Identity Crisis!

What am I? Am I this ultra endurance dude? A guy that does seven one hundred milers in a single summer, comes home does his chores around the house and still has enough for a night out on the town? Or am I something else entirely? 

 This picture is ingrained in my memory! It is what I don't want to be. It is not me, I don't wear glasses like that! But then I always told myself, I didn't want to be like X and now in my later years I have become that which I didn't want to be. So yeah, there's an identity crisis!

What is an ultra-exerciser that cannot exercise? Are they a couch potato?! Are they a cheeto flinger?! Are they a cheese-ball whacker?! I wrote this after the Summer after the two elbow break (I must have been too devastated to even write about it before then!):

So, this Spring Break (March, 2016), I'm working out how to be inactive! I came to the realization that's it's been thirty plus years that I have been working out: running, climbing, cycling, swimming, and lately walking.
Unbelievably, now that I'm older the walking is ever more productive than all the cycling I do so regularly. Recently, with two catastrophic injuries in two years the mileage on the bike is less than half of what it has been in the past. The breaking of my two elbows this past Summer, caused me to question whether cycling is for ever or just another one of many activities I have done throughout the years.
My wife and I have adopted the slower method of losing poundage with small changes that make a big difference on weight-loss. Both of us have lost about thirty-five pounds and have kept it off.
At school I use the fasting method. A bunch of people at school are getting good results with it. I don't like to eat at school anyway so it works for me. (Please do not see this as an endorsement of the intermittent fasting method. I no longer believe it to be healthy or productive in weight-loss!)
I can feel the consequences of not staying active in my hips and in my knees. My back has never been real happy so that is still there also. My elbows, the one that did not give as much trouble is the one that troubles me more now and it even clicks! Boo! Well, got to go!

I remember the orthopod telling me to get back on the bike immediately and start putting weight back on my arms. I did, at about a minute something at a time on the bike in the basement! Putting weight on two broken arms was no fun!

A lot of times I talk about an experiment of one, meaning we all have to find our own way out of the hole, if a hole is the right metaphor for a cease and desist on the exercise front! As one grows older, is that all that is left with exercise? Use it or lose it! Put up or shut up! One injury after another! Fighting my battle! Take that pill! Subsistence exercise, forget intensity, forget endurance, and just ride to smell the flowers or ride to be an activist! Am I paying the price now for all the intense exercise I have done in my past? The injuries are here because I was too gung-ho (over-enthusiastic) in High-School, College, and Early Adulthood. Add to that all the heart issues that come with it as well: enlarged heart, heart murmur, irregular heart-beat and high-cholesterol, high blood-pressure, and anxiety. What do I say to all you young people on our campus?! "Take it easy, take it slow, but go, go, Go!"; "Use it or lose it!!"; "Carpe Diem!"; "Carpe Viam!"(Loosely translated as Hit the road!); "Noli Consequi!"(No drafting the big guy!) Would I be where I am today, without exercise and fitness? Would I be a lesser version of myself? Would the kids still say, "you look forty, mister!?"

So, after a two-week hiatus from exercising, after a debilitating Lis Franc Injury, I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone that has supported me and honored me with Student Jerseys at Krueger MS. Nearly Twenty years at Krueger and two shirts in two weeks! The support is really humbling and something I would never have expected.

This is obviously a tough time, but I have gained a lot of strength from the support over the last two weeks! I'd also like to extend my gratitude to my comrades in arms, the ultra-exercisers I look up to, especially Ms. Rubio and Lupe Rodriguez. Doctor Gayle, my wife, for keeping me on the straight and narrow and everyone at Well-Med and Doctor Horn's Office for assisting me. Thank you for going above and beyond the call of duty, for which I am ever so grateful. I know how lucky I am to be here today and how much I owe to all of you. One of the practitioners said, "there is no medical reason" why I could not come back "stronger than before."

In my dreams I wish I could be like Froome and say, "Whilst this is a setback and a major one at that, I am focusing on looking forward. There is a long road to recovery ahead, but that recovery starts now and I am fully focused on returning back to my best."

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Six Months Without Injury was Wishful Thinking

The glow after a good ride!

