healing

Practices & Products for Painful Pedaling

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 8 Comments

I’ve been grousing about a body part that’s been plaguing me for a while. It was an issue in the past, but cropped up recently again toward the end of bicycling 500 days in a row (which I’ve pushed past — for now). Also, I’m no spring chicken anymore, although I often think I am. Most of the points I wanted to mention were already included in my post After the Fall: What to Do When You Come Off Your Bicycle, But that was November of 2019, so some updates are worth noting. Let’s dive right in. There’s water in the pool, so it’ll be painless, I promise!

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Silent Ride of Remembrance for Merry “Cookie” Daye: ¡Presente!

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 6 Comments

The rain stopped, clouds parted, and the sun came out on a winter Saturday in Austin. Fifty or so bicyclists gathered underneath the Browning Hangar, the first of its kind, a now refurbished WWII era structure built with wooden trusses. A sense of history was fitting for the somber purpose: to celebrate the life and commemorate the death of Merry “Cookie” Katheryn Daye. She was the fourth Austin Cyclist to die in 2019 in a crash, in this case a hit-and-run with a truck. We rode slowly and quietly to the crash site and had a gathering, and then returned. It was a fitting event.

The tragedy still hurts for the family members and strangers alike who didn’t know her but felt the pain and loss, even indirectly. This gathering was a step toward healing, community and preventing further senseless deaths. Perhaps, some justice will come out of this. That is why I initiated the idea for this ride and facilitated conversations to make sure it happened. At the end of the day, while the ride was a success due to no incidents and some media coverage, Cookie is gone. And that is just wrong, and it hurts. But her memory lives on.

[POST IN PROGRESS, MORE PHOTOS LATER]

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After the Fall: What to Do When You Come Off Your Bicycle

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

Crash, wreck, accident – these words all conjure up unpleasant images. That’s because falling off your bike can really, Really, REALLY hurt. A saying in bicycling goes “It’s not a matter of if you’re going to fall, it’s when.” I’ve had one fairly serious incident, and a few minor mishaps. I’m thinking about this topic because I experienced one of the latter the other night. It was a relatively minor scrape (yes, a pun) with a weird, free-standing curb the other night. Here’s what happened and what I did that might be entertaining, educational or both. Yes, definitely both.

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Getting Back on the Horse (aka Bicycle) After a Medical Break + Janeane Garafolo

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 3 Comments

Ten days off the bike is the longest break I’ve had since I can remember.  It’s possibly the longest stretch sans bici since I began doing long distances back in January of 2015, pre-Strava.  It has been hard, sad, relaxing, and other things — just a weird time.  And I’m not out of the woods in terms of the medical situation that put me there.  Of course, I’m not the only person who’s had to stop activity for a health challenge, of course, and it could be far worse.  Some people have crashes (Tour de France, on parle de toi!), surgery, or life-altering issues.  I hope I’m not one of them.  Physically, there are changes, and there are also psychological ones.  That’s what this post is about, so click on through and check it out, already! Continue reading →

ADAB Interview #1: David Walker: Engineering a Comeback from a Life-Altering Event (Part 1)

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 21 Comments

David Walker 5.jpg
David Crittenden Walker.  © 2018 photo courtesy of Alan Pogue, Texas Center for Documentary Photography.  All rights reserved.

EDITORIAL NOTE:  These are the facts *as I heard them*, but any opinions or errors are mine.  A better way of putting it is that this is a story, not word-for-word reporting.  As with all writing of stories, there is no such thing as absolute fact and objectivity, as much as we may strive for it or fool ourselves into thinking there is.  Not only was there no way to check many of the facts, and I took the subject at his word, there is the passage of time, choice of words, fading of memory and downright embellishment.  The story as told by the interviewee is filtered through the lens, bias and experience of the interviewer.  So is it true?  Who knows?  Everyone knows David’s a big fat liar.  But we hope you’re entertained and inspired anyway. Continue reading →