Spoke and Sole

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Welcome to Spoke and Sole, a community built around two things that keep us moving, cycling and running. Whether you're chasing miles, hitting new routes, or just out there for the love of it, you have found your crew. We're here to share stories, tips, and anything that keeps us motivated. So lace up, clip in, and let's get moving with your hosts.

Welcome back to Spoke and Sole, home of the essential athlete. I'm Terrance here with Anthony as always. And today, we're gonna be talking about that first ride back from injury. And of course, talking about myself. I spent the last, I wanna say three or four weeks getting myself back into, I guess, what I would call ride and shape.

So from the period of February right up through the end of May, I wasn't cycling or running or stretching. I wasn't doing any of that stuff. But once I got the clearance to go ahead and start riding again, I had to get back on the trainer, get acclimated, get my body back to the point where I could pedal, make sure that the form was correct, and just trying to get the wind, my cardio, to a point where I felt comfortable to say, All right, let's get back out there. And the weather played a factor. The weather always plays So a factor in all of that, we got some good weather last weekend, we got the crew together, small version of the crew, and we decided, all right, man, let's get back out there.

So when I knew I was gonna ride and I got out there, I had to make sure that for me, I had the proper expectations. And part of that is because, and we mentioned this last week while we were riding, being on a trainer and riding on the is very different.

Very.

Right? So there's a reality when you get out there and you're in an environment that's different from your trainer.

There

are a number of things that the trainer can't prepare you for. One, the terrain is much different than when you're sitting on a trainer in your basement, garage, living room, wherever you are, right? So from a mental focus perspective, you gotta be on. You gotta get used to either calling out or listening to someone calling out hazards, right? And it takes a while for that to actually- Click in.

To click in. You know what I mean? The other part of that environment is when you're on the trainer, you're not worried about people. People. You're not worried about other cyclists because you can ride right through them.

Right through them, yeah.

You know what I mean? So there was that aspect of it, and I had to get real quickly used to that again because I think you can underestimate the impact that actually has. When you're on the trainer, your reaction time doesn't matter.

Because there is no reaction

time. There

is no reaction time.

And you know what? That's a bit of a detriment too. Right? Because you're riding, you're in a group, you're not concerned with someone being on your back wheel or overlapping your back wheel, you overlapping, or someone, The kid you know

that's to the left. Exactly. The kids that were on the bike that we were coming across.

Exactly. So you're not worried about all that. And so that's why I purposely wanted to do the bike path. Not so much because I knew there was gonna be kids out there, but because I would much rather get re acclimated on a bike path and have to worry about people as a hazard as opposed to cars as a hazard.

And I have some questions. Yeah. I'm normally not the questioner, but, so because I was thinking about that, we were talking about that and I was excited that the boys are back together. I always love when we ride together because it's just that camaraderie but I was thinking because you know I know I had been out there a couple of times before that because obviously I had did the marshaling so I was thinking and I guess my question for you is like, and first off, don't call it a comeback. He been

here for years. Yeah. You know what? Not to interrupt you, but I think it's important to point that out. Right?

So the reason why I can't really call it a comeback is because I don't get out on the road until I'm ready to And get out on the so when I get out there, I'm gonna be ready to be out there.

Yes, yes. So my question that I was gonna ask you is, because I got a chance to think about that a few weeks, I think a month or so back when I started to get back on the road. So can you tell me a little bit about, you know, and although we've done it hundreds of times, what was it like once you've got, like you got through the ritual, you got out of your car, you had your stuff on. Tell me what it felt like when you first got on a bike and you clicked in and you had to balance it versus when you're on a train and it's already balanced? That's my first question.

I'm not gonna lie, man. I mean, so from I thought about that before I even actually did it.

Yeah.

Right? It brought me back to when I first started using clipless pedals.