This is how satisfied I was this Saturday after a seventeen miler in which my foot gave me a bit of grief every time I started or stopped and in traffic that was pretty often. As the day progressed it was more and more evident that I was not in Kansas anymore and I hadn't survived six months without injury.

In early May, last year I fought to maintain fitness with Plantar Fasciitis. Those of you who know about PF you know what a pain it is to do anything with it! During that time, I suffered something that now I presume was a Lisfranc Injury while putting my pants on in the morning of all things. When it happened I immediately knew that I needed to take time off! Dr. Gayle, my wife, insisted I stay off the bike. She was right, after six weeks I was back to riding at first cautiously, but then full bore! Until this past Wednesday, again Dr. Gayle suggested I must have pushed off of the stool I was sitting on while we were writing our schedules in Spanish, ten sentence paragraphs. Me counting sentences, never! We were just doing our list-making in a fancy way.  So then this was 8th period,

What an honor to be chosen to represent at the 7th Grade B Game!

Nevermind that earlier before lunch I could barely walk down the hall to the rest-room! After the game I still ended up directing two choirs at my church! Long day!

So that night and the next day, no discoloration! Good sign because I'm trying to avoid an MRI because they cost an arm and a leg. Last time I did a couple was with my broken elbows. The cost of the MRI hurt more than the breaks themselves!

This morning I was a little puffy. But then I'm always puffy. Gabriel the comedian says fluffy, I say puffy! But it hurt, so today I went to church with my stick! According to some friends in the congregation, it didn't affect my singing! BTW if you want to hear the old man sing, come to the Falcon Choir Concert this Tuesday Night. Je vais chanter en Français de La Mer!

So here I am at the end of the season, will need to take at least six weeks off of the bike and from walking for exercise. Hoping for a boot without surgery and then we'll go on from there. Stats this year are: 1,626 miles, the Caloi TT Rig has 3,641 total miles on it, the KHS tandem has 182 total miles on it, the Litespeed Classic Crit Bike has 6,265 total miles on it, and the Gary Fisher Marlin Mountain Bike has 568 total miles on it. Gotta enjoy the ride! Live to ride again tomorrow!

No Elasticity

Elasticity: The ability to bounce back in less than 24 hours from a seemingly hard bout of exercise to continue on your journey of attaining training effect! A lot of times it seems like it's an experiment of one. (But at the same time figuring something out for yourself is what counts so it is warranted). Yes, Dr. Mirkin (a cyclist, blogger, e-zine writer doctor {retired} in his 80s) has been saying for years that the older you get the longer it takes to recover from a bout of exercise. This hit me hard this weekend!

On Saturday, I awoke fine, no issues! Went for my ride on my Caloi Time Trial Rig. (TT) The seat that is in the picture is not the seat I used. I actually was testing out a new to me Bianchi RoyaleGel seat that had some suspension. Everything worked fine, no issues with the seat. Once I adjusted the height a little bit once again, I was fine.

I had planned to get out at six AM, but no the dog had other ideas! Her new thing is she won't get up at all for me. She finally came to get me around nine AM. So that means I got out at a little bit passed 10. Which, with the heat, it is cutting it pretty close. 90 degrees in the day normally hits right around one or two PM. I had all my sun protection garb on that gives me an SPF of 50. Not bad! So I was trying for about three hours, but ended up going for about four hours. No problem, I thought I had been doing four hour rides for over two months now.

The ride itself felt really easy! Even the last bit that is normally a struggle was just as easy as the beginning! So, I thought I had dodged a bullet until later that afternoon.

Gayle and I went to WD Deli, our favorite sandwich shop, the first indication that all was not fine was when sitting down I almost topped the little table over. Getting up to get refills was a real struggle. Later we went to Hot Wells on the South Side to see what the hoopla was all about and when getting out of the car hurt. I knew I had overdone it!

Sunday's 6 AM ride was delayed because of issues with my lights. I don't normally run lights on the TT rig, I put some on, but they wouldn't stay on. So I was much later than normal to catch up with the guys and gals from @ction Bikes I would have to burn some rubber (impossible to do on a bike unless you're stopping, but you catch my drift!) Early on I got to a couple of good numbers 18 mph, 19 mph! But it was short lived, I could feel the anvils that my legs had become.

I gave up the chase, but still completed the route so it became a recovery ride instead of a short bout of speed work.