Monday, December 14, 2020

2020 Year in Review

It's that time of year where I look back on how I did versus my stated plans. Here's what I wrote down for my 2020 plans in February:

  • March - Murray 1200K (Australia)
  • April - Hill Country Randonneurs 1000K 
  • April - Okayama 1200K (Japan)
  • May - Brevet series in Wisconsin
  • June - Northern Virginia 1200K
  • June - Sandhills Tour
  • June - Tour of the Driftless 1000K
  • July - Colorado SR600K
  • August - Hokkaido 1200K (Japan)
  • November - Great Southern 1200K (Australia)

So how'd I do against the plan?

HM the Q, said 1992 was her "Annus Horribilis" which if I recall my high school Latin well enough, means "My butt hurts terribly". So taking a cue from the Q, I'm going to go with "Abacus Horribilis" which I think means "wow my back hurts".

Because it does. The good news, if there is any, is that with the exception of the Murray 1200K none of the other rides happened anyway so I didn't miss anything. All things considered, if I was going to choose a year to sit out I couldn't have done much better than 2020.

So I didn't do any of that, what did I do? Here are some stats for the year:

  • 203 rides
  • 5,288 miles (less than half my usual annual total)
  • 1,498 of those miles were on the trainer
  • 1,880 miles on the Cruzbike recumbent
  • 3,408 on various DF bikes

For the visual among you, here's what it looks like as of today. Note that I'll probably get to 500-600 miles before the month is out.


 To recap the key events the chart depicts:

  • Had what I thought was a "Soleus strain" in February. Turns out it was sciatica but I didn't realize it at the time.
  • Blew my back out but good on June 8. Spent the rest of June and most of July in considerable agony (Abacus Horribilis)
  • Rode the recumbent, mostly on the trainer in August. Managed a little over 500 miles.
  • Had back surgery on August 28th.
  • Zip in September. Walked instead.
  • Cleared to ride again on October 9th. Spent the rest of October riding the recumbent on the trainer.
  • Started riding the DF on 11/1, still inside. From then on intervals of riding the DF or recumbent.
  • First outdoor ride on November 3rd. From then on I rode outside when the weather permitted.

So there you have it. If you're of the "glass half empty" school, I did none of the rides I'd planned and only rode about half my normal mileage.

I choose to take a rosier view. Despite persistent problems with my back, surgery and the resulting recovery I'll have managed to ride just under 6K miles by the time the year is out. Not what I'd have chosen but I persevered and did as much as circumstances allowed and perhaps more than was prudent. 

So what's in store for 2021?

Stay tuned!


Monday, November 30, 2020

An inflection point

A while back I decided that I would chronicle my pre and post surgical experience. I made this decision primarily for my own benefit - I wanted to be able to look back in the far distant future when my memory about what had happened and when had faded. I've found in the past that when a few years have elapsed from an event that I remember the vague outline of what took place but not the details and I wanted to be able to recall the details since this has obviously been a fairly momentous event in my life.

So as with any narrative worth writing there are highs and lows. This post documents one of the lows. I'll preface this by saying I'm not depressed, feeling sorry for myself or giving into my natural proclivity for excessive whining, just documenting what's happening.

So first some stats.

I've ridden 926 miles since I resumed riding on October 9th. Of those, 532 miles have been on the recumbent and 394 have been on a regular bike. The longest ride I've done has been 42 miles and I've done that 3 times. As I've said previously, I've been doing "triplets" where I ride three days then take a day off. My last triplet was 31, 20, 31 with the first two rides being on the DF on the trainer and the last being on the recumbent outside. At that time it had been 10 days since I'd previously ridden the recumbent. Since I'll be talking about it more, here are the specific stats from that last ride:

  • 31 miles, 2:20 minutes
  • 101 average heart rate, 131 max heart rate
  • 116 watts average power, 375 watts max power
  • 5 minute average power 166 watts, 20 minute average power 135 watts

Based on the stats, I think you could reasonably conclude it wasn't a terribly hard effort and I certainly wasn't trying to kill it. It was a very windy day so I was doing "the Zen of the wind" - just taking what it'd give me without pushing overly hard.  

One other point worth noting is that one of the DF bikes I rode during this period was equipped with power pedals (Asioma) and therefore could record a left/right balance, i.e., how hard I was pushing with each leg over the course of the ride. I did a 32 mile ride on that bike and the resulting balance was 51/49 which is actually pretty good and is consistent with what I did pre-surgery. For reference, I've seen similar numbers from other cyclists far more accomplished than me e.g., the  winner of the Transcontinental Race a few years back, and they've had a L/R balance of 47/53 or an even wider disparity. I don't recall ever seeing anyone that was 50/50.

OK, with the stats out of the way, here's the point: on every single ride I have four symptoms post ride:

  1. My left calf is so tight it feels like I'm going to tear the muscle doing the "wall stretch" post ride. It tends to feel progressively tighter the longer I ride, like it "wants to" cramp.
  2. My left hamstring feels tight and when I push harder it also feels like it wants to cramp.
  3. My left toes and foot are tingling/numb to some degree.
  4. My back hurts. Either at the L5/S1, the surrounding muscles or both.

It should be noted that I have ALL of these symptoms after every ride, it's really only a question of degree and it's generally the case that they're worse after longer or harder efforts. It should also be noted that this is independent of whether I've ridden a DF or recumbent.This is more than a little concerning since doing randonneuring on the recumbent was my fallback plan if riding the DF proved to be too hard on my back.

The first one (the calf) is the most concerning. Let's do a little math. My average cadence is somewhere in the 70-80 RPM range depending on terrain, distance, etc. So to make things simple, let's say 70 RPM. That's 4200 pedal strokes per hour or 84,000 in a 20 hour ride which is the nominal distance for a days riding on a 1200K.

Without getting overly medical, I think it's fair to say that my left leg just isn't working right. I won't even begin to try to diagnose the cause, I'll only say that I had none of this prior to herniating the disc on June 8th. 

So what does this mean? Frankly, I don't know. I'm writing this mostly to document that it's happening. It's my sincere hope that it's an artifact of the disc herniation and surgery and will fade with the passage of time but at this point I don't know. What I do know is this: 80-100K pedal strokes per day is a lot and it doesn't take a whole lot out of the ordinary bio-mechanically to lead to trouble. If I'm having this much trouble riding a couple of hours it doesn't bode well for longer rides.

So this leaves my future in randonneuring very much an open question. As I said, I hope that I look back on this post in 6 months and laugh that it was just a step on the road to a full recovery.

Stay tuned!

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Some notes on power

I've been talking a lot about power numbers lately. It occurs to me that there are those in my vast readership who might not know anything about power as relates to cycling. I'm here to help.

No, not that kind of force
No, not that kind of force

Simplistically, power is a measure of how much force you're putting into the pedals and is expressed in watts - just like a light bulb. In electrical terms, a watt is a derived unit of 1 joule per second. A joule is the energy transferred to an object when a force of one Newton acts on an object in its direction of motion through a distance of one meter (one Newton meter). 

OK, enough with the technical stuff, what's that got to do with cycling and how is it relevant to me? As I said, watts is an objective measure of how much power you're applying to the pedals i.e., how hard you're working. Nowadays, this is measured via a power meter (well, duh) which come in a variety of forms: pedal based, integrated into the spider of the crankset, or a specially built rear hub. The thing all of these have in common is a "strain gauge" that measures force in a standard way. It's generally true that the closer you get to the source of the power (you!) the more accurate the measurement so pedals are the most accurate and a hub is the least since you have drivetrain loss. Probably the least accurate is a hub based power meter on a long wheel base recumbent like a Bacchetta. The drivetrain loss in an LWB recumbent is on the order of 20%. As I've said previously, I have all three types and they're all accurate enough for my purposes.

Back in the day before power meters, people still spoke about how many watts a rider was generating. Given the weight of bike + rider, a hill of known gradient and a fixed distance it's a relatively simple calculation to get a pretty accurate estimate of the amount of power a rider is producing. Dr. Miguel Ferrari (of "Operation Puerto" fame) used to take his clients to a particular hill with a stopwatch. Pro riders in the Merckx/Indurain era didn't have power meters on their bikes when they raced but sportswriters used to time them on climbs during races and print estimates of how much power they were putting out, usually using phrases like "super human", "other worldly" which meant "doped to the gills".

