Hopefully nothing

One thing that I should make a note of, this past week after riding in the mornings, my right hip has been, not sore as such, but I can feel that it is a bit NQR a few hours after riding. A few years ago (3 or 4?) I tore a muscle or tendon or something around my right hip and after getting it scanned and being told to just rest by my GP, it took a lot of effort from my osteo to sort it out. In the past week of being back on the bike I have felt some sensations around it for the first time in years. It isn't so much painful, but I can feel it which isn't a great sign for the years ahead. It looks like it is something that I need to keep an eye on just in case.

What a great week

On Tuesday I commuted by bike to work for the first time in 42 weeks. I then commuted again on Friday so that's 2 lots of 40 minutes of riding spread out over the day with the longest time on the bike in the morning which was about 28 minutes. Today I backed up yesterday's commute and rode to the monthly cycling club brekky at the BBC which was 38 minutes to get there - my longest ride for the entire calendar year! The ride there includes a few inclines but is mostly flat or downhill and so far my back seems to be OK with it. I ended up riding to Flinders St Station and getting the train most of the way home, but I ended up doing 55 minutes of riding today and covered 18.53 km's.

The numbers are small and kinda frustrating but I just have to keep thinking that it is a start to get back to where I used to be and I am just excited to be back riding again finally :D

Oh and my new Ay Up! lights are really awesome - if you have been considering buying some then do so! I got the 08 roadie kit with intermediate beams and they really do light up the road very well!

In other news, yesterday I got my hands on The People's Chip, the gravy chip! Yummo! Very strong though but very tasty and really tastes like gravy!

It's OK

Well my back seems to have held up OK from the commute to and from work on Tuesday - YaY!!! For the ride home I caught the train part of the way to avoid the inclines, but even with my crumpler bag, my back was OK - no tightness or pain or anything at all today!! :D :D This makes me a very happy camper. So after a day off today, tomorrow I will commute again by bike but this time I will also have my Ay Up! lights! Having lights that will enable me to see and not just be seen will also be fantastic. I also bought a SuperFlash rear light so now I am all lit up!!

Tonight I get to install my Ay Ups on my bike - I hope I have room for the battery on my short head stem....

Today I did a refresher course for my Senior First Aid Level 2 qualification and I passed :D It was handy as I got to ask a few cycling specific questions and I also bought a first aid kit for my car.

After sitting in the course all day in very bad chairs, my back was a little stiff so I even went for a 24 minute walk when I got home :D

Ahhh the wait was worth it

I rode to work today for the first time in 42 weeks! I turned the screen light off my Garmin 305 so that I couldn't see any stats and I just cruised and it was awesome!!

I hope my back holds up OK... will know more later today/tomorrow though.

I am hoping to start wearing my wristband again soon

I want to grow stuff

I wish I had the space for a vegie garden! My alternative is to build massive wooden boxes to sit in the backyard but I reckon that could end up being expensive. Also having a backyard which is north facing with a corrugated iron fence isn't probably that ideal.

Maybe I could do someting like this as a project for my annual leave in July.

Roastalicious

On my way home from work tonight I decided I wanted roast vegies for dinner, so I stopped past my awesome LBS (Local Butcher Shop heh) and green grocers and came home with a really chunk of beef (1.5kg's) and lots of vegies. The meat only needed about 45 minutes in the oven so I par cooked the vegies (tatoes, carrot and punkin) in the microwave while I sealed the beef in a pan with garlic and shallots in the pan and then put them all into the roasting dish with some olive oil in the pan I tossed the vegies around to get them coated in the garlic, shallots and olive oil mixture and then into the oven on 180. Halfway through I moved the vegies around in the pan and then after about 45 mins the meat was ready so I took it out and rested it for a bit on the carving tray, put the vegies onto another metal tray and put it back in the oven with it cranked up to about 240 or so. I then attempted to make gravy with the pan juices and well... It didn't go that well as it was a short cook roast and not a lot of flavour left in the pan, but I rescued it a bit and it turned into an alright beef, garlic and shallot gravy.
The beef was beautifully cooked and nice and pink all through and was really easy to cut and was delicious! Yum!!

