After having to workout indoors on the upright and recumbent stationary bikes from Wednesday to Friday, I finally went out on the road bike Saturday morning. It was something I’ve been putting off for a few days for reasons I’ll explain below. I was planning on an hour ride circling the Virginia Country Club area several times but when I got there, there was some kind of cross country race going on. It looked like there was an open race where all comers were welcome to participate in, and a separate high school and maybe even middle school race. Well, I didn’t want to get in their way and also didn’t want to feel envious seeing all these people running, so I left the area and went on the L.A. River bike path instead. It’s still a surprise to me how few people use that path. There were not even too many cyclists, runners, or walkers on Saturday. When I reached the Long Beach lighthouse, there was another event going on but they were already finishing. It was a walk for obesity which was organized by a bariatric medical group who do stomach stapling and lap band procedures. My ride lasted just an hour and nineteen minutes but that was good enough since I haven’t ridden outdoors in a couple of weeks. It still exceeded my one hour goal. Don’t you think it’s interesting that I encountered skinny high school runners with obviously no obesity problems and bariatric patients on the same ride separated only by about 6 miles?
The reason why I’ve worked out indoors since last Tuesday is of course because of my recent right calf injury. I couldn’t even use the elliptical machine and have to limit myself to cycling. Well that injury made the calf hurt a lot going down stairs so either I have to step down with only my left foot with the right foot going down the same rung, or step sideways alternating right and left. I had been afraid that if I was lifting something heavy like a bike, I might fall down the stairs. Somehow doing it sideways doesn’t stretch the injured muscle too much and I found that out on Friday. Finally, I found a way to go downstairs with little pain so I could lift my bike! Not terribly exciting, but if finding something that worked made me mildly ecstatic.
On Friday, I went for a slow 15 minute walk to test the calf and as long as I do it slowly and with short steps, it felt ok. I was able to double the time on Saturday but there was some discomfort after 15 minutes. Oh, I forgot, I was finally able to wear the Louis Garneau cycling shoes during the bike ride and they felt okay.
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