Fake Shape: Stationary Biking v. Real Biking

Last week, I got on my road bike for the first time since my skiing injury last December. I had been am an avid cyclist. (I am not sure which tense to use in that sentence yet.)

Last weekend, I rode about 13 miles and the next day I felt like I had done half a century (aka 50 miles). I felt the smallest changes in grade, and shifted gears constantly to adjust. I thought maybe I was tired after my first substantial trip and then I'd feel more energetic on the road later in the week.

Nope. I was pooped after a few short road rides this week. This is after spending all of the winter riding the stationary bike indoors for at least forty-five minutes a day. I had thought that riding on the road would be easy after all of my indoor work. Nope. Here I was, riding forty-five minutes a day and thinking I was getting into great shape. Before my accident, I used to exercise regularly--walking my dog, biking, hiking, skiing, doing yoga and whatnot, but I never made a point of getting forty-five minutes of cardio every day like I have been.

I felt like I had been riding a fake bike and I was getting into fake shape. Riding the road bike wasn't impossibly hard, but noticeably harder. I didn't want any kind of harder. I wanted to get on my bike and tear up the road. My exercise routine on the indoor bike for the past few months had been second rate compared to the real thing of riding on the road.

It was like I was eating margarine instead of butter, carob instead of chocolate. Drinking Sanka instead of Starbucks, Cook's instead of Veuve Clicquot. It was like finding out a ring had a cubic zirconia stone instead of a diamond, iron pyrite instead of gold. It was like I was playing with Flegos (i.e., fake legos) instead of Legos.

For the past few months, I had thought I was rocking it when I was really a slug. And my knee is talking to me again. The plum is back. My knee is stiff, my arms are sore from needing to steer and ice is my best friend again. It was bad and I was depressed.

I told Evan about my road biking experience, and he wasn't surprised.

"People ask me right after their surgery if they can ride a road bike and I tell them to stick the stationary bike for a reason," he said. "Baby steps. This recovery is all about baby steps."

Oy. And so it is. He is right, and I will continue to slog on the road.

Dreams, Stairs! and News

The other night I dreamt I was running. I was running down a gravel road when my neighbor across the street saw me and happily yelled, "Lauren you are running!" As soon as I heard her, I fell and crashed into the small red rocks on the road. It was a strange dream, as dreams often are. I am not a big fan of long distance running, but I love little sprints to get across the street or to hit a tennis ball. That is what I miss.

While running is not in my immediate future, I need to get in shape for my trip to France in less than two months. I've gotten in shape for ski trips and mountain biking vacations, but it is strange to think of needing to get into shape to go to France, the food and fashion capital of the world. I could lose a few pounds so I can buy new clothes, or lose a few so I can gain them back in cream sauce and dessert. Mais non--I need to get into shape for these vacation goals:

• Bronze Level: Walk ten hours a day without my knee mutinying against me and my family.
• Silver Level: Climb the stairs around Mont Saint Michel.
• Gold Level: Climb down the 704 steps of the Eiffel Tower.

I must be the only person who has vacation goals. Isn't vacation suppose to be be time without goals?

With the exception of my friends who climb stairs for charity, going up and down stairs isn't an exercise that one loves or hates, but you do it because you need to. I've been able to go upstairs alternating legs for several weeks, but alternating while going down hasn't happened until this week. At physical therapy two weeks ago, I practiced going downstairs on their stairs, which have very long treads and handrails on both sides. My arms have gotten stronger since my accident, and I could carry myself down the stairs using both railings and while my legs dangled below, with my toes grazing the tops of the steps. (It wasn't quite that dramatic, but almost.) I about died when Jason said "You can do it without the railings!" Surprisingly, I could. Still, I was hesitant to try going down stairs outside of the physical therapy studio with their magical steps.

Last week, I tried the outside steps at the NE Library Branch. They have a low rise and a long tread, pull a nice handrail in the middle. Since my skiing accident last December, I have become an expert on noticing different types and ranges of stairs. It has become my hobby to study them. The library stairs were easy to descend. I would make a point of going up and down them a few times each time I visited.

This week, I have been trying to go down regular stairs alternating legs. By regular stairs, I mean ones with standard tread lengths and rises heights, and not ones with long treads, low rises, nor in narrow stairwells where there are handrails on both sides where I can hoist myself down.

Today I climbed down six flights of stairs alternating legs! This is a major milestone, one that I have been trying to accomplish for a while. I feel like a normal person, not one who is still recovering from surgery. I was slow, and I had to ice my knee before and after going down the stairs. I had to pause between steps sometimes, but I could do it! As my kids would say, "Go me!"

Perhaps this is what is next in my training program. I can't remember where I got Seattle Stairway Walks by Jake and Cathy Jaramillo, but it looks cool. It has to be--the first walk in Ravenna Park and it goes past my house!

That is my good news. I am sorry there has been so much bad news around lately. My kids have smart phones and computers with internet access, so it is almost impossible to avoid bad stuff. I am not talking about front page catastrophes like the shooting in Orlando, but less big news like the kid who was killed by a crocodile at Disney World, the stories that used to make page 3 of the newspaper. You had to make an effort to open the paper to know that kind of thing happened. Now, you just open your social media account and there it all is. Will this be good or bad for our kids? Will this make them better informed citizens, or will this age of "Too Much Information" make them fearful so they never leave their homes?

Given all of the bad news, I thought I'd post a nice soothing picture of some clouds.