Like Learning to Ride A Bike All Over Again

[lauraelmore1033]

I injured my back sometime in February and, in spite of some pretty intensive physical therapy, haven't been able to do the kind of riding I'd like to on the road bike (at least not without making the PT seriously annoyed with me...) so I thought a cheepie craig'slist recumbent might help me put in the miles needed to keep from scrapping our touring plans this summer. It was pretty wobbly/scary going for a while, but I think it's going to be ok. I'm going to get the hang of it, but probably not rack up a whole lot of miles just like that. Managed to do a 12 mile ride today (but I needed to do 40) and my inner thighs were on fire by the time I was done. What? you don't use those on a road bike?

[Melalvai]

Good to know if I ever do get a recumbent (it's on my list but a ways down), that I won't be able to just pick up where I'm at with my bike.

Go carefully and avoid overuse injuries. It would be rotten to injure yourself again and be unable to ride either bike!

[AppleTree]

Oh no!! I hope you recover well in time for the summer rides you wanted to do! Good luck on the recumbent, and go easy for a bit.

[lauraelmore1033]

Thanks, I hope so too...
and I gotta add that the hysterectomy was small potatoes compared to the back injury --which was kind of a complication of the hysterectomy, in case you've started your journey down that road...

[girlontheroad]

Oh no! I have had the hysterectomy and the ruptured disk and would agree that the back was much worse. Luckily it resolved itself and at least I didn't have them close together. Hope you are feeling better soon!

[lauraelmore1033]

That is hopeful to hear that it could be all better some day. My Dr and PT both give me the impression that I'm essentially "broken" now, and it will continue to be an issue if I don't keep up with the exercises (although both say my recovery rate is much better than one can usually expect). The back feels much better, but the numbness in the leg continues to linger. As far as riding goes, I have discovered that if I do several shorter rides on the recumbent during the week, I am just fine doing the long training ride on the weekend on the road bike (lots of stretching on the breaks and icepack on standby in the car for when I'm done). It would be sooo nice to go about my day without obsessing about the state of my back.