...even though I want it to be fast
It was another week full of walking, with no biking until the weekend. While I'd like to ride during the week too, I'm getting closer to putting in full days at work, and I haven't yet figured out how to fit both in with the extended amount of sleep that my body seems to require! What - you think my priority should be biking? You're probably right, but I am being paid to work, so I really have to balance things!
Tuesday I had an appointment with my doc Laurie to try to get to the bottom of my dizziness. I know, I know, I'm just a dizzy person. No, not really! Besides the dizziness, I talked to her about my planned biking trip to Hawaii at the end of October. She may be being conservative, but when I told her the distances and terrain of a couple of my planned days, she thought I might be over-reaching my capabilities and reminded me that it could take between 6 and 12 months for me to fully recover. Hmmm... Do I need to think about alternative vacation plans? I think I can wait to see my progress at the end of August. If I can comfortably increase my biking mileage between now and then I think (or is it that I want to think) that Hawaii will work out OK as a biking trip. If I'm stuck - as far as progress is concerned - I may need to rethink the trip. Options: to switch to a fossil-fuel-based vehicle as my transportation and to still take a bike to do day trips, or to not take a bike and turn it into a hiking and relaxing vacation. Or to push it out to a timeframe when biking will be reasonable (like the spring). If I push the biking trip into next year I think I need to find somewhere else to visit in the October timeframe. In spite of my being missing in action for a while at work - that wasn't a vacation, and I think I'll need one by then! On the dizziness front - she referred me to an otolarygologist to see if he can help, and I set up an appointment for next week. In the meantime I guess I'll just have to put up with the dizziness when it occurs, and I'll continue to hope that I don't have too many of those really bad dizzy days.
When the weekend rolled around, I was a bit short on sleep. I thought I was getting over my sleeping problems, but apparently I was wrong. Friday night, I fell asleep right away. End of problem, right? Not really - unfortunately I woke up at 2am and stayed awake until 5. Someone (something?) is trying to make me nuts! I watched the time trial in the Tour de France in morning then took a 1-hour nap since 5 hours of sleep just wasn't going to work for me. I grabbed some lunch and headed off for a ride. It was too wet to ride in the morning anyway - there was a very big rain storm overnight with rainfall ranging from 2 to 3 inches around here! It was dry by the time I wandered out on my bike though... It was a short ride day - only 17 miles - of wandering through the area near my house. I was still tired when I headed out, so I continued my current habit of doing some small loops that don't venture too far from home. That way if I feel the need to head home in the middle of my ride, I'm don't have too far to ride.
On Sunday I managed a 24-mile ride. I can't seem to break through the mid-20-mile ride length. An artificial barrier? I don't think so - it's likely related to the stage I'm at in my recovery.
