6 days in 6 years

I had some minor surgery a few weeks ago.  Nothing big really but of course I was off the bike and most everything else for a bit.  The first few days weren't bad and I lazed around the house for the most part.  Towards the end of the first week I went for a walk down the block.  20 minutes later I had passed 5 or 6 houses.  Maybe this recovery thing was going to take longer than the doc indicated :)  6 days later I went back to work.  In the car.  I wasn't clear to ride or do anything more than walk for two weeks.  So, for the 6 days of work left in that two weeks I drove the mile to work.  Wow, quite an education.  For 6 years I hadn't had to drive to work.  There was an odd day here or there when the situation dictated that the car get parked at the office but usually my wife picked it up on her way to get the kids or something like that.  I hadn't been forced to drive so much in quite a long time.  I went to lunch with a friend the second day back and drove the 5 blocks because I was too sore to walk that far.  It actually took me longer to get through lunchtime traffic than if I had walked.  I even had one evening when I ran an errand and got mired in rush hour.  I was beginning to see why friends complained to me about traffic in this town.  I honestly hadn't know it was this bad.  Geez, somebody should do something about this.  How about we get half the drivers on bikes!  Now that would solve more than one thing.

The whole driving experience was in some ways more humbling than recovering from surgery.  I saw the doctor at the end of the 14th day and was cleared to get back on the bike.  Needless to say I drove home, parked the car and aired up the tires on my trusty cross check and haven't wanted to get in the car since.  The next morning I felt like a kid at Christmas when I threw my leg over the top tube and teetered down the street.  The first hill did me in and I had to crawl up it lest the slightly healed surgery site would start hurting.   Despite my improved state of mind resulting from spinning the gears however slowly two weeks off did a number on my fitness.  It feels like I had the flu twice in a row.  But.....despite having to recover my fitness it's still better than being in the car!