Okay,

yep. And I remember I was on a bike path and I purposely went on a bike path and I went at a point in time where there wasn't a lot of people and it just so happened that I was pedaling on a bike path and I had to turn around, and it just so happened to be a family there, and I couldn't unclip. I couldn't unclip, and I fell in front of this family. When I got out, I got out the car, I got all my stuff ready, and I got on the bike. What I always do when I get on the bike, I clip one foot in and I leave the other one on the top of the pedal before I actually clip in.

And what I did was I kept that one foot unclipped for a while.

And I know they don't know, don't know,

so To the light. Think about that.

So that would've been like a quarter, a quarter to a half

a Yeah. Okay. I kept it unclipped to the light, right? So first, when we come down, We got that left turn and his car's coming. So I always make sure I unclip before I get there, but I never clipped in before I got there.

Okay. You were half clipped in?

Yeah. I only had, yeah. So I only had my right foot clipped And

you were right clipped into the front foot.

So the left foot is out. The left foot is out. That's clear. And then I pedaled until I got up to the light. And you know it's a ways up

It's to the about probably from where we started

to I'd say it's probably about a quarter mile.

Yeah. Actually, a half a mile because sometimes when we warm up and we go from where that is to this or that. Okay. So I got your mindset with this. So that's a way to mentally acclimate back into the ride.

So what, what did you feel in terms of, like from a mental perspective where, okay, I have to switch from like, now I'm riding and it's like the actual real environment and it's not, you know, in a character like zone where we are with Zwift.

Yeah. So the mental aspect of it is always interesting because there are two sides of

it. From

one perspective, you feel good because you're actually out there. You're doing something that you enjoy doing and you haven't been able to do it outside. Well, this is the first opportunity that you're getting to do it outside and you're starting to feel all that different stimuli that you normally feel when you're out there. The trainer is one thing and the trainer is good for what it's meant for, It's good for keeping that base. It's good for training during the off season and during the actual season.

Right? It's good to keep your body moving. I'll leave it at that. Getting outside is completely different. Because again, like I said, there's so many things going through your mind.

And so from a mental perspective, on one side, you feel great. But on the flip side, for me at least, knowing I haven't done this in a while, I'm not as crisp as I normally am, right? Because you know me, when I'm out there, it's freeing from one perspective. And I was a little upset with myself, I'm gonna get to this in a minute. Well, I'll tell you why I was upset to myself from a mental perspective, because I don't know if you saw this at the end of the ride.

At the end of the ride, we come to that light where the highway merges and you have to stay to the left. The lane is over to the right, but you can't get to that right lane until you cross the actual road.

Correct.

What happened was I crossed the road and there's a car behind me. And I see the car behind me and I see the proximity of the car behind me. But in front of me, there's a car and he's trying to parallel park and he's backing in. And so this car is approaching at a high speed, and this car is coming. So I put my hand out to tell this guy to actually slow down.

This guy didn't like that. And so he pulls over to my side, and he says, You're supposed to be over there. And I flipped him the bird. And afterwards I felt so bad. Not bad because I flipped Well, I felt bad because I flipped him the bird.

Because from a mental perspective, I'm just getting back out there and mentally I wasn't where I needed to be. Because I normally would ignore that person and I would have never done what I actually

So he kind of broke what your normal composure would be, which is a good lead to my second question. What anxieties did you have? Or did oh, and I'm not I'm gonna say if any, did you have any anxieties about, like, once you were out there?

So I didn't have Well, I'm gonna touch on the mental just a little bit more, because from a mental perspective, in the back of my mind, I was telling myself, I ain't gonna fall. And you know the whole thing is-

No, you're right.

The whole thing is, when you start cycling and you start and you move to clipless pedals, at some point you understand you're gonna fall, you're gonna fall. And you mentioned this being on the trainer, there's no risk of you falling. No. And not unless you're going crazy. No.

I mean, if you're on the trainer and you fall and you doing something you ain't supposed to be doing, right?

I don't even, I don't even, let's save space moment. I don't even like the climb in the trainer. I'm like, I don't want that thing to tip over.

