Beautiful

Since dropping off my trusty new(ish) mountain bike, herein referred to as "White Lightenin'" (I know . . . just - I know . . .) for a tune-up, I've been using my road bike, Mike the Bike, and my own short stubby legs to get around. I biked a couple times to work (a 16 km round trip, plus another 2.5 km for dropping off/picking up my daughter at daycare), and another couple times I've opted to walk through the river valley (a 12 km round trip, plus the 2.5 km to daycare). Luckily, the weather's been holding out for this - it has been BEEEEAAAAUUUUUTIFUL the past few days! Even when it rains, the rain is short-lived and doesn't cloud the whole day with grey, dismal skies. There has been some intense wind here and there, sometimes gusting up to 40-60 km/hr, but I just try walking those days instead of biking and I barely notice it.

Even on the days that I haven't had to go into the university, I've made efforts to get out and do some biking or walking, just for the sake of getting some exercise and fresh air. In fact, I've made a deal with myself: I've put a moratorium on dieting - I am no longer allowing myself any kind of restriction, calorie counting, or food group limitations whatsoever, so I eat whatever I want whenever I want without handicap - with the understanding that I also exercise at least an hour a day, at least five days a week. This is my way of trying to break my lifelong cyclical habit of dieting and bingeing, then dieting more and bingeing again, etc. etc. If I can manage to break free of the scarcity model - i.e., eating as much as I can whenever I'm not dieting because I know I'm probably going to start severely restricting right away - perhaps I can start having a healthier relationship with food. I'm just over a week into this new experiment - I'll keep you posted how that turns out!!

In the meantime, I'll continue making a concerted effort to exercise, and that means a whole lot of biking and walking whenever I can. Given the beautiful weather we've had lately, that's turning out to be quite a blessing. It's only when I'm outside enjoying the fresh air, taking in the scenery of our beautiful river valley or cruising through thoughtfully-designed established neighbourhoods in central and west Edmonton, that I fully appreciate the beauty therein. The hum of my tires on the pavement, the rhythmic beating of my heart and legs, the cool spring air breezing over my skin. "Beautiful," I say aloud under my breath. The parks, the beautiful old houses, the bright blue skies, the children playing on elaborate play structures in neighbourhood schools: "Just beautiful". It fills me with pleasure, appreciation, and great gratitude. This is living.

I don't get that in my car.

Snap, Crackle, Pop!

WEATHER THERE: sunny, -2C (-5C with windchill), 8 km/hr cross/headwinds
WEATHER BACK: sunny, 7C, 11 km/hr headwinds gusting to 28 km/hr

I need to change my tires - BADLY.

My beautiful Myka Pro mountain bike is still wearing her insane Schwalbe Ice Spiker tires. These were the all-time best tires in the history of the world for riding on ice and snow, but now that the streets are largely bare they are simply 5 lbs of metallic rolling resistance. They are the bike tire equivalent of wearing spurs, given that there is no way I could possibly sneak up on someone: from a block out, a pedestrian would be able to hear me coming with the snap-crackle-pop sound of my studs demolishing the road beneath them. It literally sounds like I'm riding over Rice Krispies everywhere I go. I guess that's a good thing for safety - being loud - so I guess there is always a silver lining!

But, man, it does not help my feeling that I'm embarassingly out of shape to be riding on tires with that much weight and rolling resistance. I'm working my ass off to maintain speeds of 20 km/hr - and, sure, maybe that's a combination of me being out of shape and my bike needing a good spring tune-up and whatever other excuses I can come up with - but I'm thinking that these daily commutes would get a whole lot easier if I had my regular tires back on. I'm going to try to take my bike in to the shop to get the tires changed out on Wednesday evening or Thursday during the day because - sadly - I've never learned to change my tires myself. And, maybe even more sadly, I'm not that interested in learning - keeping the chain clean and lubricated is enough dirty work for my taste!

I'm hoping by next week I'll be back on regular mountain bike tires and enjoying an easier, faster ride. In the meantime, if you hear some snap-crackle-and-pop nearby and a whole lot of panting, feel free to wave and give me a sympathetic smile. I could sure use the encouragement!

Sore

WEATHER THERE: sunny, -4C (-7C with windchill), 8 km/hr cross/headwinds
WEATHER BACK: cloudy, 2C, 22 km/hr cross/tailwinds

As my daughter might say: I'm sooooooore!

I don't really have any hobbies, sadly. Ever since grad school, and especially since becoming a single parent in grad school, I haven't had the time or money to really be able to do much of anything fun. I go out to movies whenever I can, and I read whenever I can, but for the most part I have ceased to be a remotely interesting person. That kind of sucks. So I decided to change that - I decided to join a recreational dodgeball league! It was either that or softball, and since I don't really know how to play any team sports and never have in my life, I figured the learning curve would be more manageable for dodgeball. Also, it seemed like a lot more fun!

My first game of the season was last night. Turns out - I suck! But there is a lot of room for improvement, and by the end of our one-hour match I made a couple good catches and got a few people out. It might take a while, but I'll get better with more and more practice. Nothing but better from here, I say!

