS to record my rides.  Works great.  I now have 200 miles on my bicycle.  I am getting faster, but I still can't pedal while standing up.  Luckily there is a flat trail close to me where they converted an old railway into a bicycle trail.  I'm going to stick with it and hopefully I will be fully recovered someday.