Been walking for about 4 weeks now. the PT says I still walk with a limp although I no longer have pain. My muscles have been trained to limp now which I need to break. It's weird because I don't notice I have a limp and feel I'm walking normal. Have been doing some rides trying to build a base and build my left leg at the same time. I'll have a decent ride by myself and then ride with Jane and she'll pretty much put the hurt on me in the straights. I just don't have any power, or atleast can't hold it. I need to be more consistent with PT as I've been slacking. And the fact that Jane and I were in the Virgin Islands for the last 9 days.
I need to stay motivated to workout my leg 5 times a week. 3 weight training days and 2 balance, core, small muscle stuff.
Monday, after hardly eating anything good or in good quantity over the weekend, and traveling 18 hours home on Sunday, not getting to bed until 3am Monday, and again not eating much and mowing the lawn before we rode, we set out to ride and easy 25 miles. Our plan was to ride to minnesota, do 1 climb and soft pedal home. Well the loop that we took was longer than we thought and we made a wrong turn. Ended up riding 40 miles with 1500 feet of climbing and 20mph headwinds the 2nd half. Normally that would be nothing, but considering all the above, I was completely wasted. Barely made it home after 3 hours. Tuesday and wednesday my left hip is pretty sore - Need to work on pedaling smooth and actually using my quad and stop when it's tired. I must have been compensating somehow and trashed my hip.
Wednesday went on the "slow group" ride and had to peel off at 7 miles because I couldn't hold the pace. PT tests show my left leg is 35% deficient in strength. Next test is 2 weeks away. We'll see how much I can gain.
It's funny how our bodies will compensate. It's taken me months to train the odd compensations out of my pedal stroke (and walk), and to be honest I'm still not sure it's all gone. My last nagging thing is descending stairs. It still hurts because I'm missing some strength, though going up is fine. Where I notice this on the bike is pushing the pedal from 11 o'clock to 2 o'clock. Once its over the top I can mash it down, but pushing over the top I still have a glitch (same muscles as descending stairs, and seated leg extensions). Keep at it.
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