The downside is that even before the end of the game I was sore. I threw out my left hip because of the weird way I throw the ball with my right hand, and by the time I got home from the game last night I was limping and feeling pretty stiff. It only got worse overnight, as my right shoulder started to seize up as well. This did not bode well, especially since I had planned for today to be my first day back to biking since that short spate of nice weather we had in mid-March. Despite waking up with aches and stiffness all over, I determined I'd stick to the plan, and I biked my daughter to daycare with the trailer before biking to work this morning.

Ultimately, I'm sure the exercise actually helped with my soreness and stiffness, but man did my commute-time suffer from my stiff-and-out-of-shape-ness! It took me a solid 30 minutes from daycare to work, and although there weren't a lot of bike commuters out this morning, I did get blown past by a cyclist on campus who put my palty 16 km/hr to shame. And I was working for that! Blargh! Ahh well. The more I bike, the easier it'll get. And the more I play dodgeball, the better I'll get at that - and less sore, too. The point is that I'm becoming interesting again - I officially have a hobby! Hell, maybe even two if you count biking! Despite the soooooore, this is turning out to be a mighty fine personal development . . .

The Fuzz

WEATHER THERE: cloudy, -5C (-9C with windchill), 9 km/hr cross/tailwinds
WEATHER BACK: sunny, 5C, calm wind

I haven't been on the bike for quite some time, between my three-month-long lung infection and the frigid temperatures and the epic snowfall this year. However, this week is supposed to boast above-zero temperatures every day, so I thought I'd break out the old bike and get back in the saddle again. A couple things about that . . .

FIRSTLY - today is the first time ever - and I mean EVER - that I was actually pulled over by a cop. I'm talking the flashing lights and everything. I've never been pulled over while DRIVING, let alone while on a bike! My infraction? I rode my bike across a crosswalk instead of getting off and walking it. Make no mistake - I understand that this is technically a bylaw infraction, so I guess I can't really fault the guy for calling me on it. Still - I get pulled over for THIS?? At least he didn't write me a ticket! And I guess I'll be a lot more careful that the next time I happen to bike across a crosswalk when there are no pedestrians around and only one car within sight: I will make sure that the one car within sight is not a COP CAR.

SECONDLY - I am out of shape, my friends. I've been trying to lose the weight that I put back on when I stopped biking consistently way back in July, and lately I've been making great strides on that, but it never happens as fast as I want it to. Besides that, because I'm losing weight mostly through diet rather than exercise, when I tried getting back on the bike again today I couldn't believe how much of a workout it was. It was a bit tiring on the way to work, but on the way home it was BRUTAL. You see, all those inches of packed-down snow that evenly coat the residential streets are still frozen in the morning and relatively easy to bike on. However, by the time I ride home at the end of the day they are sloppy and mushy and I sink to the bottom while inches of dense snow pack around my tires. On the main roads I was coasting along at 20-25 km/hr, but as soon as I hit that messy slop my speed dropped down to 12-13 km/hr and even at that speed I was working for it. By the time I got home from work today, I was ready for a big dinner, a hot shower, and a nice nap. Instead, of course, I made a mediocre dinner and messed around on the internet while procrasti-mastering my way out of studying for a big licensing exam. I'm living large and in charge!

What a day!! Here's hoping that's the last time I get pulled over by The Fuzz . . .

Ice Spiker Indeed!

WEATHER THERE: clear, -4C (-6C with windchill), 6 km/hr cross/tailwinds

WEATHER BACK: sunny, 1C, 13 km/hr tailwinds

All hail, Oh Mighty Ice Spiker tires!!

Wow. Just . . . wow. Seriously. With all the snow we got in early January, then the perpetual melt-and-freeze cycling we've been going through since then, roads and sidewalks are left covered in ice. For the first time in ages, I took advantage of the mild weather and hooked the trailer onto the bike and rode my daughter to daycare today. I was all fine and good until I got to her daycare and got off my bike, only to find that the sidewalks had been replaced by ice rinks and my shoes could barely get any traction. I walked her into the building with ginger baby steps, trying not to fall down.

Why the hell can I barely walk when biking was such a non-issue, you ask? Because I have the all-time greatest tires in the world on my bike! That's right, my friends! These Schwalbe Ice Spikers, man, I'm telling you - they are intense! I encountered many serious ice patches, some literally as smooth as an ice rink, and I didn't so much as waver - not even when pulling the trailer. I even stuck to my preferred residential route, which has much more ice cover than the main roads but makes up for it with virtually no car traffic, and there wasn't even a hint of lost traction.

By the time I got to work, I kind of wanted to make out with my tires. That's how much I'm in love with them. When it comes to icy roads, there's nothing I'd rather be on than my studded-out bike - my car has nothing on this puppy!

Why, Yes, That IS Sweat Pooling in my Underwear

WEATHER THERE: clear, -7C (-11C with windchill), 9 km/hr cross/tailwinds

WEATHER BACK: clear, 3C, 6 km/hr cross/headwinds

Ahh, it's good to be back indeed! It's relatively mild out, so all I have to wear is a hoodie over a thermal turtleneck, some thin running gloves, and a scarf covering my ears. The days are already getting noticeably longer, inspiring sweet hope in my heart that the long, dark days of winter are over.