I now have lots of left over roast beef and roast vegies -I love cold roast tatoes!! I may have slightly too much left over beef... ooh could make beef shepherds pie maybe! :D

Hormones

I really really hate how my hormones effect me since I stopped riding, or more to the point stopped rigorous exercise. It makes such an impact that all the plans I put in place in the morning or even early afternoon can be rendered pointless as by the time I get home I just can't do it.
It follows a very strong pattern for me and if I think about it before it even happens then I am at least aware of what's going on as opposed to getting agro, upset and annoyed for no reason... I am aware of what's happening but it really doesn't make it any easier - far from it because I know I am agro/hormonal/irritated but it is _so_ hard to do anything about it.

I only hope that once I am back cycling regularly it dissipates again... now to keep the motivation...

After speaking to my pharmacist I ended up buying a vaporiser to see if it helps with my asthma this winter - lets see if it does.

To steam or not

By Friday my back and shoulders were feeling great from the massage and still do! It was just a real shame that I felt sick and snotty from the cold. I am still a bit snotty and a bit tired from the cold, but I am mostly OK now. Each day I have tried to do steam inhalations with eucalyptus oil in the hot water and I think it has really helped with keeping the cold from my chest, it has helped so much that I am actually considering buying a vaporiser unit. Before I do though I will go speak to my Pharmacist who I have been going to for 7+ years for some advice - but if it will help my lungs and sinus from being too affected by the cold air and being phlegmtastic and turning into really bad asthma then it is worth considering. I remember my mum using one for us when we were kids.

I worked out before that in the past week I have only had 3 or 4 beers and not even a bottle of wine - for the whole week and none of it at home! Weird.

Thursday night I went to Vodafone arena to watch the track racing and it was awesome! I had contemplated not going because I felt so crap cos of my cold, but I had already bought my ticket so I decided to go. We sat on the back straight inline with the finishing line and it was a great place to sit not only for line of sight but also because it was about 15 degrees warmer up there than down in the in field bar which was great for my cold.

Due to my cold, I only just got back on my bike today after a week so I only did 10 minutes so as to not kill my lungs too much in the cold air and not put too much pressure on my back.

Bruises already

No wonder the area on my back between my shoulder blades and my lower back feel a bit tender - there are already big bruises there! I'm kinda suprised by it because at no point during the massage was the pressure too much or even getting close to it. I spose I'm used to being attacked by my physio in specific spots, where as a massage is longer smoother movements so maybe that's why.

Massage

I have just gotten home from my first ever remedial massage, a one hour one, and my first massage in at least 5 years, probably a LOT longer than that actually. Now I don't know if it is the cold I am developing or not but after I managed to stand up, which took a bit of effort after a one hour massage lying in the one position, I just felt really out of it for about the first 45 minutes. Kind of a bit light headed and just a bit out of it. I sat in my car for a few minutes drinking some water and then on my way home I stopped at the shops and got some food for an early dinner and once I got home I started to feel better, but then that also coincided with eating some food and having a soft drink.

Anyway, I feel mostly better now which is great and now when I get up and down from my arm chair and generally move around I can really feel my entire back. He spent a lot of time working on my lower back/upper glute area, especially on my left which is where it has been getting tight the past few days and also on my shoulder blades and it really feels great. He told me to have a nice hot shower later and then tomorrow I should feel awesome :D

As I mentioned I am also getting a cold which is annoying as I have just been getting back on the bike. All last night I kept waking up ever hour or so and my throat was just getting worse and worse, but I still ended up going to work. Depending on how I feel tomorrow, I will work from home to conserve energy and to just stay in the warmth of my house to try to get ride of the cold a bit quicker.

I love my teddy bear :)

July is arriving

I love my home made fajitas, they are so yummy they are awesome!

I also love being able to ride my bike out on the road again. Today I road to the shops to buy a loaf of bread and then home again, but the way I came home meant I had to go uphill the whole way... not a big hill or anything, but the road still heads northwards and would also be similar to what I would encounter on a commute home from work and my back is OK. There is a little tightness, but stretching is helping. It is a very positive sign for when the weather warms up and I can ride to work again... which I am hugely looking forward to.

I spent yesterday with my sister and my niece and had dinner at my dad's place - all up a great day spent with my family.
My baby brother turns 18 this Saturday. While I have only had him in my life again for a few years, I can't believe he is 18!! I love him so much and I am so glad he is in my life again.

I am so glad to be cycling again and I am also happy about not having to go to work tomorrow!

