Recovering from my foot surgery has been weird so far. For the first several days, the pain wasn’t too bad. In fact, I was shocked at how little pain I felt. I got my big bandage off on Tuesday and it got a little worse, for some reason. But it’s gotten worse since then. Today especially, my foot has really been hurting.

And, it’s frustrating in other ways. Obviously, missing out on the first spring weather of the year is not fun. Plus, while we’ve moved most of our stuff to our new house now, we still have a lot of moving-related tasks that need to be done. My wife has been wonderful, taking care of business while I’m sitting around with my foot up in the air (I have to keep it elevated above heart level as much as possible). And I’m very grateful to her for that, but I hate that I can’t be more helpful.

On a positive note, work has been going well. I’ve done some extra side work as well, so at least I’m using my downtime productively. I’m also working on some changes for this blog, which I am excited about. And, Sarah’s sister and her boyfriend are coming to visit us this weekend, I’m very much looking forward to seeing them.

I’m trying to keep a positive attitude, and generally succeeding. Today has been the hardest day so far, and I’ve definitely been feeling down. I’m almost out of pain meds, so I think I’ll see if I can get a refill tomorrow. I think I may have a couple of harder days before things start looking up.

I get my stitches out next Tuesday, which is sort of hard to believe. It doesn’t seem like my foot will be ready by then. But I assume the doctor knows better than I do.

Sorry for the negative post. I’m trying to keep my chin up. I know it won’t be long before I can help get the house set up, and before I’m out riding again. I can’t wait!

Note: this may be a little confusing. I actually already had my surgery on Friday. See my status update here. I just didn’t get around to writing about this ride until afterwards.

After work on Thursday, I wanted to fit in one last ride before my foot surgery. I thought about planning  a route, but never really got around to it. Instead, I decided to do a ramble west of town. I stopped by home first to drop off some dead weight, but forgot to drop off my lock, and I had a pannier with me, so I still had a few extra pounds to deal with. The ride was short — around 11 miles — but hilly. And, I was still dressed in my work clothes. This actually worked out just fine. I’ll be posting a video, but I will put that at the end of my post. The scenery in this video is a lot better than in previous videos. Here’s a map of the route I ended up riding.

I started heading west on Rhorer Road, which turns into Gordon Pike. This road was slightly busier than what I’m used to, and had a couple of good hills.

But I wasn’t on it for long before I turned onto the Bloomington Rail-Trail. It didn’t take long for scenery to turn more rural.

Before long I was on Church Ave, which took me to Victor Pike. I then crossed State Road 37 and was truly out in the country. The riding in this area is a lot different from where I’m used to riding. The hills are just relentless on this side of town. Most of them are smaller, but you ride one hill after another. It’s both exhilarating and exhausting. And, there are several limestone quarries out in this area, which are always interesting.

I mostly took video throughout this section, so I suppose this would be a good place to post the video. I did more editing and added music this time. The music is a track I wrote a few years ago.  The video is rather long, but the beginning and portion from about 4:30-5:30 are the best parts. Toward the end it gets dark but I kept this footage to give an idea of what the experience was like. The light was incredible for most of the ride, as it went from near-sunset, to full-on sunset, to dusk. Just lovely.

And here are a few more still shots. It felt wonderful to get out and ride, and I especially relished the opportunity, since I knew it’d be a while before I could ride again.

This was a fitting ride, both as a first real recreational ride after moving to our new house, and as the last ride before my surgery. It felt like a chapter of my riding closed but another opened at the same time. Here’s looking forward to more exploration of this beautiful land, which is different from my previous riding territory, but equally full of wonder. And, my old riding grounds aren’t too far away, either.

Here are a couple more commuting videos. In the first, I show the bike lane on Lincoln Street here in Bloomington. This is really a poorly-designed bike lane. Here are some problems:

• Throughout – Bike lane is situated in the door zone. Riding on the left edge of it helps, but I still don’t feel 100% safe with it. Sometimes I have to ride in the traffic lane to avoid the door zone.
• 0:22 -  Weird dividers between the bike lane and traffic lane. Not sure if these are really problematic but they seem odd and make me a little nervous.
• 0:34 – Hazard in bike lane (manhole cover, slippery when wet)
• 0:50 – Starting at this point, the street gets wider and the bike lane moves to the far right of the street, which soon becomes a right-turn-only lane. I avoid this by staying in the main traffic lane to go straight. After the intersection, the bike lane continues on the far right, which once again becomes a right-turn-only lane. I suppose you could go straight from the right lane, but this seems like you’d be setting yourself up for a right hook.
• 1:39 – The bike lane continues on the far right, but this is a one-way street. State law permits riding on either side. If you want to turn left (as I did), you have to maneuver across the traffic lane anyway.

In my view, this road is good for biking, and would be even better *without* the bike lanes. They encourage/force unsafe riding practices — riding in the door zone, going straight from a turn lane.

Here’s another video, in which I go through part of downtown Bloomington. I had previously been taking a route that missed the square entirely, but I’ve discovered it’s actually very pleasant riding by the square.