CyclingAgain2

(Sammy J Shuford) #1

Im back again but this time it for medical reasons. I have had L5-S1 surgery, and now the L4-L4 joint bothers me. But setting on my road cycle put my back in a curve to take the pressure off that joint… and yes, even my spine doctor recommends cycling

IMG_1219%203
IMG_1219 3.jpeg1228×2183 820 KB

(Bob M) #2

That’s great news! I miss cycling.

(Central Florida Bob ) #3

Which Cannondale model is that? I used to ride an R500, I’m gonna SWAG around Y2K, and Cannondale Hybrid before that ('94-'99? ). Ran into a deal on an Airborne Titanium bike in '05 and have ridden that ever since.

(Sammy J Shuford) #4

CADD 4, R600. Also (long time ago) had a CAAD4 R800. The tires were laced with too close in a separation, made a fancy pattern, but not very strong. I ripped a rear wheel up climbing a hill.

(Bob M) #5

@CFLBob, did you find a difference in ride quality? You went from a supposedly stiff aluminum (?) bike to titanium, which is supposed to provide a smoother ride.

I rode a LeMond steel bike for a long time.

I stopped riding because the roads near me are so narrow and dangerous. Many of them can’t fit two cars. When I take my dog jogging, we only have 0.2 miles where it’s super narrow and on a road with a lot of traffic. It’s harrowing.

(Central Florida Bob ) #6

To be completely honest, I don’t really remember. First off, it was 21 years ago - that’s the big one - but the other part is the R500 was regular drop handlebar, road bike, while the Titanium bike (Airborne) was more like a hybrid touring-bike. It had Mountain bike-style, flat handlebars, different shifters, the whole 9 yards.

I converted it to a road bike replacing the handlebars, shifters and probably other stuff I don’t remember, but the bottom line was that I went from road bike (Cannondale) to touring bike to road bike over the course of a few months, rather than one day to the next.

I stopped riding about a year ago, primarily because of the Afib issues I was having. The roads here are generally good, the area is not quite as “flat as a board” like south Florida, but nobody would call it hilly. The bigger roads have bike lanes, but not the neighborhoods I was riding in and around.

(Bob M) #7

Bob, how are the Afibs after the ablation?

I got up to riding two centuries, where one of them what in New York and was specifically made to be as hard as they could make it. It had quite a bit of elevation “gain”, which was a ton of 300-500 foot climbs. Nothing spectacular, but if you add them all up, it was a few thousand feet of climbs. Nothing like the Grand Tours, where they gain more than that on one mountain, but climbing nonetheless.

(Central Florida Bob ) #8

I’m pretty much unaware of Afibs or an arrhythmias - but I wasn’t aware of them before the annual exam when the tech asked about it. Not to repeat the story too much, but she was doing my annual echocardiogram and asked if my Afib bothered me. I said I’ve never known I had them and she said, “you’re having Afib now.” Could have knocked me over with a feather. That repeated on the plain EKG they do on every visit. After the ablation, they said I had no Afib or any other arrhythmia so “see ya next year.” That’ll be next April.

Our local bike club has a century every year around the end of October and my wife and I have done a bunch of those, but stopped doing those as she was starting to need a second hip replacement (other side, not second on the same side). Pretty sure that was 2008. I’ve driven around in the Finger Lakes area of NY. Far hillier than around here.

Two years ago as I as getting close to 70, I decided to ride my age again, like we always used to. Didn’t quite make it due to some inexperience with some of the route. But if I’m remembering correctly I did 68 miles that day. Hey, that means if I started back now, I could probably do 73 miles in February this year. Hmmm.

Probably better not.

(Bob M) #9

That’s great about no Afib.

Riding the same miles as age is fantastic.

I was driving to work this morning, in the dark, and it’s when someone comes at you with lights on and you have to slow down to ensure you don’t (1) hit them or (2) go off the road, where you realize how narrow the roads are. Most of them can barely fit two cars. Some of them can’t.

Where I was before, many of the “major” roads were a lot wider. It was also a lot hillier.

Now, I’m jogging with my dog at “dog speed”. It takes us about 40 minutes to go 2.x miles. But that also includes having to wait in someone’s driveway because we have to wait for cars to pass on the super narrow section. And she likes it, as she gets to pee and smell all over the place.