Nowadays, every professional rider has a power meter of some sort, usually crank based, on their bike and many of them post power profiles on Strava. The data is also quite often displayed in real time during the race. Modern racing bikes are so light that weight needs to be added for them to reach the UCI weight limit of 6.9 Kg so a power meter serves the dual purpose of bringing the bike up to the weight minimum and providing useful data.

Pro riders put out insane amounts of power. We could have a lively discussion on the methods they use to achieve it but the results are impressive regardless. A top sprinter will turn over a 53x11 gear at 125 RPM producing in excess of 1500 watts. A climber making a break will put out 700 watts or more for 10-15 minutes and your "average" pro rider can crank out 400 watts for hours.

And then there's me.

Regular readers will know I've had back trouble on the bike since 2014. The back plays a significant role in producing power, it's the fulcrum that allows you to use your upper body to counterbalance the force generated by your lower body. That's why core strengthening is so beneficial to cyclists, it stabilizes your upper body and allows you to generate more power.

Despite my chronic back ailments I used to be able to generate a reasonable amount of power with an FTP of just over 400 watts. This decreased significantly over the past two years as my back became increasingly worse to the point where the last 20 minute FTP test I did (in 2019) I only managed an FTP of a little over 260 watts.

Although there are a number of training programs under the general heading of "FTP builder" I never used any of them instead adopting the Merckx philosophy of "ride lots". I'd periodically push as hard as I could on climbs or keep my average speed above some threshold for an interval, go for a KOM, things like that. That worked well enough and I was able to produce a reasonable amount of power up to the limit my back would handle.

Post surgery I've been monitoring my power output carefully as noted by the most recent posts. I've seen improvement and hope this continues. I've found that at this point my back is able to handle a sustained hard effort better than the semi-maximal load created by a sprint. I've found this out "the hard way" so I'm staying away from sprints and am focusing more on "keep the watts above x for y minutes" sorts of efforts. I do hope to introduce short, hard efforts at some point, most likely in the spring when I've rebuilt a base of strength.

Stay tuned!



Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Geeking out on data

I've probably spent more time looking at ride data in the now almost three months since my back surgery than I have in my entire cycling history. All of the bikes I've been using post surgery now have power meters. This includes the power meter on the trainer(s) and crank, pedal or wheel based power meters on bikes I ride outside. I've been doing this for a number of reasons:

  1. To make sure I don't overdo it. I monitor the power levels while I'm riding and have set "not to exceed" limits based on my most recent rides. 
  2. To monitor progress. As I've said previously, I'm trying to regain fitness from a fairly low point and it's gratifying to see that there's improvement even though it often doesn't feel like it.
  3. Because I can ;-) I'm analytic by nature so doing post ride analysis appeals to my natural inclination. 

As I said a couple of posts back, the things I'm choosing to monitor are average and max heart rate, average and max power, 5 minute power and 20 minute power. In the last 3 day cycle I've done two extended climbs: the "Epic KOM" and "Mount Zwift full reverse". My PR's on those climbs are 19:53 and 40:52, respectively. But I wasn't going for PR's and in fact on the most recent ride I wasn't really going for anything at all. In both rides I was a good ways off of my PR but I did notice something interesting when contrasting my last two extended climbs.

A couple of days ago on the Epic KOM, I was TRYING to set a good 20 minute average power baseline so I felt like I was making a good effort for the entire climb. By contrast, today I was NOT trying to do anything really, just riding steady so I was surprised when I'd set a new benchmark. What was even more surprising (and gratifying) is that my average heart rate was lower despite the fact that I was putting out more power.

Here's the full data with the Mount Zwift Full on the left and the Epic KOM on the right..


It should be noted that this was NOT an FTP test. An FTP test, if done properly, is the absolute hardest you can go for an hour. An approximation is as hard as you can go for 20 minutes which is extrapolated to a 60 minute test and that's all I've ever done - I've never done the full one hour test. Having said that, when I've done the 20 minute test it REALLY hurts. I've barely been able to get off the bike when I'm done, we're talking "flat out, slobber on the top tube" level of effort and both of these were a long way from that. In fact, if the above were an FTP test it'd yield an FTP roughly in the 190 range and my FTP the last time I took the test was 263.

Nevertheless, the results are gratifying. In particular, one thing stands out:

  • The 20 minute average for the most recent effort on Mount Zwift Full was 196 with an average heart rate of 122.
  • The 20 minute average for the Epic KOM was 187 with an average heart rate of 133.
    • 11 BPM less while making 9 more watts.

It should be noted that the average of the 20 minute power numbers for my first week of riding post surgery was 156 so progress is being made.

And if you're a "glass half empty" kind of person, I should also point out that on my PR on the Epic KOM my average watts were 244 with an average heart rate of 126 so I still have a way to go.

Stay tuned!

Monday, November 16, 2020

Getting better

In our last episode, I expounded on the dangers of taking an extended time off from an activity and waxed rhapsodic on the downsides, chief among them hurting all the time. 

The thing is, it's not as though I'm doing easy spinning while reading Dostoevsky or watching Oprah. I'm actually trying to improve my fitness from what is a very low point indeed and there's just no way to avoid it: that's gonna hurt.

I've never done anything that could even charitably be called "training" in cycling. Every time I've tried to follow a specific program it's turned something that I do for fun into work. Back in the day when I was a runner I did it all: foundation, intervals, you name it and followed a very strict regimen that dictated what I'd do and when. But there are two important differences between then and now:

  1. I'm older (funny how the age card keeps floating to the top of the deck) and more injury prone.
  2. I really do view cycling as an activity that I'll keep doing for the rest of my life. Although I was quite a serious runner and a reasonably good one, I knew that at some point it'd come to an end. I certainly hope that's not the case with cycling.

 But having said that, I do hope to regain lost fitness and improve. It's a lot more fun to be able to attack a climb rather than dread it.

So I have a goal of regaining fitness and a willingness to do no small amount of suffering to achieve it. How to proceed?

I've generally taken the attitude that there are three knobs:

  1. Intensity. Measured via things like max power and heart rate, time in zones, etc.
  2. Frequency. How many days in a row I ride.
  3. Duration. How long I ride.

So my goal is to gradually increase all three but not to turn all three knobs simultaneously and that's what I've been doing since I resumed riding on October 9. The measures I've chosen to pay attention to are average and max heart rate, average and max power, 5 minute average power and ride time. So how does it look?

A few notes about the data:

  1. Most of it is taken from one of two smart trainers, either a Wahoo Kickr or a Tacx Neo II. The bike on the Tacx is a Cannondale diamond frame and the recumbent Cruzbike is on the Kickr.
  2. The rides on the Cruzbike without power data are outdoor rides. I didn't have any method of collecting power on the Cruzbike at the time. This has since been fixed with a PowerTap wheel but there's no data yet as it's been too cold for my weak shit to go outside lately.
  3. The other bike in the mix (the Crumpton) doesn't have a way of collecting power data. I'll remedy that before I go to Texas by moving the Asioma power pedals from the Pinarello (the 11/7 ride) to the Crumpton.
  4. Pre-surgery, my FTP was 262. I've not done a test yet and it's not likely I will for a while, I don't think I'm up to it. My guess is that it'd be somewhere in the 210-220 range.
  5. Pre-surgery, my max power for 3 seconds was 843 watts. I have briefly (like "blink of an eye" briefly) hit 1,000 watts but the 3 second number is more revealing. 
  6. I've deliberately NOT done anything approaching a maximal effort. At most, I'd say the max power numbers above reflect a 75% level of effort. I don't think it's a good idea to do any more at this point in my recovery. 
  7. The rides on 1 November are 4 shorter routes on Zwift and I just took the data from the first one rather than combining them. N.B. I've been chasing "Route Completion" badges which earn you "Experience points" on Zwift although I care about neither. Funny the things you'll do to motivate yourself.

I'll let you pore over the data to whatever extent you're interested (or not at all) but as you can see, the frequency has been 2-3 days of riding then a day off. The duration has increased from around an hour to a few rides of more than 2 hours and the intensity has gone from a 5 minute power average below 200 to above 200 on harder rides. The max power number similarly has gone from below 200 to above 400 with my absolute max being 462 post surgery which at 75% effort would give a max of somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 watts which seems about right.

So aside from the fact that I'm naturally whiny, there's actually a pretty good reason I'm sore all the time. With only a couple of exceptions every ride I do is either longer or harder. 

