Tuesday marks one month since my second knee replacement surgery.
Celebrate every tiny victory
While recovery from knee replacement surgery is a long slog, here are some of the things I’m looking forward to this week.
♥️ I put my gym membership on hold for a month and that ends Tuesday. Tuesday I’m back to the gym for some upper body weight training and some time on the recumbent bike.
♥️ I pedaled backwards six times today on my bike that’s on the trainer at my house. Pretty soon, I’m guessing this week, I’ll be able to manage a full pedal rotation forwards. You can read here about how I discovered that backwards is easier than forwards.
♥️ End of the week Sarah and I are going to go visit Jeff on the boat. You can read about his summer boating plans here.
Escapade and the Toronto skyline at night
♥️ Cheddar and I are looking forward to some longer dog walks together. We might go visit the Arboretum with my mother and Charlie and Chase. I can’t drive yet so that would be a team effort.
♥️ Speaking of team efforts, my mother and I have some garden centre visiting to do before I get back to work.
A garden centre
♥️ And speaking of work, my plan is to gradually start looking at my email and tackle some small tasks as I start to get my energy back. I’m booking some meetings and looking forward to my return to campus.
Anyway, wish me luck. It’s a long haul and a lot of work but I’m excited about the summer ahead.
You may not have realized it but Thursday, March 30 was a big day.
What was so big about it?
It was the first day since last Fall that I could wear sneakers on my daily walk with Khalee.
Photo evidence! Well, evidence is a strong work, it probably wouldn’t hold up in a court of law. It’s just a photo of my sneakers feet on the pavement, it doesn’t prove that I haven’t worn my sneakers on a walk in months but please cut me some slack here, Your Honour. Image description: a top down photo of my pink sneakers and black leggings as I stand on the salt-speckled asphalt street. The sun is behind me to the right so legs are caring a shadow toward the upper left of the image. The angle of the sun is creating one big shadow out of both of legs so, shadow-wise, it looks like I was hopping on my one giant leg.
And it was one of the first days I could just wear regular pants on my walk instead of adding an extra layer.
It still isn’t *warm* here, only a few degrees below zero but those few degrees make a huge difference for me.
Being able to just throw on a jacket (hat and gloves, too, of course) and put on my sneakers feels way smoother and quicker than adding another pair of pants and lacing up my boots.
It reduces the friction for getting out through the door, it feels like I could drop everything and head out at any time.
(I can always do that, of course, but now it actually *feels* that way, too.)
It just feels EASIER to get out there.
And Khalee is much less impatient with me in the porch. She simply cannot believe how long it takes me to get ready sometimes. (Humans are very weird, apparently.)
Speaking of me being weird, Khalee also can’t believe that I would waste valuable snow-sniffing time by stopping to take her picture. Image description: a n outdoor photo of Khalee, a light-haired, medium-sized dog, is on a neon yellow leash and black/aqua harness. She is standing on the side of the road with snowbanks to her right and she is looking back toward the camera. My shadow, the shadow of the leash and the dog-walking paraphernalia can be seen on the left side of the photo.
So, it’s still cold.
We still have lots of snow.
This isn’t my house in the background and not every lawn has this much snow right now but still, there’s a lot of snow around. Image description: a smirky selfie with a snowbank so high that only the peaked roof of the house is visible behind the snow. I am wearing a green winter hat, my oversized cats-eye glasses, and a green coat. My light brown hair is sticking out from under my hat to rest on my shoulder.
But I am feeling Springish because the sun has been out a lot lately and I can wear my sneakers on my walks.
Sure, it’s not green grass, crocuses, and birdsong but life is easier when I adjust my expectations to my reality, right?
Soon, soon, Khalee and I will be able to sit on these front steps enjoying a cup of tea…ok, I’ll be the only one with tea but we’ll both be out there. Image description: a selfie of me and Khalee on my front steps with part of my house and my door in the background. The sun is shining on us and I’m squinting and smiling as she sniffs my face.
You may not have realized it but Thursday, March 30 was a big day.
What was so big about it?
It was the first day since last Fall that I could wear sneakers on my daily walk with Khalee.