Speaking of work, I am considering taking time off in July for the Tour (tour de france) I have too much annual leave and I struggle a lot with late nights and still going to work so I figure I may as well take 2-3 weeks off work for it and go riding during the day time, then have an arvo nap and watch Le Tour at night :D The only time off work I have had the past two years has been Christmas - not enough really

I just accidentally hit F11 on my mac and it showed me the desktop - awesome! Had no idea what was happening for a bit then - weird!

So my back seems to be holding up OK to the two rides I have done which is a great thing.

I have had to make a couple of interesting calls at work the past few weeks and it has been noticed by my boss and also by my future boss...well my future boss would notice as it was against him BUT it is actually a good thing and not a bad thing and I was praised by my boss for raising the issue. It doesn't matter who it is, I am going to do my job regardless. This week I have also been through the process of being audited for the first time for SOX compliancy - SOX is the New York Stock Exchange. Thankfully I have an answer for each 'question' and considering that this if my first audit I am really happy that what I am doing matches the audit controls put in place :D At first though it was still kinda scary, just like when you go through a booze bus when you haven't even been drinking, you kinda panick and wonder 'what if'...

Now that I am able to actually ride my bike outdoors, my fitness, body shape and mental well being should improve massively and I am really looking forward to it :D Well after this LONG weekend I am.

I am still considering taking some time off while Le Tour is on. Either the whole 3 weeks or just the last 2 weeks... I am still yet to decide but I really should decide soon.

Such a relief

I did an 18 minute ride last night and my back is fine! No Pain, no tightness - just a lot of missing fitness hehe

:D

The next day

My back feels mostly OK today - this makes me very happy! More info here.

It is going to be a very tough journey back to where I once was and to where I want to be, but it will be worth it.

The next first step

I rode my bike outdoors today. ~15mins, ~5km's. Extremely unfit. My lower left glute was sore after the ride, will know more tomorrow. First time in 4-5 months. More info in my other blog about all this.

Confused and stressed

I am mentally struggling at the moment with going for a ride outside. I am not worried about riding on the road or the cars and traffic, I am worried about hurting my back again and I really don't like my appearance at the moment. I know the best way to fix my apperance is to just HTFU mentally and get over how I look and just ride, but I know that any time the road heads north/sky wards it isn't great for my back. I am a LOT stronger now than last time I tried (4-5 months ago), but it still really worries me and just plays on my mind. I can do 20-30 minutes on the indoor trainer comfortably, but that is different to being outdoors - I can regulate the pressure through my legs and into my lower back on the trainer.

I really want to be riding to work but then I also have the issue of needing to carry stuff each day AND the cold air really messes with my lungs/asthma. My shopper bike is almost back on the road (I think I fixed the rear brake!) I just have to put the pannier rack and mud guards on so that when I am able to ride to work I can use that bike and not use a back pack. I can also ride to a train station to get home if I need to, so at least I am riding one way.

I am really really missing not riding outside or at the track at the moment but I am just as worried/stressed about sending myself backwards in my recovery.

Shiny new stuff

This week, I am going to get on my bike more than 3 times - that is my goal, minimum 3 times a week, if I set an easy to achieve goal like that, then I have more chance of doing it than saying I want to get on it 5 times. Hopefully I will do more than 3, but that is the bare minimum.

Drivers scooting up the left hand lane to try to get further ahead in the traffic are really bugging me lately - it really amazes me just how impatient some people are or how important they think they are that they don't think they should just wait their turn.

I just got a nice package in the mail from PBK mmm I love the smell of new track parts in the morning So now with my existing 48T, 16T, 15T I have a good range of gears - more than I need for when I first get back on the track, but they will never need replacing... mmm DA. The 49T is sooooo light too. I think I will place these parts around my loungroom to try to give me motivation to get on the bike and get fit and stronger etc as I shouldn't have bought them yet.

Winter is certainly here

Today is the first day of winter and mother nature has done her best to confirm it. It is overcast and gloomy outside, about 9 degrees and drizzly - an awesome day to spend curled up on the couch in front of the heater watching tv.
On my to-do list today though is a visit to Target, lunch with a friend and I am then going to try to true the 27" wheels on the shopper bike - I have never tried to true a wheel before so it could take a while and then install the pannier rack and mud guards on the shopper bike - it's not the kind of agenda for a sloth filled afternoon on the coach, maybe next week ;)