It’s been a pretty good year for me riding-wise.
My left ankle had been in a terrible condition since 2014, but surgeries and rehab seem to have finally started to pay off. Though I’ve been riding bits of street as well as some downhill races in the past five years, those riding days were never complete without tons of taping around the ankle beforehand and crippling pain afterwards. Besides, the pain was a close friend of mine in everyday life that never left me alone on short walking trips to the local supermarket.
That was then and this is now. I’ve recently been spending more time at dirt trails than ever before. And I’m healthy enough to press the clutch pedal on the way home.
(Photo: Hitoshi Watanabe)
However, there is this annual bill you have to pay. This time, it was a metatarsal bone, broken in a stupid daily life accident.
Luckily there was no misalignment where it was broken, so the doctor just taped two toes together to stabilize the part. This was great, as I could just use some masking tape lying around and change it daily. No pain, no discomfort, and no downtime.
Above photo of me jumping was shot about three weeks after the injury, when I was about to forget it. Now at eight weeks, there is no issue whatsoever and I’m soon to completely forget about it.
I realized recently that I don’t tend to remember small injuries in the past. I have a favorable take on that phenomenon, that the brain holds periodic cache cleanup campaigns so as to use its gigabytes for new, fun things instead of the old and painful.
There are several other stories to tell about how I’m relearning pump track riding and dirt trail digging, but let’s save them for later opportunities for now. Anyhow, I hope this summer has also been a fun one for y’all.