June 30: Well, got in ride #2 of my post-op life. Actually it felt better than the previous day in that my anxiety and comfort level on the bike had changed - anxiety less/comfort improved. I believe the anxiety thing is just from my cognizance of having to be so vigilant so as to not crash and blow up my sternum. And yesterday, having not been on the bike for so long, and then riding the fixie, well those combined to just wig me out a bit. But today was much better, much more natural in that I’m feeling more a part of the bike again. That especially true in riding the fixie where you eventually just meld into the whole pedaling process. Hard to describe to those of you who have never ridden a fixed gear bike, but after a bit you just adapt so well to it that the bike becomes an extension of your body. Crazy zen stuff huh?

Now the comfort thing…well I mean I hadn’t ridden the fixie for three months, let alone my duel mt bike for about 2 months, so just the bending over process and holding my body up with my arms, that just felt foreign to me. And my butt was not used to the thin racing saddle, and my legs just were not used to the pedaling motion. Heck, everything was feeling different. But today, with just one day of cycling under my belt, getting on the bike and riding just felt so much more natural. I hope that bespeaks of muscle memory! I was kind of thinking this part would come much slower, but be darned if I didn’t just seem to feel right back at home on the bike. 

Ok, on the other side of adaptation, was the late ride and post ride part. That’s one of the biggest things I noticed from ride #1, my upper body muscles were fairly sore. Amazing how just a few months off can really set you back to the start. I mean my whole posterior upper body was mildly sore, then my pectoral minor muscles were also sore in addition to my abdominals. I think the most sore muscle groups from that ride were the trapezius muscles and the neck muscles, this from having to hold my head up while looking ahead. Man those neck muscles are really sore when I turn my head side to side.

So I rode Barlow to Stow to the bike trail and met Judy. Then we headed north on the trail. I’d monitor my pulse every once in a while to make sure I was staying within my parameters, and I seemed to be riding smoother and steadier than yesterday. Judy even noticed it, so as I mentioned earlier, the whole cycling technique and efficiency thing was starting to come back to me because I certainly hadn’t gained any amount of fitness in the span of one day! It’s the muscle memory thing for sure. 

Have to admit that I did a lot of no-handed riding to take some stress off my traps and shoulders. Then on the same tangent, I would ride “light handed” on the bumpy stuff so as to not jolt my sternum area. To do this I simply just lightly hold the bars and let my fingers kind of steer the front end over bumpy stuff. This way the front end doesn’t translate any road shock up through my arms to my chest. 

We went up to Brandywine Rd., then flipped it and headed back. Now by about 1.5 hours into the ride yesterday I could really begin to feel my legs. Today I felt better, as if the legs adapted in just a day. And again, I think this is the result of the legs just “remembering” how to pedal efficiently again. I did a little add-on by riding to TGI Fridays while Judy headed home. Got in another 2 hour ride. 

Next up was taking pop to the dentist for the final visit. And the only reason I mention this today is because he was just in one of those moods where he was extremely agitated and confused about what we were doing and thereby was tough to deal with all the way (we only had like a 10 minute drive) to the dentist office. It was a situation where I just tried like hell to keep my cool what with pop, keep my stress level down. And it was crazy hard. I’ve told Judy and my sister how hard this facet of my “life changing” really is. It’s literally like turning off a part of your personality. I mean the physical part (training my body back to where it should be), and the nutritional part, those are pretty easy compared to lowering my stress level in all phases of my life. So anyway, pop was on a tirate this afternoon and the whole time while I was driving I was trying so hard to kind of let everything go in one ear and out the other. I was even doing this deep breathing thing. Yet there I am, literally trapped in the car listening to him going on and on and on about: his med cards, his wallet, where are we going, why, it’s too hot in the car, open the windows more, why doesn’t the AC work. I wanted to press my ejector seat button and get sent into the air and out of the car like James Bond. I guess I was half able to control the stress, so this is still a major work in progress!

Later in the day Jim & Cindy, Wally & Terry and Henry stopped over to visit us at Judy’s. We had a great time catching up with everyone while eating some great food - Mediterranean style of course.