On the road to recovery

The Injury

In Feb 2008, a few of us went to Savandurga. It was an awesome ride when I was at the peak of my fitness. naah! that's what I thought. On the way back couldn't pedal as I had terrible pain in my right knee. The ride back was horrible, held onto a lorry, a jeep whatever that was possible, walked for a few kilometres, ran along with the bike. Phew! Finally, reached home to find out I wasn't able to climb stairs at all.The pain was so bad that I needed someone's help to climb stairs for the next 2 days. This was the first time ever something like this was happening to me. I thought this to be a isolated incident, may be due to dehydration and alcohol related as I had alcohol the previous night. Gave my knees some rest for a few weeks.

The Haunting

Then in August, me and a friend(Sreenandan aka Avundi) of mine set out to climb Kemmangundi peak, this is the ride that hit me real hard. First, 30Km was a breeze and then the tingling sensation started which soon turned into a feeling like a needle being poked against the knee. Felt like kicking myself for ignoring the signs that I had a few months back. Somehow managed to climb, and then had to cancel the second leg of biking to chikmagalur. The pain was so bad that, I wanted was to get back home as soon as possible.

The Report

After the trip the first thing I did was to show it to a doctor. The doctor enquired about any previous injury or a fall etc. Then I mentioned about my dad having gout. Its kind of disease where in there is a buildup of uric acid in the joints. The next thing I did was got some blood tests done as suggested by the doctor. Nothing seemed to figure in that report until I got the MRI scans. Then came the shocking news, found out that I had a L5-S1 disc that had reduced in height. The report mentioned about something called a degenerative lumbar spondylosis and even had a tear in the knee. What more to ask for!! :)

The silence

The injury affected me so bad psychologically, felt down and out. Only people with back injury know the pain. You cannot do the chores. Everything that you try and do has a restriction tag attached. You think twice before you lift something, can't sit at a stretch in your seat and being a software engineer requires you to sit at the desk for long hours, shouldn't climb stairs, shouldn't bend forward...the list continues. Had physiotherapy for about 10days and continued my exercises.

And the Road

Yesterday when I was talking to sharath(one of the Tour oF Nilgiris participants and a organising members of the tour), he called me out for a ride towards bannerghatta. It was too tempting to say a 'NO'. So agreed to join him and a friend of his Rohit who was riding first time. He had just purchased the bike (Firefox Target) about 3 days back. I had my own fears about my knee and told sharath that I wouldn't be able to ride fast. But he assured me that it would be a slow ride as his friend was riding for the first time. Decided to start at 6am?

As always woke up late, finished all the important things quickly, got dressed in a jiffy and I was still late damn! Reached sharath's house in about.......30sec :) he stays next road. Ate some sandwiches at his house. I had to eat something as I hadn't eaten much the previous day. Rohit reached shortly after me. I hadn't taken out my bike in weeks and it had that old funny noise that everyone hates. Sharath helped oiling my bike.  Rohit's firefox break shoes had some problem, it was rubbing against the wheel rim, but it was manageable.

Then we set out, went through jayanagar 4th T block, 9th Block, jayadeva, arekere and without much stoppages reached the road that leads to kaggalipura. The GPS read 14.9Km in about 40mins. The weather was pleasant and it wasn't humid. That was a sign of a good ride ahead. Took a right towards kaggalipura, stopped nearby the hill for some loading. I was so unplanned wasn't carrying anything expect my bottle of water. Had a bite of ritebite from the stuff sharath was carrying, a sip of water.

I've come to bannerghatta many times and during one such ride a friend of mine showed me a route that takes us into the national park just beside the safari (This is absolutely safe, no dangers as the place has local around). Actually, had promised my friend that I wouldn't show it to anyone, but to make the ride more interesting suggested the guys about getting into the national park. Went into the national park. Morning time is the best time to visit bannerghatta, you can hear the lions roar. Spent sometime there shot some photos, not the lions, but ourselves. This route is a secret route :) which cant be revealed. I guess many of you guys out there might have visited it!

My knees felt much better, better behaved than what I expected. But could sense the weakness. For a few kilometres, the roads are an absolute pleasure for a roadie. Then its the exact opposite, that's when you'll think about having an MTB. Then stopped by a village where an elderly person came by and asked us where we were coming from, had a deep look at my water bottle and said 'neer kadime edhe thumbuskoli' (water is less fill it up). Then the old man went to a field nearby, at the edge showed us the tap and asked us to fill water. We had a small chat amongst us, rohit was asking if this road would join kanakpura road near khodays factory. Phat! came a reply from sharath, hey that's very far from where this road joins kanakpura road...ooh the look on rohit's face! Have to appreciate the dude for riding this far for the first time. Sharath gave him some gyan and encouragement, filled up water and set out.

We reached kanakpura road and had some besibele bath that tasted like masala puri. It wasn't that bad except that it tasted odd. Had a small glass of tea. Felt better needed something to eat :) you know hadn't eaten much the previous day and had already burnt the sandwiches.

Rohit was riding well, sharath gave him company. But I wanted to test my knees so rode a little faster in short stretches. In short bursts I used to accelerate, then ride slow for a kilometre or two. I don't know if this can/should be done but anyhow did that.

It must have been 10.30am. Being a Saturday the traffic was less but the sun was rising and heating up, could feel the dry heat coming off the road. Stopped over, after a few kilometres drank all the water that was left. It was 15ish from my house thought I wouldn't need water anymore. But I was wrong, my mouth started drying up stopped again, drank coconut water. Was soon joined by sharath and rohit who drank some as well. Its so refreshing drinking one of those.

Sharath was cruising and Rohit was doing good, on my first ride all my joints were aching and my butt, ohh! god it hurt real bad. But Rohit showed no signs of these except for a slight ache in the butt. That is understandable being his first ride. And me and sharath had padded shorts so we were guarded against butt aches :)

And finally reached family mart junction. Bid adieu to rohit who stays in banashankari and then me and sharath turned right towards jayanagar. It was good ride for me as I am recovering from an injury and it was good ride for rohit being his first longish ride. And for sharath it was a relaxing ride before the Tour of Nilgiris.

Tour of nilgiris is a  7 day, 919 km bicycle ride across the famed Nilgiri mountain range in South India. The Tour of Nilgiris takes off from Bangalore on 25 December 2008 and ends on 1 January 2009. As the name suggests, it is a tour and not a race. Looking forward to it and hopefully participate in the next edition.

Statistics:

Trip Odom: 51.9Km

Max Speed: 50.9Km/hr

Moving Time: 3hr 55mins

Stopped: 1hr 03mins

Moving Avg: 13.2Km/hr

Overall Avg: 10.4km/hr

Recovery

The recovery has been good so far, my back seems to hold up good but at times have weakness in the knee, think that might be psychological. But I still need to work out a lot to reach my normal fitness. But the progress until now has been very satisfying. Its a experience of a different kind and one that i've been enjoying.