Between now and when I head to Texas, I'll probably do a few extended climbs on the trainer at a more sustained and higher level of effort. I might do an informal FTP test. We'll see.

Stay tuned!


Saturday, November 14, 2020

Don't ever stop

 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!

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

On the road again

We're forecast to have a run of warmer weather over the next several days - in the 60's F - so I wanted to get outside to ride before the weather turns colder which it will inevitably do.

As noted previously, I've been 100% on the recumbent on the trainer since I was cleared to ride and have been riding in a pattern of three days riding, one day off with the total distances for the three days gradually increasing. Since my first ride on August 9th, I've ridden 382 miles with my longest being 40 miles. On the last day of my last three day group on the trainer I rode the DF 24 miles to see how that would go. Although I could feel it in my back somewhat when out of the saddle it generally went well enough that I thought it'd be OK to ride a DF outside. I also wanted to ride a DF because the Cruzbike is a royal PITA to remove and put on a direct drive trainer.

Based on all that, my plan was to ride a DF for this entire run of good weather. I rode a custom bike that I took delivery of in Texas earlier this year that has a measly 500 miles on it.

In brief, today's ride was 34 miles with about 1500 feet of climbing. I rode at an easy pace the whole time. The weather really was lovely and the only downside was I was significantly overdressed. It was 45 degrees when I started getting ready but had warmed up to near 60 by the time I started - I was dressed for 45. I quickly shed a few layers but had a jacket on and nothing to replace it with so I was pretty warm.

In general, I felt OK. My left hamstring and calf hurt for the first 10 miles or so. I stopped and stretched a few times and that helped, after that it was OK. My back was OK for the first 15 miles or so, when out of the saddle I felt "pressure" in my lower back, sort of like someone was pushing on it, but I wouldn't describe it as painful. The longer I rode the more I felt it and it progressed to a dull ache which increased in intensity over the course of the ride. It never got to the point of being painful but I was feeling it more and more as the ride went on.

But I finished. The aftermath isn't all that pretty. I hurt. Everywhere. Given that almost all of the riding I've done post surgery is on the recumbent it's perhaps not surprising that my hands and arms are sore as is my butt (one of the real upsides of a 'bent is there are absolutely no butt related issues!). My back is sore but I'd say it's proportional to everything else. A session in the jacuzzi tub helped but I'm still pretty sore.

I've given up on my plan to ride the DF exclusively through this spell of good weather. I'm going to pull the recumbent off the trainer and hopefully will be able to alternate between them for several days. Given the paucity of miles on the DF, it seems like it'd be pushing it to ride it too much so although it's a pain I'll do the smarter thing and ride the recumbent too. Hate to miss any days of riding when it's so nice out!

Stay tuned!

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Slow progress, better than no progress

 I missed the 8 week update 4 days ago so here's the general rundown:

  • My back still hurts, but not as much.
  • I'm able to bend a bit more without "paying for it" later.
  • The three smallest toes on my left foot are still tingly/numb. This might be permanent but perhaps too early to tell.

Under the category of "really weird stuff", I've started riding again (more below) and after each ride my left calf and hamstring are incredibly tight and painful. Doing the "wall stretch" for my calf literally feels like I'm going to tear the muscle. I also have kind of a weird "hitch" in my pedal stroke, sort of like a worn bearing in the bottom bracket. I've been focusing on trying to spin smoothly.

I've been using a foam roller to try to break up the knots in my hamstring/calf. After more than a week, I've finally gotten them to the point where I can do it without screaming in pain so that's progress. 

Since I was cleared to ride on 8 October, I've ridden 283 miles in 17 days, all on the recumbent on the trainer. My longest ride thus far is 34 miles. I've started doing a bit more climbing and pushing a bit harder.

I'm pathetically out of shape. I don't play the age card very often but I'll play it now: I hurt all the time and it seems to take forever to recover from even a moderately hard effort. All of the muscles involved in cycling really hurt. It's getting better but really slowly. It seems like three days riding in a row is about all I can manage and the sessions/distances have gone 10-11, day off, 16-14-19, day off, 16-24-20, day off, 34-26-22, day off. 

I've had some extended times off the bike in the past, usually due to accident or injury, but it is objectively taking me a lot longer to regain fitness now that I'm older. I've got detailed data 


going back 20 years and it is most definitely taking me longer to ramp back up and I ache a lot more after riding.

We have a Jacuzzi tub in the master bath and I've been using it with Epsom salts in the water to try and reduce the soreness and it does help. In addition to the aforementioned foam roller, I've also started doing more stretching. I've started some really easy core strengthening and have discovered I don't have any core strength.

I'm able to do more. I can e.g., bend a bit at the waist and towel off my feet after showering. Yesterday I put air in the tires on the car and realized I was bending to do it rather than kneeling. Although this probably isn't a good idea, the point is that I could do it and not have agonizing pain during or after. I also sat up in bed (lifted my upper body) instead of "log rolling" to get out of bed in the middle of the night. Again, probably not wise but not debilitating. I carried some 25 lb bags of water softener salt.

Things that I'd like to do in the next few weeks include riding the DF on the trainer and seeing how my back responds and riding outside, either on the recumbent or DF. It's cold AF (wind chill of 26 F as I write this) so I'm not in any hurry to go outdoors. I'm hoping for a bit of a warm spell, at least in the upper 40's, before venturing outdoors.

Stay tuned!

Monday, October 12, 2020

Back to riding, sort of

A lot of people (including me) don't really think of being indoors on a trainer as "riding" but "man's gotta do" and all that.

 Living here in this godforsaken frozen wasteland, a trainer is a necessary evil. Everybody who's ridden outside when it's -20, raise your (frostbitten) hands - I'll wait. Oh, and for what it's worth I HAVE ridden outside when it's -20. But when it takes longer to get ready for the ride than to do the ride it's just not worth it. I'll do it on occasion just to get out but not on a regular basis. Also, the secondary roads here are not salted and there are long sections that are always shaded so they're a sheet of ice. Even studded tires don't help. So this means the only place I can really ride is up and down the shoulder on a state highway.

I'm riding the recumbent on the trainer. As I've mentioned in the past, pre-surgery the recumbent was noticeably easier on my back and I'm assuming the same will be true now. Plus it's a more controlled environment and perhaps most importantly, if my back starts to hurt I can stop without having to worry about how I'll get home.

OK, rationalizations done let's move on.

I'm a long time Zwift user. Although it's a "game", I find it to be very motivating, much more so than grinding out miles while watching a movie, jamming tunes, whatever. The environment ("world" in Zwift parlance) isn't real but the other avatars you see on a ride represent real people and there are a number of ways to challenge yourself: 

  1. Setting a PR on a climb.
  2. Keeping your power level above "x" for some period of time or for the entire length of a climb.
  3. "I'm going to catch that person in front of me" or "I'm not going to let that person behind me catch me"
  4. Going for a KOM on a climb.
  5. Alpe d'Zwift is a killer and there are a number of other really tough routes.

So as a result, I can do long rides on Zwift while staying motivated and engaged. I guess that says something about me that it takes a bit of competition, albeit with myself on occasion, to keep me interested. 

But right now I don't need to be pushing hard, what I need to do is easy spinning and slowly rebuilding the strength that I've lost. I don't need to be challenging PR's, staying in front of people, etc. For some reason when I use Zwift I can't help competing in some fashion. I don't know whether it's to stave off boredom, innate competitiveness (which strangely enough I don't really feel IRL on the road) or what but if e.g., I'm doing the "Epic KOM" and see that my PR is within reach I start to push harder or if I see that I'm gaining on someone I'll push that little bit harder to catch them. 

In real life riding on the road if I see another cyclist up ahead I'll try NOT to catch them. Unless they're going significantly slower than me I'm content to back off and keep my distance. I do on occasion push hard on a climb or try and set a new PR but that's me versus me.

So I'm trying Rouvy. 

They do have assorted challenges but I've found most of the rides to be very lonely experiences where I'm the only rider. The routes, of which there are many, are beautiful and most of them are really well done. There is also a wide variety of routes ranging from flat and short (which I've been doing) to long and extremely hilly (Alpe d'Huez, the Stelvio, etc).

So I can roll along and look at the scenery.

Is this permanent or will I go back to Zwift once I've regained some semblance of strength? Hard to say at this point but I'm enjoying Rouvy thus far but I've only done two rides on it of less than 18 miles.