The downside to the mildness is that the epic dumping of snow we had earlier in the month is getting mushy. Not slushy, which squishes away as cars go over it and quickly melts into nothing. No, it's mushy - the kind of "brown sugar" (a far too kind euphenism, in my humble opinion) that cars sink through to the ice sheets underneath, and that packs into even the knobbiest of tire treads and turns everything heavy and slick. My tires turn into heavy fluffy caterpillars when I bike through that stuff, and it's often difficult to maintain control because as I sink through the snow it tends to push me this way and that. Cars fare no better, really - just last night, I saw a City of Edmonton 1/2-ton truck spinning its tires and sliding around on the road right in front of my house. That big truck was stuck - in the middle of the road, where it's the easiest to get around - for several minutes before it finally got out and made haste to a busier, clearer road. I haven't tried moving my car out of the parking spot in front of my house since Saturday, and I suspect that when I try to go to a movie tonight with a friend I won't be able to get my car out at all. This should be interesting.

The good news - I guess - of this mushy terrain is that it's one hell of a workout to try to bike through, especially for someone who hasn't exercised in three months. These first two days of getting back on the bike have been killer! My muscles ache, I pant until I can taste iron in my mouth, sweat runs in rivulets down my back (hence the title of this post), and by about 8:00 pm I'm ready for bed - though, by the time I actually try to go to bet at 10:30 I'm wide awake! At least I can take comfort in knowing that if I keep this up, I'll be back to my bike-riding fitness heyday in no time. Goooo cardio!!

My First Snowy Commute of the Year

WEATHER THERE: mostly cloudy, -2C (-7C with windchill), 17 km/hr crosswinds
WEATHER BACK: Sunny, 0C (-3C with windchill), 8 km/hr crosswinds

Bike, my friend, it's been a while. It's awfully nice to see you again.

The view from my office window at my lovely new(ish) bike.

I've been planning to get back to biking for a couple weeks now, but I've had to wait until the streets were clear enough to make it safe for me to do so. All the snow we've had this month - and the city's inability to keep up with its removal, especially as you get farther away from the city centre - has made for a whole lot more driving than I've cared for this month. But over the weekend, temperatures mercifully rose. The snow began to melt and be pushed by traffic off to the sides of the roads.

I walked my daughter to the grocery store on Sunday to survey the conditions of the roads and sidewalks up close, trying to gauge whether it was safe to get back on the bike. The sidewalks were in utter chaos - some people haven't even bothered shoveling at all, and others shoveled just enough to create a treacherous narrow walking path through a valley of hip-height snowbanks. Not exactly stroller-friendly. Other sidewalks were well shoveled but with the melting and overnight freezing of the surrounding snow, these were often overcome with sheer ice patches. I also encountered some impressive, 2- and 3-foot high windrows blocking the sidewalks where snow plows had cleared a path through laneways then managed to dump half of the cleared snow onto the sidewalks that intersect them. I can't say these were easy to scale with a stroller. It occurred to me as I struggled to push my daughter's stroller down the sidewalk that I was eternally grateful for being able-bodied. I cannot imagine what a person in a wheelchair must have to deal with in a poorly maintained winter city like this.

So, my reconnaisance mission determined one thing: if I stuck to major roadways and didn't even think about getting up onto the sidewalks, I could absolutely bike to work this week.

LET'S DO THIS!!!

Stony Plain Road was quite clear - wet and mushy, but clear enough to ride on easily. Jasper Avenue was also very good - mushy and slippery off to the sides, but clear everywhere else. The bike lane along 100 Avenue was completely covered over by a big snowbank that narrowed the one-way street to barely more than one lane, so I took to the plowed-but-not-clear sidewalk there for safety's sake. Despite exerting the same or more effort, my top speed suddenly dropped from 24 km/hr on the clear roads to 13 km/hr on the dense snow packed sidewalk. Luckily, east of 116 Street the roads were clear and wide enough for me to ride safely again, so I took to the streets once again. The High Level Bridge had some ice patches, but nothing to cause any concern until I hit the hill on the south end of the bridge. That was completely covered in ice. I dropped an f-bomb under my breath, dropped down a gear, and dug in. My Ice Spiker tires chewed up the ice like crazy and I got up the hill, panting hard but none the worse for wear.

It's been a real joy being able to look out my window at work and see my trusty steed out there waiting for me. As much as a part of me dreaded getting back to riding again (I mean, let's not kid ourselves, it's a lot easier to sleep in and then drive to work, singing along to the radio with the heater on!), I am SO glad I did it. I feel accomplished. I DID something today, something good for myself and for the environment, and for my bank account too ($15 a day for parking is obscene!!). Since my Mystery Illness blind-sided me and left me unable to do much exercise three months ago, I've been looking forward to this day when I could finally get back into the healthy routine I started last year. I've really gotten out of shape over the past three months, between the illness and the holidays, but I'm determined that today is the first day back to being a Healthy Biker.

A nice healthy dinner upon my return home - a simple baked salmon filet with lemon and rosemary. I'm trying to be a better example for my daughter!

Yay, biking! Yay, life! Yay, everything!! Ahh, what a beautiful day . . .

And Then . . . And Then . . . And Then . . .

This blog mocks me. Healthy Biker is a cursed moniker that has rendered me neither healthy nor a biker. Now, I am The Car-Dependent Invalid.