Listen, there's been, I will say this, there has been a few times where my trainer has rocked, but that rock brings me to reality. All right, listen, it ain't that serious. You know what I mean? So I was telling myself I wasn't gonna fall. From a mental perspective, I didn't have too much anxiety because I knew once we got on the bike path, the worst that would happen is I'd pull a Tim and run somebody over.

Know what I mean? It's one of those things where, look, if you're on the road, there's a lot that can actually happen. There are a lot more hazards And that distractions. Go distractions that can go Well, there's a lot more hazards that can go unnoticed when you're on the road as opposed to the bike path. When you're on the bike path, particularly East Bay, you know there's gonna be hazards there.

And so you're always on from that perspective and you're always expecting there's gonna be some kids, there's gonna be some people. So you're locked in. And on top of that, the speed is different on the bike path.

Yes, it is.

And getting back out there, my goal wasn't speed. Yep. Right? So I was concerned about the distance. And I talked about that before we even got out there.

So for me, I like to take advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself from a training perspective. So I know I always get my stuff in. So that means I train very early in the morning. It's not uncommon for me to be training at four in the morning, right? I'm also at work at 06:30.

So it limits the amount of time that I have. So typically I'll get about 10 miles in the morning. So leading up to riding outside, I hadn't ridden more than 10 miles in one instance. And I didn't wanna be in a situation where as I started to get up in mileage, it started to impact my back. That was a concern for me, And so I got out there and originally I said, all right, well, let's shoot for 15.

Yep, I remember that, yep.

Let's shoot for 15, and that way, you know, we break in easy. Easy, yep. So what happened was we get out there and you kept saying, How are you? I'm like, I'm good, man. I feel good.

And I did physically, I felt good. Again, my goal wasn't speed. It was, All right, let's see how I deal with the actual distance. I felt good. And so rather than stop at seven and then rather than stop at ten, we went out to that, it was, I think we went out fifteen.

We ended up doing like 32?

Yeah, it was like 31 ish.

31 ish, yeah, yeah. 31 ish, yeah. So we get out there and I'm a tell you, when I got out there, was like, Ah, I feel good. Said, But now we gotta go back.

So once you got When you got to 15, you were like, We gotta go back.

Yeah, like, We gotta go back. Because keep this in mind, from a running perspective, from a training perspective, when I would train for a race, I would do this. During the week, I know I'd have my The week would be my really workout runs, right? So if I was doing, well, except for temple runs, keep those on Saturdays. But from a pace perspective, I would do those during the week, right?

And then on Saturday, I do my tempo runs. But on Sunday, whatever I ran the previous Sunday, I wouldn't go too much over what I ran. Right? So you would build, you build up in actual miles.

Build a base

up. This, I did three times as many. Right? So now you're used to doing 10 miles, you get out there at 15 and you understand you got 15 more to go.

And that's why like during the ride, it wasn't, you know, I was conflicted because like during the ride, I'm like, all right, you know, like, you know, we talked about that in the previous episodes. Like I know who fucked up OT is. So like, I know who he is. I know what he's done. I know what he's capable of, but still at the same time, you know, as being, you know, a responsible teammate, you know, understanding, you know, if someone is reentering the atmosphere, you still have to make sure that they're, you know, no matter what their potential is, that you check on them.

So I felt kind I was torn because I'm like, I don't want, you know, don't want to keep hounding them to keep asking.

No, and I appreciate it, but you, I was like, I'm good, man.

No, I'm saying, yeah, yeah, No, because I did understand that, you know, we said fifteen and then we were at fifteen and I'm like, in my mind, I'm like,

yeah, you know what saying? And we still need to do 15. And you know what? But see, that's what a responsible teammate does because, again, ego is one of those things that can be a downfall. Oh, hell yeah.

