Two Months Without
So tomorrow marks two months since my last day on a motocross track, which ended with my 450 throwing me onto Mustang hardpack with a thud and a Care Flight helicopter whisking me away for a prompt surgery for a broken left femur. The injury was bad, for sure, but what's bothering me now is not my lingering limp or the weird, dragonfly-like scars on my hip. What's bothering me is how this lack-of-riding thing is starting to really affect me.
Because this is my worst injury yet, I am not prepared to go this length of time without riding. Sure, I have gone without riding for two months or so from a broken collarbone or broken foot or something, but the four-month waiting period that a broken femur requires asks me to abstain for twice as long as I have for any other injury. And this is difficult.
These days I find myself daydreaming non-stop about riding, and making excuses for riding my 450 up and down the street. "That'll spread some oil over the engine," I say after blasting down the road, as though there was some reason that oil needs to be spread over an otherwise dormant engine.
I also wait breathlessly while my wife rides her XR100 around Deer Run Road, hoping when she stops that she'll ask me if I want a turn on her mild-mannered trail bike. "Um...sure," I say, a little too eagerly, just before I swing my leg over the little beast and start grabbing gears like I am trying to holeshot the 450 class at Glen Helen.
I think the reason I cope so poorly with no riding is that I've been conditioned so long to have riding as a part of my life. I started riding at 5, and it was then that my still-forming brain must have started treating riding as a foundational activity--one that would shape not only my obession with everything about motocross, but how I live the whole rest of my life too.
So it's easy to imagine how things seem a little incomplete when I cannot ride. I have all kinds of unused energy (which, if stored for too long, turns into irrational anxiety;) I am finding myself looking for other sorts of thrills (I am riding shopping carts at speeds they should never be ridden;) and I am even finding my urge to write is decreased (for whatever mysterious reason, I have a much harder time writing about motocross when I am not actually riding it.)
So you'll surely understand why I'll end this entry now. Check back with me for more after I am able to catch a few more laps on the XR.
Comments
Robert, I totally understand what you are going through! Watching practice at Mammoth yesterday was heart wrenching, especially since it was the practice day I was signed up for! Towards the end of the day I was so frustrated and wanted to be able to ride just one lap out there. I left the track in a terrible mood...sure it was nice to be out there - the track and surroundings are beautiful, but it was pure torture for me! I've only been out for a month, and with two left to go until I'm allowed to "putt" around, and another three months after that until I can race, each day seems to drag on a little longer than usual. Hopefully we'll both make it through our recovery times without being tempted to get back on the bike before we should! Happy healing =)
Posted by: Elysia | June 20, 2008 03:35 PM
Glad to see you are doing good and getting back on two wheels again, even if it is a little XR.lol. Best advise I can give from my past is take your time getting back on the track, give your injury extra time to heal and make sure your fully back in shape, I wish I did at times, I'd probably still be riding.
Posted by: Tim Rasmussen | July 3, 2008 12:21 AM
I like hearing and seeing Nate Tierny still going for it. I used to hang with his older brother who was a heck of a rider himself and I even raced against Nate back when he first entered the 80 class. I live and race in the Northwest now days, but I still like to hear about guys from the home area still putting up results. Good Job Nate, to even make a Main is a hell of a feat.
Posted by: Keith Johnson | July 22, 2008 07:26 PM
Thanks, everyone. Keith, Nate is doing great, and I'm glad you realize what a big accomplishment making the field at a national is. Nate made us proud, for sure.
Tim, I'm with you on the healing thing. I am really trying to ease back into it--I really don't want any more big injuries--they are too hard to deal with when you have kids. The riding is feeling great though.
Elysia, I hope your leg is getting back to normal now. And if it is, here's wishing you a good next ride. There's nothing like getting back to riding after a long break.
Thanks again, all, and please forgive the lateness of my reply--I had to dig your comments out from under mountains of spam.
Posted by: beaupre716 | September 8, 2008 10:28 PM