Category: Bicycling

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October Bicycle Trip…can I still do this? Hmmm…

I had a wonderful time on my trip with a good buddy last summer, and Nashville was one of the stops. It turns out that someone I know is leading a 6-day meditation retreat there this October. I also have friends in the area, and…well…I want to go!

That’s Google’s version of a bike route. It’s 551 miles long, which is doable for me if I get back in bicycle shape. It seems even easier in that I would plan on spending a few days in Owensboro at the start of the trip, a week or more in Nashville, of course, and then a few days in both Chattanooga and Tuscaloosa.

These things never go exactly as planned, so I doubt that route will hold up if I can register for the retreat.

My friend from Colorado may also want to participate for at least some of it, and we have contacts in St. Louis. So this could easily turn into something bigger and grander. Or, as things do from time to time, it might just fizzle out.

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My second real bicycle ride since all the surgery!

Check out my ride on Strava.
https://strava.app.link/aC9Z3g9cdFb

This was the second time I jumped on one of my bicycles and went for a ride since May 2022. That month, I had to get off the bike and had emergency back surgery for a herniated disc between L4 and L5. I was losing control of my legs and couldn’t walk, but oddly, I could still ride until about two weeks before the repair.

If you’ve had back surgery, you probably know you aren’t allowed to do anything like bend over, lift anything over ten pounds, or twist your back for about six weeks. So…no bicycles. Then, I started physical therapy.

That went well, but during my recovery, I discovered that my knees had finally given up the ghost. I’d had terrible knees for years. I think all the cycling had extended their useful life by years and years, but no more.

So, in January 2023, I had bilateral knee replacement surgery. That meant an even longer recovery period, though I didn’t need to be as careful as I did when I underwent back surgery.

During this time, I used an electric scooter to get around, as bicycling wasn’t a thing. At first, my knees didn’t bend enough to allow it. Later, they were just too weak to allow much riding. Of course, with therapy, everything improved. A few rides on the Biki bike-share bikes proved I wasn’t quite ready, though.

To continue my exercise, I switched to a Xootr kick scooter and worked back up to a ten-mile ride. I love my Xootr.

Then, last week, about ten months after surgery, I decided it was time. I hopped on my Bike Friday pakiT and headed out. As I recall, I rode just under thirteen miles and felt great. My, um, saddle needs a bit of work. Not the bike’s saddle, mine.

This past week, it rained whenever I thought I might head out. That’s no fun. But Saturday was beautiful, and I hopped back on and had a lovely twenty-mile ride with no issues. Even my saddle cooperated!

It’s time to start getting ready for some sort of long ride in the coming year. And if you’ve ever followed the blog, you’ll know I like week-long tours. The last one I did was a week or so on the Katy Trail in Missouri and it was a gas!