Stay tuned!

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Clear the decks for action!

 Well, not quite.

Had my post surgical exam this morning. One mistake that I made going in was that I didn't summarize the last 6 weeks or review my notes. The first question was "tell me about the first two weeks post surgery"? Did the best I could from memory and after looking at my notes when I returned home I think I gave a reasonably accurate assessment but I wish I'd have been a bit better prepared. Oh well. D- on the exam.

I was obviously able to describe things in the last couple of weeks much more accurately sans notes. As I mentioned in my previous blog, I hurt my back two days ago. I was sitting down on the stairs so Marcia could put my shoes on and sat down too fast and too far back on the stair so I ended up hitting my back hard on the next stair up. It's really been hurting and I've only been getting a couple of hours sleep per night.

I didn't want the assessment overly colored by that though I did mention it. He said he would have expected more symptoms in my leg and less in my back, I'm hopeful that the back pain is simply a result of my carelessness and it'll dissipate. Before that, I actually had a couple of pretty good days so let's hope that's the trend and that it continues.

The good news is that although I'm supposed to continue to take it easy (no bending at the waist, no lifting) I'm cleared to ride indoors on the trainer or even outdoors if I want. Although he's an avid cyclist, he has a really weird mental image of what the position on a recumbent looks like. He seems to think your knee comes up to your chin on the pedal stroke. Fortunately, I was prepared for that and had pictures of myself taken from the side which showed the position of my back and my legs at various points in the pedal stroke.

So he said I could ride the recumbent or a conventional bike although by "conventional bike" I think he means like a beach cruiser where you sit straight up. I suppose this means I could ride a DF on the trainer (I do have one set up) and just not grab the bars. I might work up to that.

I did a very brief session just to check the setup. I'm experimenting with Rouvy vs my usual Zwift so I wanted to get the trainer and various sensors paired and make sure everything worked since I hate having to stop in the middle of a ride and screw with something.

I rode one whole mile. I. Got. Nothing. Hopefully better days ahead.My plan is to ride the trainer exclusively for at least a week and then perhaps venture out on the roads, all on the recumbent.

After the end of October I can "resume normal activities". I don't reckon this means resuming my Mr Olympia weight training but presumably does remove the 8 pound lifting restriction, I'll be able to bend, etc. He also said I could start core strengthening (planks and bridges). I may wait a bit on that and only "turn one knob" at a time.

Stay tuned!

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

6 weeks post microdiscectomy report

Despite the fact that I've wavered about whether or not to talk about non-cycling things in this blog I'm writing this mostly to chronicle my own experience but also because a few people that are considering similar surgeries have asked me to continue to post my experience.

As intro, here's my normal daily routine:

  1. When I first wake up, I lay in bed for a while and do a "self-assessment". How badly do I hurt? Any sciatic symptoms? This seems to be the time of day when I can get the most consistent measure of how I'm doing. This also has the advantage of my being fully awake before I get out of bed so I don't inadvertently twist or bend.
  2. Have breakfast then take my morning walk. This is usually my longest walk of the day and six weeks on I've worked up to 2 miles.
  3. Take a second walk in the late afternoon, usually a mile or so.

Interspersed with this is normal (limited) activities: walking around the house, back and forth to my workshop, etc.  I typically walk between 7,500 to 11,000 steps per day. Aside from a small amount of stretching (calf and hamstrings) this is my only activity.

So how do things stand?

On balance, I'm certainly better than I was in the first few weeks. Having said that, I'm most definitely not better than I was pre-surgery:

  1. My self assessment this morning was some tingling in my toes and tightness in my calf.
  2. As I write this, the tingling is a bit worse and my back aches both in my spine and my low back muscles. On the 1-10 pain scale I'd put it at a solid 2 - not debilitating but it hurts.
  3. Experience says that these symptoms will get worse over the course of the day. I start my morning walk with a bit of numbness as described above but walk with a normal heel to toe stride. By the end of my walk, my forefoot is numb and I've got a slight limp.
  4. Typically by the end of the day my back really aches, pain level has gone up at least to a 3 or 4 depending on what I've done during the day.
  5. I've got nothing for core strength and I've gained 15 lbs in 2020. It's likely that the loss of core strength has at least something to do with my ongoing back pain, in particular the low back muscles. 
  6. Bending or twisting even a small amount results in sciatic and low back pain. I still can't put on my own socks. Washing and drying my feet while showering always results in my foot being numb and my back hurting. I try hard when doing these things to "bring the work to me" and not bend but a small amount of bending is unavoidable.
  7. Overall, I'm really fragile. It takes nothing to get my back really hurting or provoke more significant sciatica. For example, this morning I sat on the steps to put my shoes on and leaned back against a step behind me. I'm really hurting.

As I've said previously, overall I've been a "model" patient and have followed the post-surgical protocol mostly to the letter. I have done small amounts of bending and twisting but on reflection I think that was actually a good thing. I've looked at a ton of web sites detailing post-microdiscectomy treatment and they uniformly say no bending and twisting. It occurred to me though that if this were really bad they'd likely suggest or prescribe a brace and none of them do. My conclusion is that some movement promotes healing.


No, I've not been doing that. More like standing at the kitchen counter and turning to pick up the pepper shaker.

So that's it. Was having the surgery worth it? Hopefully it is still too early to make a definitive statement. If this is as good as it gets though, the answer is no.

My 6 week post-surgical exam is tomorrow. I'm hoping that I'll be cleared to ride on the trainer and will be able to start PT to rebuild some flexibility and core strength.

Stay tuned!

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Clipping my wings?

Since I don't have much else to do, I've been thinking about what life might be like in the future. I've read in a number of places that people who have had back surgery put rather severe restrictions on themselves in terms of what they even try to do. Given the risk of recurrence and also the fact that other options (disc replacement, fusion, etc) are much more invasive with a much lower probability of success, this seems prudent.

Which brings me to my idle musing. When I travel with the bike, I always say that "it's all about the first mile and the last mile". By that I mean that once everything is loaded in the car or headed down the luggage ramp at the airport it doesn't really matter how long the trip is. Likewise, once you arrive at your destination the only segment that matters is the interval between arrival and your final location.

When I travel for a long brevet, if I'm flying I typically have three bags: my bike, my luggage and a small backpack. The bike plus case usually just makes the weight limit of 50 pounds. The luggage varies depending on the brevet, the time of year, what other travel I might be doing, etc., but typically weighs 40 plus pounds. The backpack is usually in the 5-10 pound range again depending on whatever else is on the itinerary and time of year.

So a "deep dive" into the logistics. 

Some of this can be handled with the suitable application of $$ but some can't. When I load everything into the car, I can have Marcia help so I'm only lifting about half the weight - 25 pounds with some associated bending and twisting. Likewise when she drops me off at the airport (assuming she's not coming with me). Alternatively, I can pay someone at the airport to handle my bags and take them to check-in. Money well spent.

But on arrival, especially internationally, I don't recall baggage handlers being able to be inside the customs area. Maybe they are but I don't ever remember seeing them. Let's be optimistic and assume there is someone to lift the bag off the luggage carousel at regular baggage and oversize and escort them and me to the customs area.

And then there are the occasional airport transfers. Arrival at LAX on an international flight goes: pick up your luggage, clear customs, haul it to the transfer area, put it on a luggage cart or carousel.

Then the vagaries of car rental or maybe even worse, being picked up by friends. Frankly, I'd feel like a total schmuck imposing on friends who've already driven to the airport to pick me up by standing by while they loaded my bags. So once again I'd most likely either help or do it myself. Likewise when we get to wherever we're going. I hate being that much of a burden.

Domestic rides are somewhat easier. I have only the bike to lift (no case) and can have help doing that if needed. 

And of course if I'm riding a recumbent life gets even more complicated. Bike is heavier, doesn't pack as well, case is larger and therefore heavier, you get the idea.

What does this all mean? I don't know really. Maybe the artificial limit I put on myself is just that: artificial and that with the appropriate post-Op PT and strengthening I'll be dead lifting VW's. 

I know at this point, I find the prospect of further back injury pretty terrifying. I've read accounts of people that go through one surgery after another gradually working their way up their entire spine replacing discs, having fusions, etc., ultimately to no avail as they're still in pain. Obviously these are "worst case" scenarios that I hope to avoid with a reasonable amount of caution. This doomsday scenario also seems unlikely for me because other than the L5/S1, MRI's show my back is in pretty good shape.

