jyl

Because a gentleman never says anything about a lady that is other than complimentary.

noglider 

Quite right. I tell my wife she is beautiful every single day, and I find a new way to say it. And I make sure to mean it. If I don't like her hair or whatever, I don't say it.

jyl, I hope you find that this road back is not as long as you think. I think that will be the case.

jyl

Okay, any reports from The Long Road Back (TM)?

We've been throwing our legs over our lugged steel bikes (obligatory C&V content) and getting back in fitness and form, right?

I've finished my second week of bike commuting, things are getting a little better, I'm still a shadow of my former self - a shadow that looks like a blimp - but I think if I met a little kid on a tricycle I could probably drop him now, at least if it is an average little kid and no aero tricks on the tricycle.

Standalone 

I'm learning the feeling of missing riding. Crashed out by another rider on a critical mass ride - my elbow is trashed pretty badly and I can't put weight on a handlebar or grab a brake. Recumbent is not really a good option on this busy urban streetscape. My body is softening (wife is a great cook; I'm not about to give that up!) and my mind is stressing.

It will be a long road back!

Best wishes on yours.

bikemig 

Great post. Yeah I got out of shape a few years ago. I started to get back into shape by commuting as well.

uncle uncle

Are we all old and broken in some manner or another? Had lower back issues (slipping discs and narrowing cushioning between them) and just struggled getting on a bike last summer. Seems like every other ride left me with crippling back pain. I really don't have much of a choice though... either keep the back and core muscles strong, or suffer back pain constantly. Dependency on drugs scares me. So, I need to stay in shape somehow. And, biking, if done correctly (and not overdone too quickly, that's my Achilles heel) can be great for that. Swimming some over the winter months reduced the depth of my valley, but this spring has been humbling on the bike. Their going to have to hide my bikes to get me to quit altogether... but I think I have 30 or so more years in these legs.

Andy_K 

I thought I was doing well. I rode 35 miles last weekend, rode to work two and a half days this week and then went out for a 45 mile ride today, but about 35 miles into today's ride I crashed (as @gugie reported in another thread). I was planning to go for a short ride tomorrow, but that seems pretty unlikely at the moment. Hopefully Monday or Tuesday I'll be able to take an easy cruise in to work.

gugie 

Yes. Except there are a few forum members who are young and broken in some manner.

@Andy_K is far along Long Road Back (TM). He descends and rides the flats like a true roleur. I resemble that remark as well. We stopped about halfway through the ride for a quick break from pounding the pedals and discussed @jyl's condition. We both agreed that just about anyone with a modicum of fitness (not in a wheelchair, not on oxygen, less than a pack of day of smokes) could start riding today and be ready for a century in 6 months if they wanted to do it. With jyl's muscle memory, quiver of bikes, and love of the suffering, I predict a much shorter Long Road Back (TM). I'm guessing 5 1/2 months, tops.

As an incentive, Mr. K mentioned a PDX S240 sometime in the near future. We could leave after work on a Friday, take Trimet out to Gresham, and ride out to some campsite out on The Gorge, or maybe the other direction. Bring stuff to cook, a coupla flasks of whiskey, ride back in the morning. All we'd have to do is pick a dry weekend.

Yeah, right, sometime in July...

clubman 

I'm in. Knee replacement has left me unable to spin cranks over 150 mm and has left my muscles atrophied. I've picked up 4 pair of cranks ranging from 127 mm to 150 and will be slowly working my way back this year. Too bad my commute is .5 kms.

johnnyace 

Welcome back to the saddle! I look forward to getting up PDX-way some more to ride and socialize with folks; had a great time (and ride, despite my crash) when nlerner was in town recently.

SJX426 

@jyl - You asked for updates. This last 6 months I have been more aggressive towards riding more. I would like to break my 3200 mile record of last year so I have been riding in the cold. Wow has my average dropped. Aches and pains increased too. I was really discouraged because I was expecting gains, not losses.