Photo evidence! Well, evidence is a strong work, it probably wouldn’t hold up in a court of law. It’s just a photo of my sneakers feet on the pavement, it doesn’t prove that I haven’t worn my sneakers on a walk in months but please cut me some slack here, Your Honour. Image description: a top down photo of my pink sneakers and black leggings as I stand on the salt-speckled asphalt street. The sun is behind me to the right so legs are caring a shadow toward the upper left of the image. The angle of the sun is creating one big shadow out of both of legs so, shadow-wise, it looks like I was hopping on my one giant leg.
And it was one of the first days I could just wear regular pants on my walk instead of adding an extra layer.
It still isn’t *warm* here, only a few degrees below zero but those few degrees make a huge difference for me.
Being able to just throw on a jacket (hat and gloves, too, of course) and put on my sneakers feels way smoother and quicker than adding another pair of pants and lacing up my boots.
It reduces the friction for getting out through the door, it feels like I could drop everything and head out at any time.
(I can always do that, of course, but now it actually *feels* that way, too.)
It just feels EASIER to get out there.
And Khalee is much less impatient with me in the porch. She simply cannot believe how long it takes me to get ready sometimes. (Humans are very weird, apparently.)
Speaking of me being weird, Khalee also can’t believe that I would waste valuable snow-sniffing time by stopping to take her picture. Image description: a n outdoor photo of Khalee, a light-haired, medium-sized dog, is on a neon yellow leash and black/aqua harness. She is standing on the side of the road with snowbanks to her right and she is looking back toward the camera. My shadow, the shadow of the leash and the dog-walking paraphernalia can be seen on the left side of the photo.
So, it’s still cold.
We still have lots of snow.
This isn’t my house in the background and not every lawn has this much snow right now but still, there’s a lot of snow around. Image description: a smirky selfie with a snowbank so high that only the peaked roof of the house is visible behind the snow. I am wearing a green winter hat, my oversized cats-eye glasses, and a green coat. My light brown hair is sticking out from under my hat to rest on my shoulder.
But I am feeling Springish because the sun has been out a lot lately and I can wear my sneakers on my walks.
Sure, it’s not green grass, crocuses, and birdsong but life is easier when I adjust my expectations to my reality, right?
Soon, soon, Khalee and I will be able to sit on these front steps enjoying a cup of tea…ok, I’ll be the only one with tea but we’ll both be out there. Image description: a selfie of me and Khalee on my front steps with part of my house and my door in the background. The sun is shining on us and I’m squinting and smiling as she sniffs my face.
#30daysofbiking is a pledge to ride your bike every day in April and share your adventures online. Registration is now live at our new website: https://t.co/6mvfsvuNCt
Spring riding isn’t always pretty. Sometimes it involves getting wet and lost. See photos below! But I like that it’s not yet about speed or even about distance. Spring riding feels adventurous to me. I just feel happy to be out there.
In these pandemic times, more people are choosing to ride. Like running it’s one of the things we can do for exercise that is consistent with social distancing. I was sad to see that Spain and Italy banned recreational cycling though it’s still okay to use a bike to get to the grocery store or the doctors.
Here’s some photos of an early spring ride that Sarah and I did a few years ago. We got lost, we ended up taking our good road bikes through some mud. It was a definite adventure.
Spring riding is complicated. It’s fun and it’s exciting but the emotions of most cyclists, mine anyway, are always a little bit mixed. We all emerge outside with our bikes in spring with varying degrees of fitness. We’re nervous about fitness lost. It’s sunny and warmish but things aren’t quite where we want them to be. The hills seem steeper. The winds stronger.
No matter how much we’ve been riding on the trainer, or in spin class, our bike handling skills aren’t where they were at the end of last fall. Our jerseys seem tight around the middle. Even finding the right gear feels extra complicated. Where are my summer gloves? Is my Garmin charged? Do I have spare tubes? Sunglasses anyone? By next month this ‘getting ready to ride’ thing will be a well-oiled machine with everything right where it ought to be. But not yet.
My first real road ride of 2018 was Sunday afternoon. It was sunny and about 16 degrees Celsius. We went straight from ice storm to warm this year. I debated tights and a long sleeved jersey but instead went with shorts, short sleeved jersey, and a vest. (Jeff tucked my arm warmers in his pockets just in case.)
