Where'd the blog go?

When I last published a blog post nearly six months ago I finished off by saying that I foresaw a couple trips to a lawyer and at least one visit to a doctor. If only I knew. Since crashing I've seen one lawyer on two different occasions, three doctors, one physiotherapist, and one massage therapists... So why has it been six months since I wrote a blog post?

Whiplash.

That movie is just so good that I've been in awe for six months...

...

Ok I've actually never seen the movie, but I hear it's really good. For the last six months I have actually been dealing with rather severe whiplash in my left shoulder, and for the last few months it has been more noticeable in my neck as well. The effect on my life ranges from mild annoyance to borderline crippling, and unfortunately the more I ride a bike, the closer I get to the crippling end of the spectrum. So what does borderline crippling whiplash feel like?

If you've ever had a tight muscle it's kind of like that, but instead of just being one muscle, it all the muscles in your shoulder girdle being tight, pulling on your shoulder. It's so painful that you barely realize that anything is happening with the muscles, it just feels like your shoulder is trying to push itself out of the socket.... because it is (to some extent).

This is pretty hard emotionally, when you move half way across a country to pursue your passion, then two and a half months later you get in a car accident that stops you from progressing in the direction you want to for what has become six months, three of which I've been doing physio for. So what do you do when you're a cyclist who can't ride a bike?

Well I have actually been riding a bit. Sometimes the joy from going on a bike ride is worth a couple days of pain. Once every week or two I'll go on a short (yet still proper) ride on my Caad12. Why have you never heard about my Caad12? Well because it's new of course, I broke my propel, and n+1 is a rule.

My riding partner and go-to dinner party host on one of our few rides

So the question stands, why haven't I been writing? For the last six months I've been struggling with my sense of identity. For the last two years I've identified as a cyclist, and for the last ten I've identified as an athlete. Can you really call yourself an athlete when you aren't participating in sports? Given the chance to step back and analyze me life do even I want to identify as a cyclist? I could probably write an entire post of just questions like this, and I debated doing so many times, but this is a blog about bikes, and I wasn't riding. I felt like I had nothing worth writing about.

Long story short, I've decided I want to keep calling myself a cyclist, regardless of the fact that all I do is ride to and from work on a bike and write a blog. Oh and work in a bike shop. Hopefully at some point over the next few weeks I can return to riding every couple days, even if just for an hour or so. You can expect more blog posts, I likely won't be back to weekly posts for a while, but it will be less than six months between posts. Watch out for a review of that Caad12 I mentioned over the next couple weeks.

Stay cool internet ;)