Week before last the weather got a bit warmer, high 30's, low 40's in the morning with little chance of showers. I decided it was time to switch from the RockHopper to the Pinarello. Big difference in MPH avg., 3-4 mph. Don't know why. Still had a couple of sore muscles in the left thigh, so backed off.

This last week was great! It was like I broke through a wall. better endurance and no soreness with a slight increase in avg. mph but same cruising speed. So good a 3.5 mile loop was added Friday afternoon with no ill effects. I am looking forward to this weeks rides! I think I am about 4 months ahead of last year. This year should be interesting.

Recently saw the movie "Rising from ashes." Inspirational. Jacques “Jock” Boyer stated that if you are not experiencing pain, you are not a cyclist, or some such statement. It is true for me. There is always room for improvement which usually includes some discomfort. If I don't feel it, then I feel guilty about not trying harder. I don't judge others against my standards or anyone else's. We each have our own. Keep up the good experiences of accomplishment and success in your riding efforts. I applaud you!

gugie 

Last two rides I've done that weren't solitaire someone crashed.

Stay away from me, I'm bad luck!

BTW, the day you went down at 0.5 mph my wife was driving by in the other direction and saw our little gaggle, wondering what the heck were those guys doing?

merziac

Well between eroica, 1 ride to work and a 5mi. ride today, I have ridden further in the last week, than the last 2mos. before that.

ollo_ollo

Pretty much describes me. After an unusually cold/wet Winter, I made a good start on the road back with a good March, but was laid low with the flu for 1 & 1/2 weeks to start April. Yesterday was beautiful, so I got in a good ride. Happy to report I rode up "Hospital Hill" here in town without any of the huffing & gasping of early March. Don

noglider 

Quote:

Originally Posted by uncle uncle

Are we all old and broken in some manner or another?

Possibly. When we reach a certain age, we know we are doing well when the pain we feel in the morning is a different pain than the pain we felt yesterday morning.

Andy_K 

I'm starting to do better in terms of distance, but I'm still pathetically slow. I started biking regularly about 10 years ago after 20 years of leading a purely sedentary lifestyle. I think my average speeds now are around where they were 9 years ago.

I was a bit nervous getting back on the bike after this weekend's crash because of the road rash and bruising, but I've done 6-mile rides to work the past two days and have been surprised to discover that riding the bike at a moderate pace is slightly less uncomfortable than walking or sitting in a chair. I might have to bring a trainer in to work and set it up in front of the keyboard.

jyl

Any updates, from those of us on the Long Road Back?

I've been riding about 80 miles a week to and from work. About 7 hours of commute riding a week. I realize that implies barely a double digit average mph. There are traffic lights, hills, and the slow gingerly crossing of the I-5 bridge but, basically, yes, the truth hurts. That average mph says something about my fitness but I do feel stronger every week.

Who else is regrowing their legs, like a newt in lycra?

Drillium Dude 

I was out again on the Mexico today, about 30 miles in all. Tired legs and a bit of aggravated lower back pain, but wtf. It was dry, and I needed a couple rolls of Newbaum's. I didn't feel like taking a chance on the A4 leaving me stranded by the side of the road

I might be able to accept the back pain will be around forever. Oh, well. I'm obviously not done with the bikes yet (I just added another to the stable Sunday), so I'm gonna get out and ride 'em. Maybe not as fast or far as before, but...

DD

Lascauxcaveman 

Eighty miles a week? That's me on my best month, ever. Guess I need to get up earlier I was happy to get 180 miles last month,. A little over two miles vertical, so I'm at about 1/2 of where I want to be. Still well over 200 lbs (I'm afraid to look) but the legs and lungs are definitely a little better than they were on New Years Day.

Baby steps.

rustystrings61 

I started my long road back in mid-April, taking my favorite beater fixed-gear to the beach. I got in five consecutive early morning rides totalling 66 miles. It was the first time I'd been on a bike since the clunker challenge in August; before that, I hadn't been on a bike since January 2016, when I felt like I was gonna die riding the 20-odd mile Hodges-Abbeville-Hodges MLK Jr. Day ride on my fixed Mercian.

