Month: June 2009

Recovery progress

Today and Yesterday are my best days since getting home from surgery and pain is continuing to be less an issue. It’s still plenty of work moving around and if I move wrong the pain ramps up quite a bit. My appetite has returned but I’m trying to keep my eating pretty minimal. I see the next 3 months as a huge challenge fitness and weight management wise so I’m trying to get an early jump on things. I tried to weigh myself on the Wii Fit today but I couldn’t hop up onto the balance board fast enough to get a weight.

The other big concern is weaning myself off the pain meds. It feels like right now beyond being tired a lot during the day I’m not seeing a lot of side effects any more. More important, my alertness and focus is nearly back to normal so I can get back to work and some of my non-cycling hobbies.

On Friday Char and I changed out the bandages ourselves. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on with the home health situation but we can certainly do a comparable job to the clown they sent out here before so until I get someone else arranged we’re going to take care of that end of things and just keep an eye out for anything unusual. The staples should be removed on Friday which means the cut should be mostly healed by then.

More Ramblings on the Road to Wellness

My days seem to be broken up into little chunks. For a while I’m feeling nearly ok. Then I’ll use the bathroom or just pass out asleep and then feel horrible for a bit. Sometimes sitting at my laptop, I’ll be IMing folks and just drift off in the middle of a conversation. It’s quite frustrating to be completely reliant on folks around me. I’m a pretty independent person and now I need help using the mens room (when I’m not stuck using a bedpan). Continue reading More Ramblings on the Road to Wellness

Boggs Ramblings and Post Mortem.

Last week someone offered me free entry into a race near Clearlake, CA at a great park called Boggs. I’d been thinking of going to the race and getting the free entry sort of tipped me over the edge. The race is a 24 hour endurance race.  I did a solo entry and figured on taking it easy and just seeing how many laps I could in 24 hours. Never really thinking in terms of it being a “race” more just an endurance event.  I started out at a fairly moderate pace. The first lap was a pokey 1:12 minute pace. Between laps I recharged my nutrition and did a little tuning of the bike.

Bedridden
Bedridden

The second lap was more fun than the first. Folks were spread out and I was rolling at a good pace and chatting with other racers. Nearing the end of the lap, there is a long climb then a really fun section of singletrack. It’s not very challenging, in fact I often recommend it for beginning riders. It’s called Gail’s trail. Primarily just fast, smooth rolling trail with occasional easy to avoid rocks or trees. The only tricky bit about Gail’s trail is the fact that the edges are soft and covered with slippery pine needles. I was cruising down Gail’s at a good clip, really enjoying myself. I’d just passed someone and the fun meter was set to about 8, then my front wheel found those pine needles. Continue reading Boggs Ramblings and Post Mortem.