Monday, March 17, 2008

Getting Better All The Time

Two and a half weeks since the surgery and I am feeling quite a bit better. I started the weekend out with a seven mile walk while Jen was doing her second 20 mile training run for Boston. It took me 1:45:00 to walk the seven miles, an average of about 15 minutes per mile. It’s funny to think that when I walked two miles a few days after my surgery it took me 45 minutes – of course I was doing the “old man shuffle” at that time so it’s no surprise that I wasn’t moving very quickly.

On the way home from the walk we stopped at Cyclepath and purchased a trainer. I decided to go with the CycleOps Fluid2 based on feedback I have received and some research I did online.



We spent the evening hanging around the house having drinks and grilling some burgers. That night we watch Blood Diamond which was really good. The other movie we have now is Into the Wild – it was a great book so I am a bit skeptical of the movie but from what I have heard it was done quite well.

Sunday morning we headed up to the gym for a swim. I was a bit tender in the incision area but it was more of a tightness than a soreness. When I would reach out with my left hand I could feel a bit of a pull but it didn’t get any worse during the swim so I just took it easy and ended up doing about 500m. At the end of the swim I felt a bit better, almost like the stretching in the water did some good. I plan on going again tomorrow morning and trying to do 500-750 with little or no stopping (I think the most I did without stopping on Sunday was 100m just because I didn’t want to push it too hard the first time back in the water). Sunday evening we headed down to San Jose with some friends to watch the Sharks play the Oilers. The Sharks were going for 12 wins in a row; unfortunately the ended up losing in the shootout but it was still fun to go and watch the game.

This morning I rode the new trainer for 30 minutes and felt good the whole time. I watched a bit of the Princess Bride on HBO OnDemand and the time went by fairly quickly. I forgot to wear my gloves and didn’t have a towel to wipe my sweat with (yes, I could have just got off the bike and grabbed those two things but by the time I needed them there was only about 10 minutes left in the ride) so next time I will be sure to have those when I start. I am also dealing with a clicking sound on my bike when I pedal which is pretty annoying. I took it into my LBS this weekend and they took apart the bottom bracket and tightened everything up (pedals too) but that didn’t help the problem. This morning I noticed that the sound seemed to be coming from the chain so I’ll take it back in and have them check that out.

4 comments:

Paul said...

ya ya. good flick.

Glad to see you are recovering well!! You'll be hammering it soon enough.

Sweet trainer.

jen said...

Good job getting back into your workouts! The trainer is so sweet.

Pbrmoney said...

Hey Zach,

I don't know how to send you a message through this blogger site. Basically I found your blog through a random google search. I'm having hernia surgery soon, but I'm freaked out b/c I'm a fire fighter during the summer and I'm not sure I'll be recovered by the time the season starts up.

Mind telling me how long you were laid up before you could return to your normal, heavy exercise routine?

Word,
Adam

dasbook21@yahoo.com

Judi said...

Zach, ya gotta learn to work on your own bike, or they will charge you stupid amounts of cash for that! Find a bike co-op that will help you learn. The chain clicking could just possibly be stretching. My Felt does that from time to time too.

You and Jen gotta get bikes and ride the hills in SF. I used to be a bike messenger there in the early 90's.