For years I had always managed to at least commute, which would net maybe 3 miles a day - which does a surprising amount to stave things off, and provides more base fitness than you would expect. But we moved to a place where there are no safe cycling routes to work and now I drive our children to school - and the pounds packed on.

I have no excuse. I've already HAD the heart attack and quad bypass surgery; I've already had the long slow build back up from being barely able to walk around the block to riding 4,300 or so miles in a year again.

After my vacation rides I was off the bike again - until Monday night, when I did shakedown runs on a newly-built up old bike, running lights and stopping after each 1.08 mile loop to tweak and tune and adjust. Last night went better, a whopping 6 miles in the darkness with the nice fast little descent on one end and a steady slow climb back up on the long stretch home.

Best lesson learned so far in this phoenix cycle - when I started those daily rides after being off the bike so long, my contact points with the saddle hurt with eye-watering nastiness. It was all under the skin, where muscles and bones had forgotten how to cooperate between me and a saddle. The second morning it really ached, and I thought, "Maybe I should take a rest day." Then I thought, "No, lemme just get a couple more miles before I turn back." Somewhere around the end of the third mile the pain went away and I was riding normally again.

Keep going, you loosen up and it gets easier.[IMG][/IMG]

Velocivixen

My progress is modest, but a step in the right direction. A couple of months ago I got a new job not too far from home, and it has a place to park my bike inside, so I've been riding to & from work. While riding I try to reconnect with the things I loved about riding in the first place.

The sounds of birds in the morning, fog off the creek with occasional sun in the background, the smell of freshly mown lawn and flowers....How I feel alive and awake and refreshed. I rode a couple of low volume street routes that I used to ride with ease. For me, it's cardio o lack of it that I noticed. I remind myself though that it's about "progress not perfection", and that while not at the weight or in the shape I was a year ago, I'm lapping everyone who's still at home on the couch!

In Oregon, May is the month of the Bike More Challenge, so I printed the May calendar and taped it to the front of the refrigerator! I write down all my rides.

On a slightly different note, when I was actively going to weight watchers, someone mentioned this mantra and I find it helps in many situations. "Make the 'better' choice". It's a journey...

noglider 

@jyl, please don't be so hard on yourself. You're making progress. It won't be long before you reach the level you want to be at, but there's so much to enjoy on the way there.

And that goes for everyone else.

I didn't stop riding over the winter, so I'm doing OK, but I'm perplexed at why I can't seem to build the ability to go faster. I compare my average speeds with those of people I think of as my peers (in ability) but I seem to be wrong. I'm pedaling pretty hard on my commutes, but I don't see any progress. I'm thinking of getting a heart rate monitor so I'm not fooling myself about my level of effort.

@Velocivixen, bike to work month is May in all of the US. I got an effort to join some organization but it turns out I have to form a local group to participate, and I don't want to do that. I work at a college where most students live on campus. A very small few ride to work. The campus is on a terrifically steep hill. I'm not in the mood to be an advocate. Maybe next year.

Andy_K 

I guess I'm doing pretty well. Compared to those who are coming back from actual injuries or surgeries my road has been pretty gentle with a slight tailwind. I'm just coming back from letting myself get even more out of shape than usual. I logged over 350 miles in April -- the most I'd done in a month since June 2015. I also rode over 60 miles in a day for the first time since June 2015. In July 2015 I went on sabbatical and hardly rode at all for the next two months. I'm still trying to recover the fitness I lost in that time.

I'm pretty happy with my endurance, and particularly my ability to develop endurance. I've noticed recently that I feel a lot better when I'm out on an extended ride. If I didn't have a clock (a bike computer isn't necessary to judge how slow I've gotten...a sundial would do) I might think I was right back where I used to be. Now I just need to get my average speed back up to the low end of mediocre where it used to be.