Having said that though, the L5/S1 microdiscectomy has been the first step on a slippery slope for some people. They re-herniate the disc and aren't candidates for a disc replacement (various reasons for this) so they have a fusion. Because of that, they're less flexible and put more stress on the next vertebra. Herniate that, microdiscectomy->fusion-> and so on up the spinal cord.

So is air travel a thing of the past? Am I being overly paranoid?

Stay tuned!


Tuesday, September 29, 2020

An update, the kindness of friends and 2021 musings

It's been rather a bad week and to be honest I don't know why. I know from previous experience that recovery from surgery is non-linear - you have a few good days then a few bad days for no apparent reason.

Having said that, this is still mysterious. Being as critical a grader as I can be, I'd say my performance as a patient has been B+/A-. I really am trying hard to follow the RX protocol. But I've really been hurting for the past week. I've been having sharp, stabbing pains in my back and various sciatic symptoms. I've literally not been doing anything other than my twice or thrice daily walks and short rides in the car - no lifting, bending, twisting, etc. I'm hyper careful getting in and out of bed to avoid twisting and I "log roll" when turning in bed.

So I'm puzzled. Of course there's nothing to be done about it but still I can't help but wonder what's going on. My overall pain level and symptoms are definitely worse than pre-surgery, bad enough that I've had to take pain meds a couple of days. Time will tell I suppose.

As I've noted ("whined about" would be more accurate) in the past, I continue to be bored and rather low. No "pity party", just a fact. It's hard waking up in the morning with literally nothing to do all day, nothing to do tomorrow, the next day, ... And yes, there are things I could do, even within my severely limited capabilities but an endless series of small chores isn't exactly fun and certainly nothing to look forward to.

In "normal times", Marcia and I would travel, even if it was only for a few days, but these aren't normal times so here we sit. It's well past getting tiresome.

I've been filling the time with lots of RBA related chores. I took over the defunct Quad Cities region and have been setting up a web site (www.qcrandonneurs.org for those who are interested), putting together the 2021 brevet schedule for both regions, etc. Keeping in mind that I'm not supposed to sit for more than about 30 minutes, this has taken a while. I work on it for a bit, get up and walk around or do something else, work on it for a bit... 

One bright spot though has been friends from around the world checking in periodically to see how I'm doing. I'm touched that they're thinking of me. I feel like I'm letting them down by not having something more positive to say than "about the same" or "a little worse" but that's the way it is. I'm grateful for their thoughtfulness and concern.

Given all the spare cycles I have, I've been thinking about cycling (see what I did there?). As I've said in the past, pre-surgery the recumbent was noticeably easier on my back and I'm planning on riding it on the trainer when I'm cleared to ride. I've been thinking that it might be best to ride it exclusively for a prolonged period of time, perhaps all year next year, to let my back fully recover. I'm not sure yet that's what I'm going to do since it has a number of follow-on implications but I have been thinking about it.

I've had surgery on my shoulder twice. Most recently, I had AC reconstruction surgery about 5 years ago which called for almost three months of no use of my arm at all - I spent six weeks with it strapped to my waist. It was two full years before I could objectively say my shoulder was better than it was before the surgery. It's still not "perfect" but over a longer arc of time having the surgery was the right thing to do. 

Given that experience, I'm thinking that perhaps not putting my back under additional stress by trying to do long rides on the diamond frame might be wise. Maybe 2021 is "The Year of the Bent" and I'll resume riding a regular bike in 2022.

Stay tuned!

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

30 days gone by

Seems like an eternity but yesterday marked 4 weeks post surgery so I thought I'd take stock of where things stand.

When friends have asked how things were going with the recovery my response for the last few weeks has been "about the same" and that's mostly true. I would have to say that I'm neither better nor worse than I was pre-surgery: toes/forefoot still tingling or numb depending on what I do, back ranging from sore to outright painful also depending on what I do. It doesn't seem to take much at all to evoke an "electric shock" of pain down my whole leg. Turning over in bed and lifting my leg rather than doing a "log roll" will do it (tough to go back to sleep after that) and although I do try hard to be careful when I move in bed, I sometimes turn in my sleep.

I guess I'm making progress but it's like watching paint dry: you know it's happening but it's happening so slowly it's imperceptible. In this case, I don't know it's happening but I sure hope it is. I remain rather terrified that either by doing something I shouldn't (walking too far, bending too much, lifting too much, etc) I'm going to undo any benefit I might have had from the surgery. I've read numerous accounts on the internet of microdiscectomy recovery and they range from hopeful to terrifying with most trending toward the latter. I keep in mind that it's generally the case that the only people who post restaurant reviews on the internet are those who found a hair in their soup but the accounts are still alarming. I hope this narrative has a happier conclusion.

I'm really fragile. It doesn't take much to get me really hurting. For example, two days ago I decided on a change of venue for my morning walk and went out to the Kickapoo Nature Preserve. I'd never walked there before and they didn't have any trail maps so I just headed out. I've got a good sense of direction so when I'd gone as far as I wanted to go and there was a trail that headed back in the direction of the visitor center, I took it. It dead ended on top of a hill. I retraced my route and saw another trail that I'd passed that also went in the direction of the visitor center. It was a loop that went around the hill I'd just climbed. Long story short, I ended up walking 3.3 rather hilly miles rather than my usual flat 2 miles. Here are a few pictures I took while wandering about.







 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, I really hurt. I stopped taking opiates about two weeks ago but I gave in and took one during the day and another at night in addition to repeated icing sessions. I'm a little bit better today but am going to spend the day sitting around.

And on that topic, I continue to be bored stiff. I've exhausted all of the little tasks I can do and really, keeping yourself occupied isn't the same as doing something "fun" so my days are rather joyless. This is obviously made worse by Covid-19. In "normal" times we'd undoubtedly take a short trip (I can be a passenger for 30-40 minutes before I need to stop and move about) but we don't want to incur the additional risk of restaurants, hotels, etc.

Our plans have changed with respect to the winter as well. We were thinking we'd stay here over the winter but I've been effectively "snowed in" since June 8. I just can't face not being able to ride outdoors until March or April. So we're going to go to Texas again this winter. We'll do what we did when we returned earlier this year: pack the car with food/drink for the drive and go straight through alternating drivers as needed. 

Once we're there, the situation is much like here. We don't eat out and our only exposure is going to the grocery store. In a worst case scenario, should something happen that either of us required hospital care (bike accident or something else), I've checked the neighboring hospitals and they seem to have capacity. I'll check again before we go.

My post surgery follow-up visit is in two weeks at which point I'm hoping to be cleared to ride, at least on the recumbent on the trainer. I said in posts pre-surgery that I was hoping to be able to do that three weeks post surgery but there's NFW that I should or could have done that. I'm just hoping that I can in two more weeks.

Stay tuned!

Monday, September 14, 2020

A trip down memory lane

I remember doing the Time Warp.
Drinking those moments when
The blackness would hit me.
And the void would be calling.
Let's do the Time Warp again.

"The Time Warp", Rocky Horror Picture Show

 A conundrum. This blog is supposed to mostly be about cycling and I'm not cycling.

What to do?

What everyone does when their best is behind them regardless of whether it's temporary or permanent: relive past glory!

One of the things that I don't like about the blog format is it's linear. You can't go back and add posts in the middle of 2015 so if there's an event you want to write about and don't have time about all you can do is post a place holder and get back to it. (N.B. I'm still whittling at my London Edinburgh London 2017 ride report, I'm just using a very small knife).

One victim of this format is my first 1200K - Endless Mountains - which I completed in 2013 which also happened to be my first year randonneuring. As I've said a number of times here, I was a long time rider and had ridden 10K miles/year for a lot of years before I started randonneuring but finally decided to give it a go in 2013. I was in pretty good shape that year and did a Super Randonneur series in the Spring. 

I also did a "RAGBRAI double crossing" in July where I rode from the eastern border of Iowa out to the start of RAGBRAI on the western border then turned around and rode back. Although the daily RAGBRAI regimen was shorter, I did 100+ miles per day for 11 days in a row so, as I said, I was in pretty good shape and decided to do my first 1200K.

