I have a touring bike that I bought years ago — 2007 maybe? Honestly, I don’t recall exactly when.
Not motorcycle*; a bicycle.
But now I’m pondering another.
Not a mountain bike or road-racing bike. And not another touring-class bike. But perhaps a gravel-bike. Maybe a 650B. Maybe a One-by like a Salsa Journeyman.
I should see about venturing out to find a nearby purveyor to test the fit of each size.
But, it’s on the ToDo list.
If I lived somewhere that I needed to regularly travel beyond the home to commute to an office, then maybe adding a simplistic E-Bike like an Aventon Pace 500 or a Rad Runner would be reasonable.
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*I have a motorcycle, which I haven’t had the confidence to ride since my TBI. And I’m entirely too narrow-minded to part with it. That’s another topic.
There was an old Nike ad years ago: I’m not a runner…
…yet.
I resumed running on about 3 January. About a year after the fall and a stroke. And on the tail end of the infection issue… and a collapsed lung.
I was completely sedentary for the year.
Recovering.
Existing, really.
So, I began walking.
Not very far. I couldn’t even walk much more than a few hundred yards (!) at first.
I’m far too narrow-minded to just hobble along. I wanted to do more.
After a few weeks, I found that I could walk a bit further. I could go half mile then found that I could even jog for very short bursts along that half mile walk.
Re-learn how to walk before you can re-learn how to run.
After a few more months, I was able to jog more than walk. Very, very slowly. And only 10 or 15 minutes or so. Maybe a kilometer. I’m sure it seemed peculiar to the neighbors to see an old guy out at odd hours ambulating around the neighborhood.
I eventually went further and faster than my wife could keep up. So, I made sure that her bicycle was in sufficient shape to travel along with me. She could go with me occasionally when I was out for a run.
I’d posted a few months later that I was going to do a 5k. Okay, fine. Did that. It wasn’t meant to be a metric of speed to compare to anyone else. But a metric of completion.
Fast-forward a few months…
I still run. In fact, now I run a 5k regularly, two or three times per week.
My determination to move, to do more than just exist, has gone a long way toward recovery and improving my overall health.
My endurance is improved.
My resting and peak heart-rates are improved.
My mental focus is improved.
My stress is decreased.
My fatigue is decreased.
I no longer feel consistently “drunk” all the time.
I no longer have diplopia.
I no longer have migraines.
I am not a physician. Do not expect that running or exercise is going to fix anything and everything for you. Consult your doctor. Seriously. But do not give up and accept defeat.
On each Tuesday and Thursday morning, I run a 5k. On Saturdays, I run a bit further. It seems that over a few months, that Saturday run has grown to a 10k.
Besides, I have a run that I need to prepare meself for next May.
Because I have a whiteboard in my office and hardly anyone ever sees it (sometimes, they do) this is something that I wrote up there as a reminder to work in smaller chunks and not to try to fix everything at once.
You cannot boil the ocean. Don’t try. You can only raise the temperature of an extraordinarily minuscule fraction of its water.
Or, put another way, aim small, miss small.
Right, so why is this notable?
Primarily because it’s also occurred to me that my ability to simply wield a pen has improved. And I’m actually rather proud of that.
I had lost the ability to write (agraphia? not sure what it’s called) associated with the fall. I could read just fine, and I could type, albeit rather slowly. Comprehension wasn’t at all an issue. But the ability to make consistent pen-strokes was lost. It simply felt unfamiliar.
Certain letters were more problematic than others, particularly those that had arcs: B, D, O, P, S — I just couldn’t make my hand make the shapes that I wanted.
Now, it’s not as fast as it used to be. But it’s aligned, consistent, and legible, which is quite good, thankyouverymuch.
I’ve had these for a few years. I bought them when I was in Pennsylvania as running shoes. And they ended up becoming everyday-wear and even made a trek around the globe.
I’ve gone on a few times about some of the struggles with which I’ve contended around hearing. I’ll summarize the summaries:
Sound is a problem.
Too summarized?
Okay: sounds are familiar, but something’s not “right”.
I’ve recently started to wonder if part of the challenge is actually something of a hypersensitivity to sound. Apart from going through a period of deafness, so to speak, I wonder if that deafness was something of a neurological attenuation of sounds trying to bring them to appropriate levels for comprehension. Perhaps the initial concern that I’d made — that sounds felt effectively overdriven — may have been an accurate interpretation.
Now I find myself wondering if some mild-grade earplugs with a low NRR could be somewhat beneficial. I don’t need (nor want) a 32 dB NRR solution, which would be ideal for motorcycling or shooting sports. But it’s certainly worth giving something mild a go to see how it will impact my perception.
Permanent? I can also see that it would be as long-lived as my need for a cane has been. I found it inconvenient.
the rest of me 