I posted the other day about ripping a calf muscle while playing “livingroom soccer” with my son, and lamented that I'd be out of action for a while, because after a certain age, the body just doesn't heal as well as it used to.

I took a careful approach, resting the leg as much as possible and having Kentaro Kataoka look after it daily.

Surprisingly, I found that I could hobble after a few days, and that it was good enough to make a ginger test bicycle ride after only a week. It was still uncomfortable at times when walking, but there was no pain when I rode, so whatever muscle was ripped was not involved in cycling, at least so long as things went smoothly.

So the next day I went on a long (but still easy) ride with Kyoto friend Ionut. It was a wonderful ride, much of it in the pouring rain that made me feel like this.

I still feel pain in the leg, but not at all when cycling, so that's great.

At the end of that first test ride last Wednesday, on the way home I was riding along the Kamo River, which had flooded the previous day due to a typhoon near miss. It had apparently been a mild version of this flooding. Anyway, the riverside path was littered with sticks and mud left from the flood waters, with the occasional bit of garbage as well, and at one point I had to do a double-take as I passed some garbage... the name of a local bicycle shop (Silbest Cycle) was clearly visible. I had to go back and look.

It turned out to be a full shop-original cycling kit (jersey and bib shorts), soaked in mud and leaves and bugs. Aside from the mud and leaves and bugs, it's an expensive bit of kit.

My first thought was “what is this doing here”, and I couldn't come up with a plausible explanation, but it was obvious that it wasn't just forgotten there and that someone might show up any moment to pick it up. So I picked up the sopping mess and brought it home and washed it. It came out nice and clean.

So after the next ride, I stopped by the cycle shop and explained the odd story, and asked whether they might be able to send a note out to their club members. I figure that someone who would buy a shop's original cycle wear would be a member of the shop's club, and it turns out I was right. I got a call from the shop today... they found the person.

It turns out that the owner had a some stuff stolen, and the thief apparently had no interest in cycling wear so dumped it by the river.

So, on today's little ride, I dropped it off at the cycle shop for the owner to pick up. Good deed done. Feels nice.