When I told friends I was thinking about doing Endless Mountains, which featured somewhere between 45-55K feet of climbing they questioned my sanity. My response was that either I'd finish or it'd cure me of the desire to do a 1200K.

I finished.

So, a little over 7 years later, here's the story. This is taken from an email report I sent to friends at the time which I've taken the liberty of editing for clarity. One advantage to this retrospective view is that I can comment on a few things that didn't seem noteworthy in the initial ride report. In particular, I made a number of friendships that persist to this day including Dan Diehn, Mike Fox, Mark Thomas, Vinnie Muoneke, Joel Lawrence, Mark Olsen, Bill Olsen and John Pearch. I would ride with all of them again in the future, I just didn't know it then.

Well, to get this one out of the way right off, it was hilly. How hilly? Well, here are a few “highlights”:

  • Fox Gap. This was at about mile 60 on the first day and it's a damned good thing. If it was on day three I'd have been handing somebody my brevet card. Five miles at what seemed like a near constant 14%.
  • Two big climbs on day two, both more than three miles long and with gradients of 12%-18%, never less.
  • Three big climbs on day three but two that really stand out. The first one was three miles of 12%-15% topped off by about two tenths of a mile at 22%. There was a secret control at the top of this one. The second one was four miles at a near constant 14%.
  • One big climb on day four. This was at mile 700 or so and, needless to say, everybody was pretty tired. 1.75 miles at a near constant 14% topped off by .2 of 18%. I stopped for a few seconds at the top and my leg muscles were quivering and a LOT of people either did the mailman or walked on this one. See my discussion on gearing later on. Norm and I agreed that if there were a secret control at the top of this one whoever was manning it would've gotten their ass kicked but no one was there.

These were in addition to lots of hills that were “only” 8%-10%. The descents were pretty damned amazing but there were very few where you could “let it go”, they either had a 90 degree turn at the bottom or were very heavily potholed. One at mile 92 on the first day had so many holes, cracks and crevices it had me on the brakes literally all the way down and I was really worried I was going to blow a tire due to overheating the rim but fortunately I didn't. My top speed for the event was 52 MPH, I'm sure I could have gone faster but there was a limit to how fast I was willing to go on unfamiliar roads.

Having said all that, the course was very beautiful. Sections that stand out:

  • Long sections along the Delaware river. Old mills, stone houses, beautiful scenery.
  • The town of Tioga (NY?) had lots of beautiful old mansions with signs out front of who had lived there.
  • The “Hawks Nest” a long climb through a rocky river gorge with a beautiful view at the top.
  • Lots of rolling farmland, very similar to Wisconsin.

Climbing to the Hawks Nest
The ride

As is usually the case, I couldn't sleep the night before the start and got about two hours or so. This was worrisome as I knew I wouldn't be getting a whole lot of sleep over the next few days but wasn't unexpected.

I had put together a spreadsheet that estimated average speed, time at the controls and arrival times at each control and overnight. On the first day, I rode mostly by myself until the end of the day when I hooked up with Norm Smeal and Don Jagel. As a result of riding by myself for most of the day, I arrived at the first overnight within 10 minutes of my plan. Norm, Don and I agreed to ride together on the second day and set a start time of 4 AM. I was in bed by 11:45 and up at 2:45 so three hours sleep.

Now I admit I'm more punctual than most but when I say “start at 4 AM” I mean “ready to clip in and start pushing the pedals at 4 AM”. Apparently to Norm and Don it meant “be downstairs with your bike but having breakfast at 4 AM”. I debated going on and if I had to do it over again I would have but I decided to wait. I ended up riding with Norm for the rest of the ride and, once again, if I had it to do over again I would just have ridden at my own pace and perhaps hooked up with someone during the night sections but not tried to stay together with someone all day. It turned out Don was nursing a little tendonitis so he dropped back after less than 20 miles and Norm basically wanted to do a sit down meal at every control so we took 40 minutes minimum at each control. Since the overnights were fixed this didn't affect my finish time except on the last day, it only meant I got less sleep. Who knows how it would have played out had I ridden by myself? Perhaps I'd have pushed harder than I should have and blown up and the longer breaks worked in my favor but it could also be argued that if I'd have gotten two hours more sleep every night I'd have been fresher.

At any rate, as I said I rode with Norm the rest of the way. For the most part, we were evenly matched on pace except for the last day when I had to wait for him a lot but we weren't matched on the desired length of times at the controls. The biggest reason I decided to wait was to have someone to ride with at night. It turned out that on the second day there's a big climb about 40 miles from the finish, he cramped at the very start of it and told me to go on because he wanted to stretch and I rode the last 40 miles by myself anyway... I got in at 2345 and in bed by 0045, up at 0245 so two hours sleep.

On the third day, we once again “started” at 0400 which meant we started pedaling at about 4:35 or so. Norm had forgotten his USB charger for his Garmin so I loaned him an extra to use on the second overnight. This turned out to be a mistake as it changed my morning routine and as a result the next morning I forgot to move the USB cable from the charger to my jersey pocket so I'd be able to use it to recharge the Garmin during the day. About 60 miles in it was apparent that there was no way it was going to make it all day. Norm's feet were blistering so we decided to go off course to a Wal Mart so he could get some moleskin and I could get a USB. The ride there was miserable on a narrow road with lots of traffic and it turned out they didn't have the USB cable I needed anyway (seriously Wal Mart? A friggin' mini USB cable and you don't have it?). I called Marcia and asked her to bring mine to the next control which she did. This cost us a few extra miles.

The third day was also the hottest so far and the two big day three climbs I mentioned were both in the afternoon. On the last of the two there was a very steep descent where you could actually let it run with a control at the bottom 2.1 miles away. I asked Norm (who had a rack bag with the cue sheet on top) three times what the control was (gas station, c-store, restaurant, …) and for some reason he didn't want to tell me. I should have pulled my cue sheet from my pocket and looked but didn't. There were two other guys at the top (Mike Fox and Dan Diehn), I started down and they followed. Long story short, we covered that 2.1 miles so fast it “seemed” like the Shell station we passed was too soon (I hadn't checked the mileage) so I blew past it figuring that between the three of them one would know which was the control and at worst I'd have to turn around and ride back a little.

Turned out they all followed me and we ended up riding about 4 miles (all downhill) past the control. I think they were pretty pissed but I cut off any complaining by saying “there were four guys with cue sheets in their pockets who passed the last control”. That pretty much shut everybody up.

The overnight on the third day was the same as the second (Lewisburg) and featured a long descent into town. On the second night it was fairly warm so no problem but on the third it was about 20 degrees cooler and I'd not packed knee warmers in my bag. The descent had long sections at 25 MPH then a brief part where you had to pedal and my legs would get really cold on the downhills and really hurt when I started pedaling again. Finally made it though and in bed about 0145.

Norm and I decided to “sleep in” on day four and get on the road at 0600 so I was up at 0445 (three hours sleep) and we left at about 0620. At the start Norm announced that he'd not packed his night gear. I thought “that seems risky” but since I'm not his Mom I didn't say anything. Day four included the really hard climb at 700 miles that I mentioned previously. Norm bailed about a quarter of the way up and walked the rest so I told him I'd finish the climb and wait for him at the bottom. It turned out I waited about ten minutes and the control was only another two miles. Norm was really dragging on day four, both riding slower and taking even more time at the controls but I figured since I wasn't really riding for a fast finish time and since we'd ridden that far together I'd stay with him.

I made one really good decision at the start of day four. I almost didn't pack any bag balm in my saddle bag thinking “it's only 139 miles, I won't need it” but at the last minute decided to put it in. We'd had two long sections of rain on previous days and I'd not brought a cover for my saddle (a Brooks Swift). As a result, the area where my “sit bones” go completely collapsed putting more pressure on the center of the saddle. As a result my “taint” was really sore. At about 50 miles in, it felt like someone was pressing a branding iron against me every pedal stroke. I stopped right there and put on some bag balm right on the side of the road (must have made one hell of a sight for passing cars!). Had I not packed it there's a good chance I would have DNF'd, been in misery to the next store where I could buy some vaseline or alternatively had Marcia bring bag balm to the next control. Glad I packed it.

As the day went on, it became increasingly clear that at the pace we were making we'd not finish before dark and Norm started sweating his decision not to pack his reflective gear. After a while he asked if Marcia could get into his drop bag and get his reflective gear and bring it to us at a control. I agreed to call her and ask and she said she would.

