Wierd fitness

I did my longest ride this year...50 km. Normally by this time of the year, I'm flying through this distance. This ride felt like a 70 km. ride this year.
I didn't quite realize from June - Oct. this year, I've been cycling shorter distances each day after my concussion.

But we took a simple ride through a mountain valley and had headwinds on the way back which exhausted me. I fell asleep very well which was an achievement because of some disrupted sleep patterns.

This year, it doesn't bother me at all that I have been cycling daily but shorter distances. Initially it was to allow myself to be cycling near people all over again. My top priority was to: make cycling pleasurable (and not to be hyper-alert), be able to commute for work, shopping, etc. for daily living. The rest would be icing on the cake. Strangely, this year I've been eating the same volume of food, no changes in diet and with a lot less cycling, but have not gained weight. It is either loss of muscle mass (I never considered myself having much muscle in the first place.) or the accident caused a minor quirk in my metabolism.

What has helped me this year, were other non-cycling interests also.

I'm pretty much in the same boat with trying to adapt to a new reality. My knee replacement outcome was far less than expected so I'm learning how to live with the "me that is", I'm finding I mix things up a lot more now, a little walking, a little cycling, a little swimming and water aerobics. Seems to work just fine and I'm making peace with it.

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Originally Posted by Pax

I'm pretty much in the same boat with trying to adapt to a new reality. My knee replacement outcome was far less than expected so I'm learning how to live with the "me that is", I'm finding I mix things up a lot more now, a little walking, a little cycling, a little swimming and water aerobics. Seems to work just fine and I'm making peace with it.

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This reminds me of a Pema quote….”the truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear new things” …I’m thinking having an open and positive state of mind (a positive frequency as Pema writes) helps a lot in dealing with a new physical reality!!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rebeccaC

This reminds me of a Pema quote….”the truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear new things” …I’m thinking having an open and positive state of mind (a positive frequency as Pema writes) helps a lot in dealing with a new physical reality!!!!

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It truly does, that and her constant reminder to be in this very moment, I was spending all my time and energy on "when my leg gets better I will ____" and it was killing me.

And sometimes you find something that you love just as much as cycling.
Plus, change is good for our bodies. At least for me, the older I get, the more i need to "fool" my body by doing different stuff it to stay at the level of fitness I want. Not necessarily more, just different. I wish I had done this a bit more when I was teaching fitness classes in my 30s and 40s. I set myself up for some nice over use injuries.