I knew John was coming over for a ride…and to take ‘The Rocket’ back. I had just enough time to pack up his back and head for the border, or do a run. I went to the park for a run.
I hadn’t done a run since the fourth week following surgery when, after a 12 minute run, I’d had some knee pain. That pain had intensified as I’d increased my riding and the doc had suggested I cut back during my 5-week check-up, which I had. It was now 8 weeks later and I was determined to find out where I stood. I headed for my favorite metropark trail for a run I planned to take 20 minutes. This time I stuck to the plan.
I didn’t have any knee pain during or immediately after the run, but I did feel sluggish and had run slow. My running conditioning was nonexistent and it was going to take some time to recapture it. Biking is great, but no substitution for running. It would come back quickly though, and I wasn’t worried.
I arrived home just before John and began preparing for our ride. He’d been doing some riding on a hybrid, but this would be his first ride on a standard road bike since the previous fall…before neck surgery. His lower back was still troubling him and the real reason he hadn’t tried to ride. He felt the tuck position necessary to ride a road bike was at the root of his problem. Well…we’d soon find out.
I planned a route with only a couple of smaller climbs since John was complaining before we even got started that he was out of shape. He claimed he’d gained about 15 pounds of pure fat and needed to work it off slowly. I had some sympathy, but he was reclaiming ‘The Rocket’ and I would be forced to ride a mere mortal bike again, so I figured he deserved to suffer a little.
We rode into Waite Hill and climbed one hill, but with ‘The Rocket’ beneath him, he didn’t seem to be having any trouble and, for that matter, with any part of the ride. We managed to go about 90 minutes and he was pain-free at the conclusion and quite encouraged. We hope to be in the Adirondacks climbing by mid-September and now that seems like a realistic goal for John, though we’ll have to see what tomorrow morning brings. For me, it was a decent double with no knee pain. I’ll be careful adding in running and maybe try again after two days off.
Run Duration: 20 minutes. Bike Duration: 90 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 145 running and 120 bpm cycling.
Calories burned during workout: 350 running and 1200 cycling.
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