And I'll tell you this. I had to check my ego, particularly from the perspective of I told you, I was tired afterwards. And even when I got to 15, I thought about it. I said, Listen, I got 15 more to do. And I started You start counting down the miles, man.

Did. I mean, I started counting down the miles, particularly because, it was funny because we get to the end and you guys use the bathroom and I wasn't gonna use the bathroom. Fortunately, I did. Fortunately, I did. But you start to think about, all right, well, listen, part of it is a little bit of, and I was saying this to, I had physical therapy this week, and a little bit of it is PTSD, right?

Yep. So you start riding. Any little thing you feel immediately, you're like, all right.

Yep. Is that, is that?

Is that?

You know, is that, yeah, is that it? Yeah. And I think, you know, I felt like you did amazing, you know, and I felt like, you know, as we always do with our core group, know, we always try to support each other and encourage each other and make sure that, you know, everyone's doing things that are reasonable and that we're out there just trying to be reckless. Yeah. You know, because I recall, and it was funny because there was one point in the ride, and you know, Court Court just has, he goes on these these tandems when he's, you know, like he's on, like he like he was on and he started pushing it and I'm like, this guy's like, what's this guy doing?

So then I think at one point, you started feeling a little bit, and I think you had passed, and I was like, All right. Like, we you know, like, it's his first ride. We can't be out here, balls to the walls, trying to, you know, kill it, you know? And we got, you know, we gotta kinda

You'll notice I stopped. Yeah. Because that was purposeful, right? What I wanted to do was I wanted to see how my body would feel in a real life situation, trying to at least hit some of the speeds that I was training at. Because again, you notice, the trainer is different.

That speed is a little different. I think it's probably off by one to two miles per hour.

Yeah, think it's definitely about- From an

effort perspective. Let me put it that way.

You're right, from an

effort perspective. So when I'm training, you know what I mean? And I look at it and I'm like, Ah, well, listen, I'm just out here trying to stay in zone two. And some of those speeds that I'm hitting, I'm like, ah.

Yeah. They're forgazing. Which I wanna ask you about that because, and again, I was thinking about, I knew we were gonna talk about that this week. So in my mind, I'm like all right so I'm thinking about the segments of the ride so like I said okay so when we come back I could ask you questions about that so and I recall there was one section, I want to ask you how you felt about it it was where the ice cream slash, coffee place is, right where you hit that place, where you go right into the bike path to where you hit that little stretch. And I believe we picked up at that point in time, were at we hit between 17 and I believe 20 miles per hour.

I think that was, that may have been off, because when I went and I checked and I always checked the stats, but I went and checked the stats, that segment may have been like our biggest push. So how did you feel at that point? Cause I know, you know, we were moving. I mean, was a

turn your mic up a little bit. Okay. Like this. What I mean, let's turn. Yeah.

There you go.

All right. So we were moving at that point. Like we were moving,

like

we were moving like 17 to nineteen, twenty ish miles per hour And it was a smooth, like it wasn't, it wasn't a ragged pace. So how did you feel, if you can recall at that segment, like how you felt, like, cause we, we were pushing it and we didn't just jump, but I think we had gradually moved from like 17 ish to like 19 ish. We held it probably for like, I believe it was like two and a half, three miles up until probably where we met, until we hit the hit, we hit the top of the hill coming up on the bike path. And then I remember I hit the hill hard and then you must've felt good because I was like, hit the hill and I, and listen, I attacked it and I got there and I just heard, I just heard, and I knew you were back at that point. Cause you said, Keep going.

Don't slow down. Keep going. I'm like, Yes motherfucker.

Tell me

how you felt right there.

Listen, I'm gonna tell you something. I remember exactly how I felt, right? Again, coming back can be humbling. I felt good. In my mind, I knew it was coming to an end.

You know what I mean? So this is one of the things where, again, you learn to check your ego because again, like I said, normally I'm not thinking about any of that stuff. I'm not thinking about, all right, well, know what? We have this many miles left. It's like, yo, the ride is the ride.

