We eventually left for Kingston, NY, where a standing room only crowd listened to the Teyuna explain their philosophy and answer questions.

Like usual, I had matters which needed tending, such as filling up the tank, post ride bus cleaning up, and so on. All that to say I showed up in time to catch perhaps the last 30 minutes.

A great surprise was seeing M C, the same hero who was instrumental in the bus being ready on time long ago and far, far away back in St. Charles.

Plus M N and M P, the former who I haven’t seen since we all hung out in the Bay Area and the latter who I’d not yet met. They drove all the way from Boston!

I think my long term shoulder dysfunction is a byproduct of tight L hip flexors, maybe psoas and illiascus? I’ve known that my L lower ribs, which are obviously impacted by these muscles, have always loved being rubbed. Plus I [used to] have this head tilt thing which I believe is/was a symptom of the those same hip flexors pulling my lumbar spine to the side.

All that to say, relaxing/extending/lengthening/whatever those L hip flexors along with what I’m guessing is my serratus on the same side allows my shoulder to be in a strong position. Also, during the times when I’m on it, I have the same range of motion as my right side. No surprise to my illustrious readers who also know the rule a strong muscle is a flexible muscle.

Long ago, whatever that means, I read one should avoid overhead press if the wrist-elbow-shoulder-hip line can’t be made. Because achieving such alignment was out of the question and I was another instance of the tragically impatient, for better or worse I dismissed the advice and plowed on anyway.

It is my current belief that ignoring such matters precipitates injury folks, barring trauma or something similar. It is not some stroke of blue lightening courtesy of the dungeon master. Given the strength and unmatched compensation available to us Homo sapiens, we can not only get by but really perform well despite living with such dysfunction. Eventually though, I sure broke: I had the fastest 5k rowing machine time at my college in the fall of my senior year with the crappy hip from my sophomore year; yet in less than 2 years from then I was unable to string together a month of solid effort without another injury.

What mountain biking is all about.