Elderly people have a proclivity for giving unwanted advice to the young. It usually contains words like "when I was your age" or "I used to"
Since I'm officially old (I started collecting Social Security this year), I obviously can't help myself. Here's my unwanted advice:
Don't ever stop.
Like probably everybody, I've had periods in my long riding career where I've not been able to ride for various reasons: injury, travel, weather, etc. My longest period prior to this recent hiatus was when I had AC reconstruction surgery. It was more than three months between rides on the road, from October 11, 2013 to January 30, 2014.
But.
I never really stopped riding for all that long. I didn't ride at all between when I had the surgery on 15 October until 31 October but on 1 November I started riding the trainer. This was with my arm still immobilized, I rode sitting straight up or brief intervals with my left hand on the bars. My first trainer ride was 5 miles. Next day, I rode 8 miles. It was really painful and I was nauseous from the pain meds so I didn't ride again until 20 November (I lost 10 pounds during this period). I rode 10 miles on 20 November, 15 miles on the 22nd, 15 again on the 24th and then 10-15 miles every other day.
In December I rode a total of 332 miles and 220 in January before I finally resumed riding on the roads. 526 miles in February, 933 in March, ...
The point (and I do have one), is that I really only had 2-3 week intervals of not riding at all. In this most recent episode I went from August 25th to October 9th without turning the cranks at all. Another important difference is that from the first of June to the end of August, all but three of my rides were on the recumbent.
The effect this has had is that it has been incredibly difficult to regain any semblance of fitness. I hurt all the time, everywhere. I can't do anything remotely resembling a hard effort without really paying for it. I've been trying to ride the DF more. I've ridden 9 times in the first 13 days of November with 6 of those rides being on the DF. The two longest rides were outdoors, 34 and 37 miles, with the rest being on the trainer. Post-ride, everything really hurts. Most notably the things most directly affected by the differences between the recumbent and DF: butt, shoulders, neck and lower back.
The back pain is particularly notable in that it is a combination of both sore muscles and pain centered in my spine at the surgical site. In thinking about this, I've concluded that this is to be expected. I had surgery then spent the next six weeks trying really hard not to use that part of my body at all: no bending, twisting, lifting, etc. It stands to reason that in addition to some amount of scar tissue there'd be a fair amount of stiffness.
And finally, all of this is exacerbated by the fact that I'm older. Recovery is slower. Muscles are less elastic and lose their acclimation more rapidly.
I can't help but think that I'd be better off had I been able to do even easy spinning on the trainer but in all honesty I don't see how I could have plus the fact that I was explicitly told not to. As a result, I've got a long slog in front of me to try and get back into shape. Plus the fact that I've gained about 20 pounds in 2020 (maybe there's more significance to the repeated digits in the year than I thought?).
I use a metaphor to guide my daily efforts: "you've got $10 worth of will power, you can spend it however you like". In normal times, I spend $7 on my ride and $3 on core strengthening, post ride stretching, etc., and eat a normal diet. As things stand, I'm spending all $10 on riding. I am slowly trying to increase the stretching and core work but at best I'm at $0.50. Given the relatively small amount of exercise I'm getting and the fact that my entire budget is spent on riding, dieting is off the table right now.
My plan between now and when we leave for Texas is to increase the distances I ride and to focus more on the DF although I will still ride the recumbent. I hope to be able to do a few more rides outside before the weather goes to hell. I'll also gradually change the will power budget to $9 on the ride and $1 on the core strengthening.
Once I'm able to ride more, I'll try and adjust to $7 on the ride, $2 on the core strengthening and $1 on the diet. This will hopefully get me into better shape and I'll manage to lose some of the weight.
So my advice: if you can avoid it, don't ever stop. Even a short, easy effort is better than nothing.
Stay tuned!