Oh, it's the ride, yeah.

The ride is the ride. And the funny part about it was I knew we were within the last 10 miles and I know what that means.

Man. So

I felt good. Yeah. But if I'm being honest, when we got to that hill, I'm a tell you something, man. We got to that hill, was like, all right, listen, I'm glad we're almost to the end. Because the attrition of the ride was what was concerning me.

I felt good the whole time. Now, one of the reasons why that push wasn't a big deal for me is because one of the things that you can get from the trainer perspective is if you focus on it, your form is gonna be where it really should be. And I'll tell you this, coming back knowing that, okay, as soon as you come back or as you're preparing to come back, you have limitations, you have the opportunity to really focus on what it is you're actually doing. And for me, excuse me, what I focused on was really my form. Okay.

Right? Trying to be as efficient as possible and understanding that because of the situation currently with my back, and I'm a tell you this, my physical therapist says, he said, You can't do everything yet. He says, I want you to keep that in mind. He says, Yeah. And he wasn't saying it from the perspective of, Don't do this, don't do that.

He was saying it from the perspective of, Don't count yourself out from what you're gonna be able to actually do. So from a trainer perspective, I really focused on form. I focused on RPMs and really foot placement on my actual pedals and how to be efficient. So from that perspective, I was locked in with my form. I'm always locked in from a gear perspective.

And for most of the ride, you know, we kind of really took it kind of easy. And so from that perspective, you know, I had something, you know, left in me. So I felt good there. But as we got to that hill, I was, I mean, I was gassed. Let me rephrase that.

It wasn't that I was gassed, It was my body was not used to doing that type of mileage. And muscles and when I say my muscles weren't sore, but from the perspective of, you know, trying to take all that, the attrition of jumping up in miles I was feeling at that particular point in time.

And I think that you bring a great point up too, where I think not just with biking, but running, whatever you're doing, just that, you know, you safely, you know, build up and do that and build up and every and for me seeing, and with that ride, because I had to look at that ride differently too, you know, think sometimes, you know, when, because we're, and to make me look at it from a cerebral, perspective where, you know, the rides have to mean something, like we were in a good zone two ride and it wasn't super slow and it wasn't super fast. But to be able to say, okay, during those rides, I'm gonna concentrate on, you know, like you said, like you were talking about your foot placement and this For that particular ride, I was like, okay, we're gonna do this. We're not gonna go crazy and we're not gonna go, we're not gonna try to kill it. So maybe for this particular ride, I was able to You hit it? Yeah, was like a drill in or something.

Yeah. Drill baby, drill baby. But, I was able to focus in on the breathing because that's one of the things for me, you know, is the ability to be able to breathe and so that the breathing can control the heart rate. So I practiced in that particular one I was able to work on my breathing, my cadence and, just the form so to try to use those rides and that's something that I'm gonna take throughout our whole training year is to come out in every particular ride. That's what I learned and I know what you know when we get to the takeaway so my takeaway from that ride is you know on each particular ride to try to focus on something and say okay I want to focus on this so that I can you know progress a little bit with that over time because you said it perfectly and thinking about it now like I was able when we were on a trainer to build that base and I was able for me the big takeaway for me and the big thing that I was able to gauge and learn was that I was able to really work on my cadence and I've been I've been seeing that when I've been getting out on the road, and that was probably some of the things that I struggle with as far as to keep up from a speed perspective.

Yep. Really wasn't the effort, It was more of the cadence. So, like you said, using, you know, those outdoor rides, those those first rides to kind of get a gauge from where you've been to kind of where you want to go. So, and I and I again, I I enjoyed it. I thought it was a great ride and you know, it was good to see Obviously, it's always good to have the guys back out there, but also good for us to be out there and enjoying it.