Okay, okay, perhaps that's overstating the point. Nevertheless, it seems like every time I vow to get back on the bike something happens to interfere with those plans. For instance:

Despite still suffering remnants of a mysterious illness that no x-ray, ultrasound, or blood test has yet found a name for, I vowed to get back to bike-commuting after the Christmas holidays. I was out of town for two weeks and - as per tradition - put on about 10 lbs of holiday cheer. As such, I felt pretty motivated to get back to eating like a human being and exercising regularly in January. This is something I haven't done for a while, actually, because of the aforementioned Mystery Illness. So, for my first day back to work on January 10th, I was all ready to hop on the bike and go.

AND THEN . . .

Photo by John Lucas, edmontonjournal.com

Snowmaggedon. Snowpocalypse. Whatever you call it, it was quite the snowrdeal. 30 cm of snow fell the weekend of January 8-10. I didn't leave my house at all except to shovel for three days. When I did try to take the bike out on Tuesday to see if I could get through the accumulation, I couldn't get farther than two blocks without getting off my bike THREE TIMES to walk it through impassable snow drifts. FINE! I'll have to delay bike-commuting for another week or so while I let the city clear this up a bit. So maybe I can get back on the bike on January 17th.

AND THEN . . .

Ed Kaiser for The Edmonton Journal

More snow!!

This past weekend we saw another 20 cm or snow. For you metrically-challenged out there, the 50 cm accumulation that we've seen over the past two weeks means we've had about 20 inches of snow. That means I've been spending most of my free time either shovelling, staying indoors and going stir-crazy with my daughter, or enlisting the help of neighbours to help me push my car out of wherever it's stuck. The roof of my house is collecting ice dams that are causing major ceiling leaks. I can't bike because even the main roads are so icy, snowy, and laden with snowbanks that there is no safe way to get to work. There might not be for quite some time. My car just spent 30 hours of the past weekend stuck in deep snow because I fish-tailed into a part of the road that hadn't been cleared, and that's how long it took for me to wait for a tow truck to arrive. All this had led me to the same question I ask myself every winter, but now more than ever:

My ceiling leak - the first one.

WHY THE F%&* DO I LIVE HERE?????

As soon as I'm actually able to ride again, I will post more. Until then, I'll wait impatiently for the city to clear the roads and people to clear their sidewalks so that maybe, just maybe, I'll actually get a chance to ride this winter.

Illness - Day 38

Seriously, Body, WTF?

It's been over a month since I was first afflicted with my strange illness. It was pretty rough for the first few days, causing a generally-non-medicating person to down the maximum dosage of my prescription painkillers every day. After the first few days it's been fairly mild, and I have to say that it's been quite a while since discomfort has kept me up at night. Still . . . after two courses of antibiotics, X-rays, ultrasounds, blood tests and urine samples, I am no closer to an answer as to what this actually is/was. And worst of all, it's not completely gone. Just last night and even this morning I've had a few pangs of pain. So what gives?

I'm about to head out of town for the holidays, so I haven't visited the doctor again since finishing my latest two-week course of antibiotics a few days ago. I'll do that when I get back, at which point he may suggest that the next step is IV antibiotics as an outpatient in a hospital. For how little this illness is currently affecting me, the investigation and treatment sure seems to be taking up a lot of my time! Good thing I don't have to pay out of pocket for all this - thank you universal healthcare!! xoxo (That's right, I'm making out with universal health care, deal with it.)

The last time I saw the doctor he told me to avoid bike-commuting for the time being. Despite for the most part cautiously heeding his warning, I did go for a 8-km round trip ride to the bank about a week ago just to try out my new studded tires. It was AWESOME! I fishtailed a couple times, but for the most part I felt more steady on my bike than I have in my car on these snowy roads. I was dismayed at how out of shape I was, though. MAN, riding in the snow sure takes it out of you! Especially when you haven't exercised in a while.

When I get back from the holidays I'm getting back on the damn bike. Clearly, not biking hasn't made my illness go away, so I might as well take a stab at whether biking will help me out. Research has demonstrated that exercising through illnesses such as colds can boost our immune system and that being sick doesn't impact our exercise performance. So, who knows? Maybe getting back in the saddle is just what the doctor ordered . . . except he didn't . . . but I'm gonna do it anyway!

Today is my last day at work before the holidays, and then I'm off until the 5th. So long, suckers!! That is to say, have a fabulous holiday season and a wonderful new year, and I look forward to joining the ranks of my fellow winter bike-commuters again in January!

Keep it real, my friends. And have a safe, warm, and happy holiday.

Illness - Day 23

As much as my lovely pain-y goodness has decreased substantially since the first few days of illness, these damn symptoms will not go away. I went back to the doctor to complain that the treatment so far isn't completely working, though things have improved. He ordered some more blood and urine tests and x-rays as well as an abdominal ultrasound. The tests came back suggesting some kind of kidney infection, so he prescribed a two-week course of antibiotics to kill that off. I've started on those, but my symptoms are still not completely gone. Hopefully by the time I'm done with the antibiotics it'll all be over. Still, my ultrasound appointment isn't for another 9 days, so there's also a part of me that's hoping there's more to this story that we haven't figured out yet given that my symptoms are atypical for a kidney infection.

