...means somewhat of a rest for my tired body
My start back to cycling on July 3rd was followed by another busy day on the 4th.
My friends Barb & Harvey came over with their dog Daphne and we headed out for an hour and a half hike through Harold Parker State Forest. We walked mostly on what was once a dirt road, but is now much narrower than a road and a is bit more like a wide trail. On the way back Harvey detoured onto a side path to avoid totally repeating the trail we'd already walked, but after a few minutes I decided that the narrow path was too uneven for me and headed back the way we came in. After all, I figured I didn't want to risk a fall and injuries of any kind at this stage in my recovery. We finished our hike with a nice lunch at The Vineyard , a wine store and deli within walking distance of my house. No wine - just food!
Home again in the early afternoon... and here I go again! I took a shower to wash off the bug stuff from our hike, and finally took the time to read the Sunday paper - I didn't read it at my usual time in the morning since I was too caught up watching the Tour de France. It was a beautiful day - sunny, a bit windy, decent temperatures.
OK, OK, my bike was calling me again! I headed out on my bike again, and this time managed a ride of 19 miles. It was a slow riding day, and I honestly don't know if my slow speed was due to the wind, or due to the fact that I was probably reaching out past the edge of what I should be doing. I suspect that it was an edge condition... The thing is, the only way I know to improve is to do a bit more every day. For the past two weeks I've been walking an hour to an hour and a half a day. On Saturday, I walked an hour and a half and I rode my bike for an hour. On Sunday, I walked an hour and a half and given my slow riding speed I also rode my bike for close to an hour and a half. Oh wait - that's not doing a bit more day by day - that's doubling the amount of exercise my poor body is currently accustomed to!
Maybe I'm lucky today is an overcast and rainy day... I woke up this morning still feeling tired, and that's in spite of sleeping for ten hours last night. I have to admit that sleeping is still an issue for me right now. My body seems to need more than eight hours of sleep right now, with nine to ten hours appearing to be the magic numbers. Unfortunately I rarely get more than eight hours of sleep since I'm having problems falling asleep at night. So I either really wore myself out over the past couple of days or my body was finally reacting to a couple of nights short of sleep. In either case, I think a day of relative rest is probably a good idea. I'll get out and walk even if it keeps raining - after all that's what umbrellas are meant for. But I think I'll give the bike a rest for the day. I don't especially like riding in the rain, so I'm not likely to go out right now, and even if the pavement dries out it's probably a good idea to exercise some control and not ride today.
The rest of the week? Well I think and hope that's a different story. I plan to continue to do some walking each day, and I plan to also try to do some riding each day. I need to figure out how to balance everything and still improve my fitness level without totally tiring myself out, which could prove to be a step backwards. And of course add to that the fact that I'm still working up to working full-time! I need to be moving in a forward direction, improving every day as much as possible - even if it's a little bit. After all, I still have a vacation goal of riding my bike around the Big Island of Hawaii at the end of October.
Late in the day... I had a much quieter day today, but I still managed to walk for an hour plus. It was the right decision not to ride today, even if the weather had been more tempting. I have a feeling that working up to my normal riding capacity will take quite a while, and my hopes yesterday of working up to commuting to work by bike by the end of July were probably quite unrealistic. That is only four weeks away after all! If I was starting from a normal beginning of season state that would likely be reasonable, but I suspect that with having to work out the after effects of an injured brain (and not just bones and muscle) that it may take longer to get back to normal. I still hope and believe that I have the time to recover a reasonable state of fitness well before my planned departure to Hawaii. Here's hoping that's not just an idle dream!