We decided on the 50 km ‘short’ Belmont loop. It’s called ‘short’ because you can add on 30-40 km with various side trips but this time we were committed to sticking with 50 km. It’s not a great destination. All the good coffee and breakfast places are a bit further out. But not this trip. If there were a 40 km loop from our house I’d have done it but I hate out and back, so 50 km it was. We stopped not for coffee but instead for peanut butter m&m’s.
But back to Sunday and spring riding. Sarah, Jeff, and I headed out down through my old south neighborhood to White Oaks Road. See map above. I confess I was extra nervous, almost teary nervous, worried about my knee. My knee has been fine in spin classes, fine on the trainer, fine with big gears, and fine standing. But still I worried it might all fall apart on a real on an actual road. Luckily my knee was just fine on the bike. No brace for bike riding. Yay!
We made some discoveries. Crossing one busy street, we were delighted to find out that our bikes triggered the lights to change. That’s new. Less happily we also found some new potholes. I got my third fastest time ever on the East bike path back into town, not because I’m fast. I’m not. Instead, I got a 3rd best time ever trophy because they’ve finally repaved the path.
But it will be a few rides before it all feels normal again. Each time will be easier. Each time out, I’ll be faster. I’m looking forward to it.
Sarah’s Story
Sam wrote about the complications of spring riding, but I didn’t share her reservations. After a long winter of not much exercise I was thrilled to be outside and on the bike.
Riding with Sam, I’ve both gotten used to not worrying about my aerobic fitness (I’m usually much slower than everyone else, but as long as I do my best they’re consistently patient and don’t drop me) and pretty good at drafting, which means I only really fall behind on hills. For the record, I much prefer wind (where I can hide behind bigger faster riders) than hills (that I have to make it up on my own power).
I managed to remember all of my riding kit except my heart rate monitor strap (probably for the best) and something to eat. The m&m stop in Belmont was mostly for me, who’d been working so much harder than Sam and Jeff (for less net effort, might I add, as I drafted behind them riding into the wind) that I was definitely getting bonky by the midpoint.
I generally find my stamina is pretty good for the first hour of a long ride and then I seem to run out of steam. I’m assuming that’s a fuelling issue, and I’m going to make a point this year of learning when what and how much to eat on the bike to keep a consistent power output, rather than waiting to get weak and hungry, since by then it’s too late.
I lament that it doesn’t last long enough. As much as allergies bother me, I love the gentle warmth and the gentle light of spring. Soon it will be hot and I’ll be running at night and early morning to avoid the heat. Spring doesn’t last very long in this part of the world. It’s one day snow, the next day hot.
It hit 20 C last week and a friend posted, “I hear Montreal spring was lovely this year. Too bad I missed it while I was in the shower.”
And it also goes back and forth between hot and cold. I’m writing this in a coffee shop in Toronto on the way back between trying on my Friends for Life Bike Rally jersey (please sponsor me!) and catching the train home to London. It’s windy, rainy, 4 degrees, with some chance of “snow flurries.” The forecasts say that at this time of year, as if there were other sorts of flurries.
I’m hoping to ride my bike tomorrow. I’m thinking again about spring riding and limits. Rain? Yes. Cold? Yes. Windy? Yes. But the combo? No way. We’re hoping for cold and calm and sunny.
Yesterday I had an idea born of a kind of weariness that’s come from all of our (including my own) grumbling about this endless winter. The idea was this: from now until at least the end of April, I’m only going to post about empowering, positive, optimistic, and hopeful things.
To me, that’s the spirit of spring. We get to wash away the winter blahs and blues. People get a fresh energy in their eyes, in their gait. The sounds of birds replace the beeping of snow plows in reverse. Instead of treading warily on slick ice, we step with confidence onto bare pavement. Instead of keeping our heads down to brace from the wind, we begin to notice the new life all around us. Faces turn to the sun. You get the idea. Renewal. Optimism. Hope.
The calendar says it’s spring even if the weather didn’t get the memo.
So consider this post a heads up. If you need a lift on Tuesdays or Thursdays, you can count on me for the next little while to do my best to provide you with one.
For today, I’ll just leave you with this amazing National Geographic webpage that I found when I punched into a search engine: “images spring flowers garden.”
You can find it here. And here’s another sneak preview:
Photograph by Inne R Hardjanto, My Shot Tulips at Keukenhof Garden near Lisse, Netherlands.
