3 Months in the Making

As of tomorrow, it’ll be 12 weeks since the accident.  It’s been a long road since then, and quite a lot has happened.  I had this whole trip planned for this weekend, out to Pro XCT Subaru Cup in Wisconsin.  I was looking forward to the competition and the race.  I was at work late last night getting in my time since I’d gone for a long lunch ride to get in my intervals before the travel day today. I got an email from United. Cancelled flight.  What!  Honestly, I’m really new to this whole air travel thing, so I had no idea what to do.  Luckily Justin was able to call United to try to figure out what to do. There were no rebooking’s or standbye’s available.  The only option it seemed was to fly out Friday, or try to catch a same-night red-eye out of LAX. I got home around 7pm.

Flying Friday wasn’t an option because check-in/registration ended at 5pm, and that’s when flights would get in…to Green Bay…2.5hrs away.  Not an option.  The other option (thanks Raegan!) was flying red-eye last night. Unfortunately, it was 7pm, LAX was 2+ hours away, and nothing was packed.  Not an option.

We hemmed and hawed and eventually Justin laid it out like maybe we just weren’t supposed to take this trip since the universe seemed against us.  Had it been easy to switch our flight, or if something had gone right once this past week, maybe it’d be different.  I got a flat rear tire in training both Tuesday and Wednesday, and both days pre-flats were rife with stress and difficulty, so I was already on edge.

Sometimes you’ve just gotta roll with the punches, so I sadly cancelled our hotel and rental car for the weekend, and we packed it in.

I was bummed, but not much we could do.  Could we have thrown together a bag and the bike and hightailed it to LA?  Probably, but who knows what would’ve been forgotten/lost in the shuffle and how much extra stress that would’ve put on us both, as we were close to our limits to begin with.

Justin suggested we take today as vacation anyway and just hang out and re-charge.  Good idea.  We planned to sleep in and head down to the beach for some time in the sun and just relaxing.  Justin said he might get up and clean up a bike for himself to ride the boardwalk.  Not a bad idea.  He hadn’t done any activity what-so-ever aside from walking (and only just tried stairs for the first time in 11 weeks last Saturday) since his accident.  So, I figured maybe a little easy spinning on the beach wouldn’t hurt.  It’s flat, and concrete, after all.

So, this morning we lazy about and he decides to head out to the garage to put a rear wheel on my bike and clean up something for himself.  He says he’s going to try riding around outside the garage, so I run out to watch.

He was SO STOKED.

So, he changes the plan from riding on the boardwalk to riding at Daley Ranch, which was, symbolically, where we first rode our new mountain bikes together in August 2005.

I’ll be honest: I wasn’t keen on the idea of a big ride on dirt with steep hills, but Justin was determined.  So, out we went.

So our bikes are similar, but not the same!

Well, let me back up…

I think we were both pretty excited about Justin getting back out on a bike again!

We hit the pavement from the parking lot and were going to head out on Jack Creek Meadow for some fairly easy spinning.  Justin wanted to hit all of the singletrack in the park, but I tried to reign him in!

He was wearing all of his new gear: Crash Test Dummy socks from Sock Guy, a Justin Wine jersey from my dad, and the shorts he crashed in: Ouch p/b Maxxis.

It was really really cool to be back out riding bikes with Justin.

We enjoyed the spin and I even agreed to let him ride some singletrack!

Climbing and getting rewarded…

So, after the ride, naturally it was time to refuel.  We headed to Wahoo’s somewhat near the beach and Justin had his first post-ride meal since probably Pro XCT Fontana!

Better watch out with those cookies…just gonna take more energy to get up those hills!

Meal #2…

I got some “Charger” fro-yo…

We hit up Bev-Mo for some celebratory brews

Then it was time to high-tail it home to hook up Steph and Dan with some Colorado trail maps before settling in to dinner – fresh Wild California halibut with grilled asparagus and beet greens sauteed with red onion, garlic, and soy sauce.  Sorry I did not get a picture of the finished product.

Happy Downieville

So, as we tried to figure out the reason “why” Pro XCT Subaru Cup Wisconsin didn’t work out… I think I realized it was because sometimes there is more to life than racing – like spending a great vacation day riding my bike with my husband.  He isn’t back yet in the way he wants to be back.  He’s going to be pretty sore (neck and leg wise) for a few days, but he’s able to RIDE again, and he got to feel the wind in his hair, the dust from the singletrack, and the sweat on his face… I missed the race, but this weekend should be good for us anyway.

Good luck to Stephanie and Dan heading north to race their first big Xterra up in Tahoe this weekend.  GET SOME.