Just did a grueling 1 mile ride, 10 feet of climbing with max speed of 6.5 mph!
 

No joke and yes, I'm actually feeling quite good about it.

5 weeks ago, I had one of my right hamstring muscles (bicep femoris) removed. With it came my malignant tumor, so this is a good thing. I still have 10 rounds of chemo and 6 weeks of daily radiation ahead of me, which will take me through April, 2012. Today, though, I got the drain from the surgery pulled from my leg. To celebrate, I went for a ride. First ride since January and the first ride without the muscle. It hurt a bit, but it was from bending the leg to the top of the pedal stroke, not from the downward push. It felt great. I can see how my other muscles will have to learn their new jobs, though. Maybe next time I'll make two miles and get the speed up to 8 mph. I know....that's just crazy talk!

In the land of Namby-Pamby, the one legged man will be King. :D

Not many in this world with this kind of toughness.

Way to go, PhotoJoe!

sounds like you HTFU...congrats! heres to a speedy recovery mate!

Congrats to you!! Keep up the good work!!

Your 1 mile is by far more impressive than any distance I've ever ridden. That's awesome!

Keep going and best wishes!!!

When you can HTFU that hard, I bet there will be a day where you'll be dropping guys with two perfectly good legs

Have you found out whether or not that particular muscle can come back in the long term? Or will it be a matter of strengthening the other surrounding muscles to compensate?

is that ever even possible?/??E??EE?E?E?W

If the entire muscle was removed, no. If only a piece was removed, the muscle would have some regrowth but with scarring. From his description, he only had one of the two muscles removed so if the nerves were not affected, he should have normal or near normal function in the leg.

earlier this summer i rode with a friend's coworker, who held up our pace pretty severely and had us waiting several times for him to catch up after an accidental drop.

then i found out he was riding with only one lung. mind-->blown-->respect. it's inspiring and humbling to see people who just want to ride and who show no regard for what would be a severe adversity for anyone else.

You call it crazy talk, I call it inspiring. You make some of the excuses I make not to ride sound incredibly pathetic. Best wishes and thanks for sharing your story!

Epic. Keep going strong man, we're cheering for you.

I wish you the best! Keep up the good work!

LiveSTRONG!!!

You kick ass, keep it up!!

OK... confess. Who were you drafting?

Humor aside... ride on buddy!

Yeehaw!! Keep on it!

Great! keep up the good work.

Way to go Joe.....:thumb::thumb::thumb:

That's awesome! keep on truckin'.

Good for you! May you recovery be speedy and relatively pain free. :-)

congrats Mo-FO!

+1 bazillion