I was halfway out of the doctor's office when I turned around suddenly. "I'm a bike-commuter, and since I'm feeling a lot better do you think that it's okay for me to get back on my bike yet?" I asked hopefully. The doctor thought about this for a moment, then said "Well, you are ill, even if you don't always feel that way. Also, I'm worried that the seating position on a bicycle might exacerbate some of what's going on there. This is a pretty virulent strain of bacteria that you have." Damnit! No bike-commuting yet.

I did find one little trick to get in a bit of exercise, though. I've just discovered that I can park my car at a public park about a 3.25 km (~30 min) walk from the university for free. So I park there, walk the rest of the way to work, and then walk back to my car at the end of the day. It adds almost a full half-hour to my commute each way, but at least I get an hour of exercise and a solid 6.5 km walk in each day. That's a whole lot better than nothing at all! And walking is so low-impact I can't imagine it being deleterious to my health! Don't I feel clever . . .

Pleurisy - Day 8

In my last post I noted that I've been tentatively diagnosed with pleurisy, an infection of the outer lining of the lung. I was put on antibiotics and anti-inflammatory painkillers to help with this, and I was also given a one-week trial pack of acid blockers by one doctor who was convinced it was not a lung issue, but rather a stomach issue. I've been taking all of these drugs consistently, even though I'm fully convinced it's not a stomach issue (I mean, really, stabbing pain directly under my left breast and in my upper dorsal rib cage that is worsened by breathing but unaffected by food/water intake is a stomach issue?? But I digress . . .).

By the middle of last week I was starting to feel a bit better. I was well enough to get my daughter back from her father, who was taking care of her during the worst of my illness. I shoveled my walkway on Thursday, and in anticipation of eventually getting back on my bike I took it into Revolution Cycle for winter tire installation and a tune-up. I went back to work on Friday.

My shoveling handiwork, and it's already snowed again - winter has arrived!

Perhaps all this optimistic activity was a bad idea, because overnight on Friday I was awakened with severe pains again. I was unable to fall back asleep because the pain was quite intense, so I spent the rest of Saturday exhausted and fighting dull chest aches punctuated by a couple waves of moan-worthy pains. Uh oh. It's back. Shitballs - and I thought I was getting better!

My daughter in her snow suit, pink toddler-sized balaclava, two layers of mitts, and snow boots. She's super-impressed.

Despite having finished my course of antibiotics and starting to feel worse again, my parental guilt pushed me to suggest a short outing to the park with my daughter today. After all, yesterday had been a "pajama day" that nearly drove me crazy because all I wanted was to nap but all I got was a toddler demanding my constant attention and energy. I thought life might be better if I wrestled her into her snow suit and took her to the park to burn off some of that energy. Besides, it might be a good test to see how my lung would hold up in the cold air.

Yep, still painful. And wrestling her into her epic snow outfit was really not worth it. She didn't even want to get out of the stroller, I basically had to tip her out to force her to play a bit. So, I just did a lazy two-block round-trip walk to the park and pushed my daughter around on the swings, being out of the house for a grand total of 45 minutes, and this caused some sharp chest pains. This was nothing compared to a 30-40 minute bike commute each way to work. Sigh! I want to be well enough to hit the road again! Hell, I want to be well enough to have the energy to do something other than sit on my ass and watch TV.

The new studded tires, just waiting to be tried out.

Man, I can't wait to try out those kick-ass studded tires . . . but it looks like I'm going to have to wait a little whole longer yet.

Pleurisy

Gather round, children, and let me tell you a little story. A terrible, terrible story.

I spent some time Saturday afternoon doing some grocery shopping and getting ready for a Bad Taste Party - you know, a party where people dress up in ridiculously offensive costumes and have a great time. While I was shopping I started developing a bit of a headache and my joints started feeling a bit sore - that achey body feeling that sneaks up when I'm either getting sick or that lingers while I'm getting over an illness. By the time I got home, I was starting to notice some discomfort in the left side of my chest. No biggie - I got ready for the party, packing an overnight bag in case I needed to stay over at my friend's house (yay, not having to come home at a decent time to relieve a babysitter means that I can actually drink at parties!).

At the party I was amazed to find that not only was my Bad Taste costume matched by someone who had come up with the exact same idea, but I was floored to discover that two party-goers managed to out-Bad-Taste me! I was thoroughly impressed, and thoroughly grateful that cameras were not allowed at this party. I spent the night joking and talking and partaking in libations, but all the while the pain in my chest grew and grew. By the end of the night I couldn't stand and chat in the kitchen with the other guests - I leaned heavily on the granite-topped island and rubbed at the pain that was spreading around my ribs into my back. I grew paler and paler as the pain increased.

"You don't look well," my friend told me after we said goodbye to the last party guests and headed upstairs for bed. She made up a hot water bottle for me, which I hugged greedily against my sore body, and offered me an over-the-counter acetaminophen painkiller with codeine in it. I downed the maximum dosage and gingerly tucked myself into her comfortable guest bed, pressing the hot water bottle against the ever-increasing pains. Despite being exhausted, and despite the codeine pills, the pain made it difficult to fall asleep, and when I did finally slip into slumberville I awoke three hours later with stabbing pains in my chest, back, and shoulder. I took more painkillers, but it took another two hours before they kicked in well enough for me to catch another measly couple hours of sleep. This wasn't good.