We just had fun. You know, wasn't like we were out there trying to go crazy. It was like, you know, it was like we were out there just And honestly, what we say about Spoke and Soul, we were just out there to just kind of enjoy it, you know, enjoy the weather, enjoy whatever we were out there singing, have some fun, crack some jokes and kind of do that. That was great. Yeah,

so I got two takeaways. First, I wanna mention it was great seeing Mike Proto out there. Listen, every episode Mike Proto's gonna get a shout out. Was great seeing Mike Proto out there. I got two takeaways from this weekend and you hit on one of them.

I think that that ride has the opportunity to set the tone for the beginning of the actual season. Because I think when you just start the season, just starting the season, you kind of take for granted all those things that you focus on when you are coming back from an actual injury. And I think that that ride has the opportunity to set the tone for, as we look forward to the rest of the cycling season, it has the opportunity to set the tone for the type of rides that we actually do. That's the first thing that I actually learned. Actually, you know what?

That's the second thing, the takeaway that I had. The first takeaway was this. Listen, before We talked about preparation. Before I leave my house, I'm prepared to ride. How is it that I show up to a ride and Court gets there, takes his bike off and realizes he actually has a flat?

How you leave your house with your bike? He had taken his bike, he put it on the rack. He put it on his bike rack. He didn't realize he had a flat until he got to the meeting spot.

That was hilarious. That was hilarious. Was. Was hilarious.

I'm a tell you what my takeaway is. Immediately, I start to fix his flat. My takeaway is I become the mechanic. Become the bike mechanic.

When you were talking earlier and you were talking about the saddlebag in my mind, I was laughing. I was laughing my ass off because I was thinking you are the mechanic. Because I remember that time we talked about in one of the earlier episodes when, we happened to be riding I ran up the hill and I fell and you would've got to try to diagnose it. I was thinking about the 100 mile ride when my tire blew, you would've got those who tried to fix it. So in my mind, I'm like, we got our own built in pep boys with tap.

Yeah.

And you know, the crazy thing about the crazy thing about court, I use my inner tube to fix his flat. And it was just like, listen, he didn't ask me anything. I'm a tell you what happened. What threw me off was, as soon as he realized he had a flat, he started to flip his bike over. I'm like, What are you doing?

He said, Come change. I'm like, Oh man, don't flip the bike over. I said, Flipping your bike over and just putting it on a concrete. I'm that's what I I'm like, Aunt, come over here. I'm like, Hold this.

Hold the bike. The And

just took it off. So my takeaway is this, man, y'all cats better learn how to fix this stuff. What happens when I'm not around?

First off, first off, I know how to fix it. Like, I mean, but Terrance does it faster, so he's more efficient. We get back on the road.

I will say this. I was impressed how quickly I actually changed that.

No, listen, you got, I mean, you know what to do and you're right about that. I think, you know, people should know about the maintenance of their bike. I mean, because if you don't know, I mean, you're not always going be on the ride. So what happens when you're not on a ride? So, know, you I think that brings a good point.

But it was, you know, it was good to be back out there. It was good. And I think it was great to think. I think sometimes people often think, I think when we get out there and we ride, and whatever we may do from a, hustling or exercise perspective, I don't, I think a lot of times it becomes muscle memory where we're just so apt to just doing it that we're not thinking, okay, you know, what can I tweak, to make it a little better or to improve a little bit or to make it a little bit easier? Because I think and so that we're not just doing the same thing over and over to get the same results.

Yeah. And I think that's, I mean, that's a I think that's a great segue as Jack's decided he wanted to have his camera time. I think that's a great segue to close this out because, again, you said something very important. The opportunity to actually think and not get caught in the usual routine that you do on the everyday ride. So with that being said, I wanna close by just saying this.

Coming back from an actual injury provides you the opportunity, as Anthony just said, to actually stop and think about what it is that you should be doing coming up, not just for that ride, but for the remainder of the season. And from a mental perspective, it's okay to feel as if you know, you have to be concerned with what it is you're doing your first time out. And so until next time, keep those wheels turning and those feet moving. We'll see you next time. Peace.