The rest of the ride was uneventful. I'm guessing that had I ridden by myself on the last day I'd have finished a number of hours earlier but I wasn't really riding for pace anyway and mostly wanted to just finish rather than get a fast time. As it was, I was the 15th finisher out of 28 starters.

The weather

We had two huge rainstorms. On the first one it rained for a really long time (about four hours) and pretty hard most of that time. We hit the second one at the very top of a long climb and it started to rain REALLY hard. As luck would have it, there was an old barn with the door open about 50 feet away so we stopped to put on rain jackets. This was really fortunate as it had gotten very cold and we had a long descent.

Overall though I have absolutely no complaints about the weather. Sure, it would have been great if it hadn't rained but the temperatures were relatively mild, no screaming headwinds to fight, no heat indexes in the 100's, etc.

The volunteers

Enough can't be said about the work the volunteers did. The ENTIRE 770 miles of the course was marked and marked very well. If you were attentive you could have thrown away the cue sheet and Garmin and just used the course markings. The logistics of marking every turn on a course of that length boggle the mind. At the overnights there was plenty of good food at night and in the morning. The volunteers were at some of the controls that weren't stores with snacks and water and one of them periodically showed up throughout the ride with a cooler of water and sodas and snacks. They were just awesome, there really isn't any other way of saying it and they made a hard ride much easier.

The rider

Overall, I was really happy with how I did. This was my first 1200K and it was a pretty damned hard one, maybe even the hardest, to do as a first one. I felt “good” the whole time, wasn't sleepy, didn't have any stomach issues (with one exception), had good energy and was able to ride strongly the entire distance. My ride average for each day was between my estimated 13 MPH and 14 MPH which I'm pretty happy with given all the climbing.

The only “stomach issue” I had was about 2200 every day I got a case of heartburn that would light up the sky. I kept thinking “pick up some antacids at the next stop” but there wouldn't be one between there and the overnight and I'd forget about it the next day. Lesson learned, next time some Tums in the bag.

The equipment

I pondered which bike from the stable to use for quite some time prior to the ride. I knew I wanted light weight and lots of gears given all the climbing so the candidates (in order of weight) were:
  • The Calfee with a Shimano compact double and a 34x32 as the easiest gear.
  • The Hampsten with a Campy triple and 30x29 as the easiest gear.
  • The Serotta Coors Team with a Shimano Dura Ace triple with a 30x32 as the easiest gear.
I ended up going with the Serotta but changing the front crankset to a Sugino with 48x36x26 gearing so my easiest gear was a 26x32. That's a lot of gears and I'm not at all ashamed to say I used 'em all. I didn't get down to the 26x32 very often but on that 22% after three miles of 12%-15% it sure came in handy (I was having a very hard time keeping the front wheel on the ground at that point).



Bike and rider before the start

I maintain my bikes pretty well and all three were ready to go. I put on a new chain (now toast), brake pads (now toast) and tires on the Serotta. For tires I used Vittoria Corsa 700x25's which some people complain are “flat prone”. No flats for the whole ride though I'll admit there were a lot of times I was riding along in pouring rain saying “please don't flat, please don't flat”. No mechanical issues whatsoever on the whole ride.

I brought two pairs of shoes and riding sandals. I alternated between the shoes but never did use the sandals because I'd have needed to change the pedals and I was just too tired at the end of the day to do it. Toward the last four hours or so of days 2-4 my feet (toes) hurt SO BAD it felt like someone had them in a vice and hitting a bump or going over railroad tracks almost reduced me to tears. Assuming I don't sell all my bikes and give this silly shit up, I may try sandals next time.

I used an eogear 6.8 (I also have an 8.0) and it was perfect: big enough to hold everything but not so big I was encouraged to carry a bunch of shit. Here's what I had in it:
  • Large multi-tool
  • Two tubes and tire levers
  • Spare derailleur cables
  • Rain jacket
  • Reflective vest and ankle bands
  • Night (day) glasses
  • Arm warmers
  • Knee warmers (except for when I needed them)
  • Bag balm (in a small vasoline jar)
  • Sandwich bag full of Hammer (half Perpetuem, half Sustained Energy)

For lights, I had two cheapo battery powered LED taillights and a Dinotte 300 tail light. I used one of the battery powered tail lights all the time, turned the second one on at night and kept the Dinotte in reserve. For headlights I had a dynamo powered (Son 28) Luxos U and a Dinotte XML3. For night riding, I mainly used the Luxos and switched on the Dinotte (which I had aimed farther out) as a “high beam” on steep descents. This worked really well and I never felt like I was outrunning my lights. The Luxos has two beam patterns, one of which is more penetrating and the second which is both the penetrating beam and a broad beam that lights the sides of the road. I was very happy with this lighting setup. I charged my Garmin during the day by connecting it to the port on the Luxos U. This also worked very well and brought it to full charge from 15% or so in about two hours.
 
I had a 70 oz Camelbak and two insulated bottles. Water in the Camelbak and 6 scoops of a mix of Perpetuem/Sustained Energy plus a big shot of Hammer Gel in one of the bottles and water in the other. This setup worked pretty well as I was able to switch between drinking the Hammer stuff and plain water and the Hammer Gel (Chocolate) made the Perpetuem/Sustained Energy combination taste better (like chocolate milk) so I could actually stand to keep drinking it.

So that's it. Overall I'm very happy with the performance of both man and machine and “enjoyed” the ride. I'm pretty darned proud of myself for finishing. Now to go work on those eBay bike listings.....



All done!

I also have to thank Marcia both for coming and for all of the support. She really did everything she could to make things easier on me by having things organized, filling bottles and Camelbak in the morning, reminding me not to forget things, etc. I know how hard it is to wake up in the middle of the night (on very little sleep), be very busy for a couple of hours and then try to go back to sleep. She did it with a smile and was waiting out front at the overnight control each night. No wonder she's the light of my life!
 
Epilogue (2020)
There was a lot of debate (dueling Garmins) over how much total elevation there was. Here's the data from Strava for the ride:
225.08 miles, 16:11 moving time, 13.9 mi/h moving average speed, 14,102 feet of climbing
222.81 miles, 15:50 moving time, 14.1 mi/h moving average speed, 9,476 feet of climbing
200.06 miles, 15:18 moving time, 13.1 mi/h moving average speed, 12,652 feet of climbing
139.52 miles, 10:28 moving time, 13.3 mi/h moving average speed, 8,965 feet of climbing
 
Totals:  787.47 miles, 45,195 feet of climbing



Sunday, September 13, 2020

Ain't misebehavin' - too much

 It's been a while since I updated the blog and I was reminded of that fact by a good friend so here's an update.

I'm writing this just short of three weeks post surgery. I guess I have to say day in, day out that I'm about the same as I was pre-surgery. Back sore, toes tingling, overdoing it even slightly results in whole foot numbness and sciatic pain in various places along my leg.

I've been trying hard to follow Doctors orders. The challenge is that I'm bored out of my mind and have basically done all of the small things that are clearly within my limited ability. I have been "bad" on a couple of occasions this week though:

  • I sold a bike and needed to ship it. I didn't have a box that fit and needed to cut down a bigger one. My wife doesn't have enough strength in her hands to do it so I did it. This involved much bending at the waist and some amount of twisting.  Then I needed to pack the bike which I did with Marcia's help. I really paid for it the next couple of days.
  • I had a graphics card fail in a computer (a Mac Pro). The computer in question is ten years old and probably needs replacing anyway but I'm not ready to do it yet, especially since a new one would involve a fair amount of lifting to unbox, get in place, etc. I had a lower resolution graphics card on hand so after I figured out that the graphics card was indeed bad - which meant pulling the computer out from beside the desk, lifting it up (with help from Marcia) onto the desk so I could pull the old graphics card out and put the new one in, putting it back in place, ... 

After these two activities I was really hurting, to the point that I was worried I'd done far too much and herniated the disc.

I called the UW Spine clinic and spoke to one of the surgical nurses. Long story short, I'd probably done no harm but was admonished to take it easy. I recapped all of my post surgical activities and pain levels and was completely forthcoming and honest. She suggested I cut back my walking to no more than a mile and that I definitely take it easier.

So I'm trying.