In the morning, my friend convinced me to see a doctor, and that I promptly did. The pain level was still increasing, and my breathing became restricted and shallow as every normal inhalation resulted in stabbing, crippling pain. Over the next two days I would see a total of four different doctors, get lab and x-ray tests done, and be given several possible diagnoses ranging from acid reflux to kidney stones. By the end of this nightmare, I was finally diagnosed tentatively with pleurisy - an infection of the protective lining around my lungs. It can cause excruciating pain, especially on inhalation, and it may have been precipitated by the sinus infection I was rocking two weeks ago.

I've been on antibiotics and prescription painkillers since Sunday - the day that a momentary lapse in self-medicating caused a couple hours' worth of pain I can only describe as similar to a strong labour contraction that never let up. It was crippling, I could barely breathe, and when I started to cry from the pain the involuntary gasps for air that my body took in between sobs left me feeling like I was being stabbed between the ribs each time. This caused more painful strangled sobs, which led to more awful gasps of air that led to worse pain, and so on and so on. Luckily, I did eventually arrest this terrible cycle, and within a couple of hours the painkillers kicked in. Nevertheless, I arranged for my daughter to remain with her father in Calgary while I recovered, and I continued to stay in my friend's care in case an emergency trip to the hospital was necessary.

I've missed two days of work now, and I will likely be back to work on Friday. I'm still in pain, but it's become manageable with medication and rest. The big question now is when I'll be able to get back on the bike. After all, the whole problem is my lungs and - well - the whole act of breathing. As the temperature drops to wintry freezing levels and I spend more and more days sitting on my ass "resting", I know that getting back on the bike again will be a slightly punishing experience on my lungs. So, when will I be able to do that again? From the vantage point of this moment, sitting at my computer and feeling the rumbling of my inflamed lung tissue rubbing against itself with each breath, having to press firmly against my chest to stem the pain that still comes in waves, I'm thinking it's not going to be this week.

We'll see what the future holds. As I continue to recover and regain my capacity to breathe properly again, I will let you know when I'll be able to get in the saddle again. Until then, I'm afraid this blog is likely going dark.

So long, my friends. I will see you on the other side!

Slow Poke

WEATHER THERE: sunny, -5C (-7C with windchill), 5 km/hr cross/tailwinds

WEATHER BACK: clear, 4C, 9 km/hr tailwinds

This morning was chilly. Like, people were scraping frost off their windshields and I arrived at work with numb, bright red thighs kind of chilly. I doubled up on my cotton gloves and wore a turtleneck underneath my waterproof shell, but I was still so under-dressed and cold that I felt like my legs were barely moving. According to my bike computer, I averaged about 3 km/hr less speed today than I have the last few days, barely breaking over 21 km/hr. Hitting that minuscule hill at the end of the High Level Bridge felt like punishment, and by the time I crested the hill and made my way up the stairs with my bike in tow, I was panting so hard I felt like I might pass out. Luckily I didn't, but with another cyclist right on my trail going up the stairs I felt some serious crimson-faced embarrassment over how slow and plodding I am today.

I suspect I am not the only one so affected by the drop in temperature, though. Overnight, the number of fellow cyclists I passed on my journey dropped in half - I only saw six people out this morning, and all of them were on the High Level Bridge and on campus. I didn't run into a single cycling soul out there in the west end or downtown. It's getting to that time of year, it seems - where the sane people start to put their bikes away and opt for the bus or the car. And the rest of us - the crazy winter-bikers - start doubling up on socks, breaking out the winter boots and lobster gloves, thermal underwear and ski goggles.

At least it was nicer on the way home. Still, there's a chill in the air - the chill of impending winter. It's upon us, my friends. The snow is bound to come any day now.

To Diet or Not to Diet

WEATHER THERE: sunny, 0C (-3C with windchill), 9 km/hr tailwinds
WEATHER BACK: clear, 5C, 8 km/hr headwinds

I took a long hiatus from cycling over the summer, and after two months without being on the bike I returned to it this past September. However, it's been on a much more part-time basis, as I only work three days per week now instead of five. As much as I've intended to bike to work and use my office for dissertation research on my off days, that hasn't really panned out, so I've been stuck cycling only three days a week and not five so far this year.

Last September, I was amazed with myself for having lost 10 lbs in a month without dieting, just by starting to bike-commute. When my cycling efforts were no longer enough to continue the weight loss, I started dieting too. That's when everything kind of went off the rails. You see, when a person has been overweight since the age of five and going through bingeing and dieting cycles since before she hit puberty, that person can develop some mighty strong and mighty negative associations with dieting. Namely, that restriction leads to starvation which leads to bingeing which leads to weight gain, and inevitably this cycle feeds itself (no pun intended) as the weight gain fuels motivation to diet again.

I mention this because over the past few months I've been at a loss as to what to do. I know that dieting will only lead to negative consequences for myself, but I also feel compelled to do something drastic to reverse the weight I gained when I stopped biking for two months. And it's not a small amount - it took me nine months to lose 40 pounds, and three months to put back on 20. One the one hand, I feel a desperate desire to reverse that trend in a hurry. On the other hand, I know that a lot of that recent weight gain is the result of me trying to diet in lieu of cycling, which inevitably led to bingeing, which inevitably led to more dieting . . . well, you get the idea.

