Fun & Fitness over 50

I was depressed today but I'm much better now after my ride (duh!)

It sprinkled a little in the morning and looked threatening all day but I went out anyway knowing I needed too.

I'm still not up to my minimum 2 hour ride on the weekend. Charles was not in church today so I'm assuming he was away and I didn't feel up to a Charles ride anyway. We usually do at least one hard hill and go out for at least 2 hours. (He's hard to catch too!)

The weather matched my mood but at least it wasn't windy. In fact, there was no wind at all. I didn't get rained on and managed to avoid getting held up by a train on any of the three crossings I encountered although I heard train whistles after one.

I just let it flow again on this ride. In other words, I had no training agenda. I took my favorite route out to the hills, getting out of suburbia as quickly as possible and avoiding heavily travelled roads. I got a good workout on Orchard Hill, the one steep hill on the ride. Sunday is a good day to ride. Low traffic unless there's some kind of special event nearby.

I did well with my shoulder(s) pain(s) on the ride. Lately, the right shoulder blade/arm pain/finger numbness has all but gone away. I still have a problem on the top of my right shoulder but that's been ongoing for years and I managed to not pull on it during this ride. If I have to pull on a climb or pedaling out of the saddle, I use my core muscles and forearms. I did pretty well remembering that on this ride.

However, I now have some pretty bad pain on the left shoulder blade on the inside facing my spine! I hardly felt it at all while riding though. I'm wondering if the road bike position is good for the shoulders as it is for my lower back. Rick Olderman, physical therapist and author of the "Fixing You" series, says most shoulder and neck pain is from one or both shoulder blades sitting either too low or too far from the spine or both. The primary and most basic exercise he uses to fix this is the "All-Fours Rocking Stretch". As I rode and observed my shoulder and arm position on the bike, I thought it was very similar to the stretch obtained using this exercise. Of course, in the exercise, the stretch is only held for 30 to 60 seconds not an hour and a half!

In any event, it didn't hurt so that's saying something.

I'm also trying to be careful with my lower body. I noticed on my first Charles ride this year that my left leg hurt behind the knee and in the Achilles tendon. Also I had some pain in the right inside hip joint near the groin which has been an off and on problem but hasn't bothered me all winter where downhill skiing was my primary exercise. Today, I did not have any pain behind the knee or Achilles tendon but noticed the beginnings of something on the outside left hip. I just backed off for awhile and it went away.

Wow! Am I falling apart? Well, I AM a year older.

All in all, though, I would say it was a very satisfying ride and I'm glad I went out. I always am! I'm grateful for Mrs. MTBMan1 who is always supportive of my riding and encourages me to go out with pushing me to. Thanks, Hon!

Here are today's stats:
Cadence: 69 RPM
Distance: 15.6 miles
Time: 1:14
Average speed:12.7 mph
Average heart rate:129
Max heart rate: 159
Calories:835
Time in zone 1: 17:35
Time in zone 2: 38:42
Time in zone 3: 17:26