I've got three weeks until my first post-surgical exam and the RX was no aerobic activity, no lifting more than 5 lbs so I'm going to try very hard to religiously follow it for the next few weeks. I was thinking in the past that I'd try riding the recumbent on the trainer after three weeks but that's out the window. I'm just going to keep walking and not try to do too much, too soon. I really am worried that I'm going to undo any benefit I might get from the surgery and I definitely do not want to do that.

So I'll behave.

Stay tuned!

Saturday, September 5, 2020

A setback?

I hurt. A lot.

As I noted previously, I'm trying pretty hard to be the model patient and adhere closely to the post surgical RX. As also noted, I've been weaning myself off the pain meds and haven't been taking anything stronger than ibuprofen and am trying to reduce my intake of that.

Yesterday and today my back hurts - pain focused specifically in my lower back - and I have significant nerve involvement with sciatic pain in my hamstring and calf as well as numbness in my foot.

OK, as I confessed previously, I *have* done some inadvertent bending/twisting but not really a lot of that and it doesn't seem as though I've done enough to upset the apple cart to this degree. I really am trying hard not to do it and it's only the occasional slip, it's not like I'm doing toe touches or anything. I've been extra careful not to lift anything heavy. Ten pounds is the limit and I've not even come close to that.

I have been trying to increase the distance I've been walking up to about two miles. I've been doing a single long walk coupled of course with normal around the house/yard walking. Here's my step count post surgery:

 

As I said in my initial blog after the surgery, I did a long walk the first day post surgery and that was a mistake. Couple of easy days then a gradual build to a longer day followed by a shorter one.

Nothing crazy there, or at least it doesn't seem crazy and yet I really hurt. Is that the cause? Darned if I know.

I'm really puzzled and hope I've not done anything that's undone any benefit I might have gotten from the surgery. That seems unlikely but I just don't know.

At this point, I'm going to try multiple shorter walks, 1/2 mile or so, and see how that goes.

Obligatory cycling content: I love riding in the fall in Wisconsin. It's my favorite time of year - cool, crisp days, clear skies, low humidity, generally light winds. Today is a case in point, a real stunner. 70 degrees, bright sunshine, barely a breath of wind. Really painful not to be able to ride. 

Stay tuned!

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Another update - man overbored!

This will likely come across as a bit of a pity party but it's really not.

Here's the update after a week.

As noted previously, I took the dressing off and it's fairly obvious why my back is hurting. I have a 4" square area in my back that's a beautiful black and blue. The first 2-3 days after the surgery the wound itself hurt but now it's back to "normal" back pain with some amount of sciatica. It doesn't take much at all to provoke either e.g., bending at the waist slightly to get in/out of the car and it really hurts when I do that.

I'm trying really hard to be the "model" patient and follow the post-surgical advice which is:

  1. No lifting over 10 pounds.
  2. No bending or twisting.
  3. No aerobic activity.
  4. Walk 3x daily.

Have you ever tried not to bend at the waist? I mean seriously, it's really hard! I find myself doing it without even thinking about it. Bending down to scratch my ankle, drop something and bend to pick it up, etc. I've spent my whole life bending at the waist and it's really hard to just stop. I'm doing my best though because doing it really makes my back hurt.

My first walk post surgery I did too much (2 miles) and really paid for it. Went full on narcotics the next day to deal with the pain. Since then, I've been trying to wean myself off the narcotics. At first, this was ibuprofen during the day with the hard stuff in the evening so I could sleep. I've now (today) tried to go "cold turkey" but it didn't go particularly well. Mid-day after a two mile walk my back was really hurting so I did an ice pack and took an ibuprofen. 

It's been surprising to me how little I'm able to walk without pain and how much my back hurts. I was expecting 2-5 days of pain but we're at 8 days now and it still hurts quite a bit and takes nothing to invoke both back and sciatic pain. I'm hoping this is residual to the surgery and will fade with time.

On to the pity party.

I'm bored. I mean really bored. To put this into perspective, I've ridden 10K miles or more every single year for a long, long time. That's 200+ miles per week average. That's 50 miles at least 4 days or more usually 40 miles 5 days per week. That's 3-4 hours on the bike, 5 days a week. My normal day is get up, have something to eat, head out to ride for 2-5 hours, come back, stretch/exercise, shower, eat and lo and behold it's 14:00. My big problem in the past has been there's so little time left in the day that it's hard to do more than one other thing each day.

But now, I've got gobs of time on my hands and I'm physically unable to do much of anything. It's rather amazing how limiting my post-surgical restrictions are. 

So I get up in the morning and I've literally got nothing to do all day.

I've been doing a bunch of small chores - sharpening drill bits, sorting inner tubes, straightening up the work bench, stuff like that. The thing is though there's only so much of that to do. I've also been doing a lot of reading. I'm starting to play piano a bit. On this note (see what I did there?) I really suck. I always say "there's nothing worse than a remembered skill" and boy is it true. I used to play Rachmaninoff, now I play chopsticks. Badly. I honestly don't know if I'll be able to stick with it but it's something to do. 

For your listening pleasure, here's me playing BITD. It's ironic that it's kind of a New Age piece and I mostly played classical but I heard it somewhere, liked it enough to buy the sheet music and record it. Note that I couldn't play this again now to save my life:

Nature's Fury

For reference, this was recorded on my Mason & Hamlin BB which I hardly ever touch now. I sit down and play a few scales (badly), am disgusted and get up after a few minutes. Part of the problem is I have serious damage to my left hand from a bike accident (what else?) at the Taste of Carolina in 2013. I fell on a wet steel grated bridge, broke both of my thumbs and did ligament damage to my ring finger and thumb in my left hand so I have no stretch in that hand (I used to be able to play a clean 10th) nor do I have any strength in it. Regular readers will also recall I've got issues with both hands from nerve impingement in my neck.

I'm hoping that three weeks post surgery (which, bear in mind, is 2 weeks away), I'll be able to ride the recumbent on the trainer. My wife and the surgeon had a discussion about this post surgery and TBH, he wasn't too warm for the idea. I think he's got a bit of a misconception about the position on the recumbent so my plan is to do a rigorous self-assessment in two weeks and, if I feel I'm able, do easy spinning on the recumbent on the trainer.

My hope after then is that I can ride the recumbent on the trainer and perhaps the DF in a full upright position from 3-6 weeks post surgery then go in for my follow-up at which point I'll be cleared (hopefully) to ride on the roads. I hope to be able to get a bit of riding in on the DF before the weather goes to hell. This will be mid-October so it should be possible to get 4-6 weeks of riding in outdoors.

Stay tuned!

Sunday, August 30, 2020

Another post-surgery update

Five days post surgery. Here's what's going on.

I've really been hurting. A lot. Initially it felt as though it was from the surgery itself, the wound and area surround it hurt. As an aside, if you were to examine just about every chair ever made and put an X on the exact center of the lumbar support, that's where the incision is. So it really hurts to sit in just about every chair ever made.

But five days on, it feels like more normal "back pain", it really hurts a lot worse than it did pre-surgery though. I also have some pretty significant sciatic symptoms, as bad or worse than pre-surgery.

I've been avoiding high strength pain meds as much as I can but there were a couple of days where I just couldn't stand it and gave in. I'm now on a more reduced regimen, only take the stronger stuff before bedtime so I can sleep. Ibuprofen during the day along with the other stuff I'm supposed to take.

I'm obviously a bit concerned about the back pain and sciatic symptoms. I do know that during the surgery they shove the nerve out of the way so they can get to the bulging disc. There's a fairly graphic video of someone doing the microdiscectomy so I know exactly what happened. So I'm hopeful that the symptoms I'm experiencing are a result of that and will fade with time.

In other news, now that 5 days have elapsed I can take a shower - yay! Sponge baths have their place but only for a while. 

I've been walking. Short distances (.5-1 mile) seem to be about all I can manage. I made a mistake and walked two miles the day after surgery - definitely too much, too soon.

Other than that, I've been puttering around the house. One project I finally got underway was to scan some old photos. I scanned our own photo library several years ago, more than 10K photos and it sure took a while! This latest batch is from one of my Aunts and includes pictures from when my Mom was young, my extended family and German ancestors. Here's one from the batch:


I think we can objectively agree on two things: (1) I was a cute baby. (2) It went south from there.

Here's a shot of my maternal Grandparents (on the right) on their wedding day:


Both now deceased. They lived into their 90's and lived at home until shortly before their deaths. My Grandfather died first and my Grandmother shortly after.

That's all for now.

Stay tuned!