A lot has been going on lately so not much time for updates. I did realize a while back that the 6 month post surgery milestone has come and gone and have been asked by several friends "how's it going" so I guess I'm overdue.
So how's it going?
There are two dimensions to that answer:
- How is my back specifically?
- How am I progressing toward "normal" riding and doing brevets?
My back has progressed quite a bit since my last report. I would say most of the pain that I have now is caused by muscle soreness from disuse for several months. I do still have occasional (and significant) pain centered at the S1 but it's usually the result of something "new" i.e., more stress (lifting something heavy), stretching, etc.
My left foot is numb at the forefoot and left three toes. What's puzzling about this is this can be made worse with hard activity. I'm not surprised that there's residual numbness, nerves take a long time to regenerate and sometimes never do. What is puzzling though is that it can be made worse. My chain of reasoning goes like this:
- The numbness was caused by the bulging disc pressing on the sciatic nerve root at the S1.
- The surgery whacked off the part of the disc that was pressing on the nerve - it's gone - as revealed by a post surgical MRI.
- So if there's nothing pressing on the sciatic nerve, how does e.g., lifting something heavy, make it worse?
According to my surgeon, there is a 5% probability of reherniation in the first 6 weeks post surgery and I'm well past that. In fact, in my last follow up I literally couldn't get him to say "don't do that". The conversation went like this:
- Me: can I do strengthening/stretching e.g., planks?
- Surgeon: Sure
- Me: can I do hill repeats, hard sprints, etc?
- Surgeon: Go for it
- Me: can I dead lift the front end of a '57 Chevy?
- Surgeon: all day long
OK, I made that last one up but the point is I'm cleared to do anything within reason and a few things that I thought might have been off limits (hill repeats/hard sprints) so I'm nonplussed that e.g., a hard sprint or sustained hard climb will result in increase numbness in my foot. There's not much to be done about it and I hope that it improves with time but I do find it puzzling.
I've lost a significant amount of flexibility due to the surgery and resulting dictum not to bend or twist for 6 weeks. I'm working on regaining it (see below) but progress is slow. I used to be able to bend over and put palms flat on the floor at any time, now I can barely reach my ankles and even that with a slow warmup.
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| Snowmageddon |
In truth, not all that well. I'm well behind where I was hoping to be on all three axis (weight, distance, intensity). We were caught up in "snowmageddon" in Central Texas which resulted in 10 days of basically sitting in a hotel room, eating restaurant food (take out) three meals a day and staring at the walls. It was so icy we couldn't even walk. We finally said "screw it" and returned home and I've been dismayed by not only how much weight I gained but also by how much riding hurts. I'd worked through to the point that I could do 30-40 miles at JRA pace without suffering too much and I'd done several rides of 60+ miles but that's a distant memory now. Every ride, at any pace, just hurts.
So back at it. I've also thrown increased stretching (specifically aimed at my back, glutes and hamstrings) and some upper body work into the mix so the net is I hurt all over, all the time. I'm dieting (no beer, sigh) and have lost 6 lbs but all that's really accomplished is I lost the weight I gained sitting in the hotel room (I'm a mediocre cyclist but world class at weight gain).
My first brevet, a 200K, is on April 17 in the Quad Cities so I have about 6 weeks to get into some kind of shape. Right now 200K seems impossibly far and I think I'm in for a "season of suffering" as I try to increase the distance. I usually come into brevet season (April) with 3-4K miles in my legs and this year it's going to be more like 1,500 with no rides longer than (hopefully) a century although even that sounds daunting.
Stay tuned!
