This past weekend, I spent in rural western Virginia (not to be confused with the state West Virginia) on a bike trip with one of the Meetup groups I'm in. I had been working closely with my therapist and dietitian to train for the event while both maintaining recovery and eating appropriately. It was very challenging at times, but I really wanted to do the trip, and so I pushed through the resistance and it was ultimately successful.

Originally, we had planned on splitting the trip into two segments: from Impossibly Tiny Town A to Impossibly Tiny Town B on the first day, and then the reverse on day two. Our hotel was in Impossibly Tiny Town B, we would leave the cars at Town A, which made everything work out well. But the weather forecasts were looking worse and worse for Sunday, so we decided to park at the hotel and do the entire round trip on Saturday, riding from Town B to Town A and back again.

I had not trained for this, not by a long shot. But other people weren't going to do the entire round trip, and there was no way to get lost, so our leader reassured all of us that we could turn back whenever we wanted.

I was surprised that I was at the front of the pack for most of the time. I did start to run out of steam near the halfway point (a mile or two east of Town A), and someone else was ready to turn around, so we both went at the same time. We stopped for Gatorade in the Not-Quite-as-Impossibly-Small-Town halfway between Towns A and B, and I chugged 32 oz. of grape Gatorade in under 5 minutes. I brought another similar sized bottle at the same time, which I drank before I got to the hotel. Despite having nearly four liters of fluid just in the afternoon, I didn't really pee until the next morning.

Keeping the calories up was tough, especially since I really wasn't that hungry after lunch, in part because I needed to drink so damn much to keep from getting dehydrated. It was hot, and I tend to sweat pretty profusely. So I focused on drinking Gatorade and little chocolate milk thingies that had calories and then I ate more when I got back to the hotel, had a huge dinner, was still insanely hungry, ate more back in my room, and then collapsed.

The trail we rode on was packed gravel, which was really rather bumpy. I have a hybrid fitness bike, which means the shocks aren't as good as on an actual mountain bike. I ended up with a ulnar nerve injury in my right wrist from the long trip and bumpy terrain (aka cyclist's palsy). My muscle strength in my right hand is definitely weakened, and I have trouble moving my pinky. But it has definitely improved since Saturday night, so it's going in the right direction.

I hope to go on more trips, but I think I need to let my wrist heal first. It took a lot out of me- it was probably more intense than running a marathon. I know it took a LOT of energy because I've been eating for it. I'm more than a little weirded out by all the food I've been eating, but I need to do this if I want to do more of these trips. {{The rule was that any weight loss or compulsive exercise behaviors meant my training was off.}}

It's something I never could have done without being in a strong place in recovery. The physical challenge was really serious, as was the mental part. More on that in a later post. But I had a really fun time, and I'm glad I could make it work.