So - the moral of the story is that dieting doesn't work for me. Never has, never will. The question, then, is what to do to lose weight in a healthy, sustainable way without feeling like I'm dieting so that I can avoid falling into the binge-diet cycle again. Any suggestions? I'll keep thinking about it and I'll get back to you on this . . .

Bum Sores

WEATHER THERE: clear, 8C, 11 km/hr tail/crosswinds
WEATHER BACK: sunny, 9C, 21 km/hr cross/headwinds gusting to 30 km/hr

My ass bones are sore. I guess not biking for a few days in a row gives my bum the opportunity to heal from the pressure sores I get from bike-riding. Since returning to the saddle on Wednesday, then riding for three days in a row, I found that by the end of the day today my bum felt raw like I'd just been paddled in some old-school fraternity initiation. It wasn't pleasant. I'm definitely glad that I get to rest a bit over the weekend, so that hopefully by the time I get back to the saddle again on Monday I'll have healed enough for it to no longer be sore, but not enough time has passed for the "ass callous" (the immunity I develop to the saddle pressure with regular riding) to fade completely.

I've heard that some cyclists - though I suspect it's more for the long-distance riders - wear padded shorts. That would be helpful, no doubt, for minimizing unfortunate ass-sores, but I just can't see pouring myself into those skin-tight bum-goblins twice a day for my meager 16-18 km round-trip commute. It just doesn't seem worth it. Besides, I suspect that wearing those when it's not absolutely necessary might eat away at my already threatened dignity. Maybe someday I'll become a long-distance rider and invest in a fine pair of ass paddings . . . but not now, and not anytime soon.

Speed Demons

WEATHER THERE: clear, 4C, 28 km/hr cross/headwinds (gusting to 39 km/hr)

WEATHER BACK:sunny, 13C, 8 km/hr cross/tailwinds

"Wow, you're fast!" I blurted out in awe.
"Haha, thanks," my fellow cyclist replied, "I'm not that fast, though - there was one guy who passed me back there going a lot faster than me!"
"Yeah, I saw him too, that was crazy!"
"He must've been in quite a rush."

I had this conversation at a red light today on the way home from work. I felt compelled to comment on this fellow cyclist's speed because I had been clipping along 100 Avenue at what is probably my top speed on a flat stretch of road - 27 km/hr - when this guy blew past me and quickly vanished out of sight around a bend in the road. I caught up to him at the light a couple blocks later and started the above conversation with him. He seemed like a nice guy - it's always nice to chat at red lights, it's one of my favourite things about bike-commuting!

Yesterday, the same thing happened (minus the red light and the conversation). Along 100 Avenue, while I was making personal land speed records for myself, two guys passed me at a speed I guesstimate to be around 30-35 km/hr - likely even faster! That is unheard of to me! How the hell do they do it? They're not even in spandex. It kind of blew my mind, and made me feel like a chubby slow-poke.

I missed bike-commuting last Friday because that sore throat I had at the beginning of the week turned into a sinus infection that really knocked me out by the end of the week. I wouldn't have gone to work on Friday if I didn't have two important things to attend to, so I drugged myself up with daytime sinus medication and hauled my sick, sorry ass to work in my car. Yesterday was my first day back to bike-commuting after being sick, and my third day of bike-commuting after returning from Mexico. So, basically, I haven't done a lot of biking over the past two or three weeks.

The illness and the vacation and the lack of exercise have left me feeling kind of out of shape. This feeling has been really driven home by how many people who keep passing me at such extraordinarily greater speeds than I'm going. I mean, these people aren't just passing me, they're leaving me in the dust! And it seems like it's everywhere - those guys on 100 Avenue two days in a row, a middle-aged lady on the High Level Bridge yesterday morning, even some dude riding on the sidewalk without a helmet was going faster than me the other day! What gives?? The weirdest part about all this is that according to my bike computer, I'm going as fast or even faster than ever. I usually top out at 21-22 km/hr on flat stretches of road, and the past couple of days I've been managing 24-27 km/hr along certain parts of my commute (in particular, the High Level Bridge and 100 Avenue). I've been a regular Speedy Gonzales!! So why are there so many people who seem to have come out of nowhere who are apparently rocket-powered?

Go figure. I guess I should just be grateful that there are so many cyclists still out on their bikes at this time of year. It is, after all, November, and it's been beautiful weather. Perhaps I should focus more on that - and also on my record speeds (yay me for hitting 27 km/hr today along 100 Avenue!) - and less on comparing myself to other people.

I daresay that's good advice in all aspects of life, not just biking.

A Sad Day in Cyclingville

WEATHER THERE: clear, 3C, 11 km/hr tail/crosswinds
WEATHER BACK: sunny, 11C, 5 km/hr headwinds


It is a sad day in Cyclingville, my friends. I recently read an article in the newspaper describing how the driver of a pick-up truck that smashed into a group of six cyclists on the side of a highway in Quebec in May - killing three people - will not be facing any charges. Alcohol was not a factor in the crash, though the driver was apparently a volunteer firefighter on his way home after a night shift so perhaps exhaustion played a part.

