Post by jeffn on Sept 7, 2014 20:21:13 GMT -5
My wife flew down to Florida on Friday to take her father back after his summer here. She was due back today and as it was a nice weekend day finally. I was thinking quality time on the boat. So I needed to get a car to the airport as she seems to take it personally if I go boating and she has to take a cab home. Nobody was around to pick me up after I left her car at the airport. The airport is like two miles from my home so I thinking options - I could walk but that takes too long. I could grab a cab buy I did not want to spend money on a cab. Hence - Hey I'll ride my bike back, I had been rearranging the garage at the start of the summer and moving bikes. The tires were flat on mine so I pumped them up and wondered if I could still ride. Took a quick ride in the yard and it went OK and thought maybe I would try to ride it at some point. So today I threw the bike in the back of the car, went to the airport, parked and set off on the bike. Now keep in mind that I had not ridden for at least the eight years since SD onset and who knows how long before that. Sometimes I would ride the quarter mile to the inlaws before SD but had not gone very far on a bike since my son was small and he is 30 now. Anyway off I go. Knees and legs just above the knees get sore quickly. The leg thing goes back to when I had watermelon stomach and my hemoglobin was silly low. At that time when I had a job that I needed to use step ladders a lot my legs just above my knees would kill me. I called it "dead leg" at the time. That never really went away, I feel that I damaged the muscle somehow back then. The knee pain is collagen and tendon related, just kind of stiff. Back to the bike adventure - it has been so long since I have ridden I have forgotten what gear is what, I thought I was on the low ones. Went a quarter of a mile are so and figured it all out again and I was in the high gears, things did go better after that found a proper gear. Had a nice ride I used some of our new bike paths that I had not been on. Got home and was sore for a little while and then things returned to normal or what passes for normal anyway. I am happy it went as well as it did I may try some short rides to try and work the knees. From the middle of Oct. to late April I have a gym membership and that helps the knees a lot but they tend to stiffen up in the summer even though I am busy and moving a lot. A bike ride occasionally may help the knees. I think that biking may be one of the last pre SD things that I had not tried again. An interesting day.
