Off the Bike and it’s Killing Me

[JimF22003]

Forgive the personal details: Short version is I got sick.

About three weeks ago I ended up in the hospital with an intestinal blockage, and have been in and out of the hospital several times since. I’ve got a 12″ incision on my abdomen and a feeding tube hanging out of me that they won’t discuss removing for another month.

So basically I’ve been off the bike. Actually I’ve been off my feet altogether. I am just dying of envy watching folks out on their bikes, and reading the posts in this forum.

Because of the warm weather this winter, I was way ahead of my usual yearly pace both in miles and in conditioning. Now I feel like I’ll be starting over from scratch some time in the middle of June.

Only upside is that because I haven’t been able to eat, I’ve lost a bit of weight. Maybe that will compensate a bit when I actually get riding again

So, sorry for the whine, but I just wanted to remind you not to take riding for granted. I forgot how big a part of my life it is, and it’s a real loss when it’s taken away, even temporarily.

Enjoy the early summer on your bikes. I’ll be watching from over here…

Topic

[americancyclo]

you need one of these:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]999[/ATTACH]

[Rootchopper]

If it makes you feel any better I have had to fix six flats in the last two weeks, And it’s incredibly buggy outside. And the wind is always in my face. And they seem to have steepened every hill. Oh, I forgot to mention being doored twice.

Actually I have crashed twice this spring.

Does that help?

[JimF22003]

Rootchopper to the rescue with a little bit of schadenfreude

[eminva]

Okay, here’s a topic about which I know something.

First of all, thank goodness you got timely medical treatment. That is serious business. Riding can at times take a back seat to, you know, staying alive.

Second, consider this: your overall conditioning and level of fitness are probably helping you recover much more easily and quickly than you would have had you not been in good shape. As hard as that may be to believe at the moment.

Third, I was off the bike for eight and a half months in 2009 while the medical professionals performed various forms of torture on me. I also managed to gain 20 pounds. I started back at absolute zero in terms of strength and conditioning. The good news is, you will return to form, but it takes patience as much as work. Some years weren’t meant to be high mileage years. But those will come in time.

Best wishes for continuing recovery.

Liz

[JorgeGortex]

You may be down, but you aren’t out! Keep it positive and you’ll back out there soon enough. As stated cycling will always be there for you. For now, chin up and get well soon. Your friends on the forum are pulling for you. Cheers.

[JimF22003]

thanks for the encouragement liz and jorge. I’m sure I’m a bit ahead of the game from being in pretty good shape already. In the hospital they always did a double-take at my low resting heart rate, and strong lung and heart sounds.

Mostly they seemed curious about my odd tan-lines. Everybody wanted to know if I were a golfer

[SteveTheTech]

Aww man sorry to hear about your situation. I hope Liz is correct and the cycling background and base fitness level help you bounce back with a very quickly.

This should give you time to plan some upgrades, and plenty of time to do overkill amounts of research.

Cheers to a speedy turnaround.

[KLizotte]

I’m so sorry to hear about your illness. That sucks, no way around it. On the bright side, it sounds like you can expect a full recovery. If it makes you feel any better, I battled a very painful case of plantar fasciitis (inflammation of the major tendon in the foot) for about a year and could barely walk. At the time I lived in London and didn’t have a car so walking was largely my only mode of transportation; it was very inconvenient.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[acc]

I am sorry you are fighting through such an ordeal.

You make an excellent point. Even a bad day on a bike is a good day.

Godspeed.

ann

[brendan]

That sucks, Jim.

In the interim, talk to the docs weekly about what activities you can do when: they’ll adjust this based on how your recovery is going. But make it clear you were active and want to be active again, sometimes it affects their treatment techniques. And as you start becoming more active, check with them on how to watch for too much too soon.

Look forward not just to the start of riding, but how strong you’ll be again six months after you’re riding again.

I crashed hard on a lobster-pot sized pothole at the construction at 18th and Florida on Halloween, struggled to get back home to Clarendon to pick up my costume and only then realized my knee was swelling so much I couldn’t ride back into DC. A few days later, I was diagnosed with a fractured patella and had to be in a locked-at-extension brace for a month and no biking for two months.

Riding *was* my mood stabilizer and just *what I did*. So I got myself to a shrink pronto. That helped.

Slowly working back up to the fitness level I was at last summer and looking forward getting there.

Brendan

[JeffC]

After a very busy winter (thanks to moderate weather), I have been stalled a bit too on biking over the past two weeks with various ailments.

As to recovery, there is definitly a recognized process called “muscle memory” wherein ones muscles and central nervous system having once been acquainted with a type of physical endeavor, more quickly readapt to it than if learning it anew.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_memory

[SerialCarpins]

Sorry to hear….I spent close to two months off the bike this past winter due to a wonky knee…Whenever the weather was nice, or I would see other people out and about biking, it would drive me nuts….I know your pain, and just wanted to chime in to wish you luck, and a speedy recovery.

[Author]

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