It's difficult to understand how a driver didn't see a pack of six cyclists travelling on the side of a highway in broad daylight (the accident happened at 10:00 am in May). What is most shocking is that absolutely no charges are being laid - not even careless driving - after three people have died. It angers and saddens me that there will be absolutely no consequences for whatever mistake led to this tragedy. I also feel angry and sad about what message this sends to cyclists: ride at your own risk, and if you get hit and killed it's your own damn fault for being on a bike in the first place. I know that highways were built for cars, but multiple modes of transportation do exist, so peaceful coexistence is necessary. As it is, the vehicle is the unchecked bully of the road and the cyclists are their innocent victims - often with fatal consequences. Yet time and again, the bully just keeps getting a slap on the wrist - if anything at all. What a sad, awful day for cyclists everywhere.


A newspaper article describing the original crash can be read here.

Fighting a Cold

WEATHER THERE: cloudy, -5C (-9C with windchill), 9 km/hr cross/headwinds
WEATHER BACK: cloudy, -4C (-9C with windchill), 13 km/hr head/crosswinds


I'm not going to lie to you, my bikey friends, it's been a rough couple of days. With the first snow of the year coating the ground and turning to fine ice and thick slush in some areas, it generally makes the bike-commuting a little slower and a bit more difficult. Add to that the fact that both my daughter and I appear to be getting sick - we have been since we got back from Mexico. My throat is sore, I have a whole whack of very charming post-nasal drip, and I've got sinus pressure behind my eyes. Luckily, my breathing is fine - no stuffy nose, no throat-so-raw-it-burns-to-breathe. The problem comes more from sleeping - I've had to drug myself with Tylenol Sinus for Nighttime in order to fall asleep at all because my throat is so uncomfortable, and then once I'm finally asleep my daughter is waking up complaining of (in whining/crying voice): "boogers, mommy!" and "ears dirty!" (what does that even mean??). For the past two days, my mild discomfort during the day has turned into fever-like symptoms in the evening - alternating between chills and sweats, feeling achey - and I feel even less capable of dealing with the midnight wake-ups of my daughter than ever.


At work today, I was operating somewhere around 65-70% of normal capacity because I'm feeling unwell but I'm not full-on sick. Still, I'm utterly exhausted, and I'm cold, and I was a bit under-dressed for how cold it really was out there for my bike-commute. And I know from experience that being under-dressed inevitably causes my muscles to feel slow, heavy, and easily worn out - on top of whatever effect being sick might also have on them. All this doesn't help when I'm being faced with the first icy embraces of winter. And it's only October, damnit!! I could maybe accept it more if it were November. We didn't even have a proper dumping of snow last year until DECEMBER! Why, oh why, did winter have to come so soon?



Sigh . . . I'm still hopeful it'll melt and we'll have a few more days of milder weather before winter is here to stay. I just hope this early dip in temperature doesn't mean we're in for a rough winter.

First Snow Day

WEATHER THERE: light snow, -1C (-6C with windchill), 18 km/hr tail/crosswinds

WEATHER BACK: cloudy, 0C (-5C with windchill), 18 km/hr head/crosswinds

The pool at Melia Puerto Vallarta - the all-inclusive resort I was staying at October 15-22

I spent October 15-22 in Mexico, where it was 33C every day, no wind, with bright sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. I basked in the heat and sun like the wild iguanas I found sunning themselves on secluded rocks on the resort grounds. I came back to Edmonton late Friday night, wishing I didn't have to leave beautiful Mexico so soon. But of course, as all good things do, my little vacation had to come to an end. I returned home and spent the weekend getting my life back in order and getting ready to return to work. That included spending part of Sunday getting my bike ready for a week of bike-commuting after being in storage for several days. I was kind of getting excited to get back on the bike - it had been a while, and I missed it. Besides, I had been riding Mike the Bike for the few days leading up to the vacation and I was looking forward to getting back on my fancy new mountain bike.

That excitement didn't last too long, mind you, because this morning I woke up to this:

Snow. Snow on the ground. Snow falling in wet icy flakes from the sky. Just . . . snow. Now, granted, I kind of like the snow and I do actually like winter riding, so this really isn't such a bad thing. Still - it's a far cry from reading a Stieg Larsen thriller on the beaches of Mexico in 33C heat. Also, I don't have my studded tires on so I was a bit weary that I might have a very cold, wet crash at some point today. Luckily, I didn't.

The most remarkable thing about today was that I expected the first snowfall of the year would force the belle-weather cyclists to put their bikes in storage and take the bus to work - but that wasn't the case at all! In fact, I ran across no less than 10 other cyclists on my way to work today, which is actually even more than I usually do! It was incredible! Perhaps I'm not the only one who enjoys a nice winter ride.

Still . . . I miss Mexico.

Recovery Period

WEATHER THERE: sunny, 3C, 8 km/hr tail/crosswinds

WEATHER BACK: sunny, 14C, 8 km/hr head/crosswinds

Last Friday:

"Are you ready to get your ass kicked?" my friend asked me as she helped me collect two pairs of hand weights, a floor mat, and a step with two risers.

"I was born ready," I responded. We set ourselves up in one corner of the gymnasium, surrounded by 33 like-minded people trying to get fit over the lunch break. We only had forty minutes, so every moment would have to count. I felt ready, I felt prepared.

I was not.

In fact, nothing could have prepared me for this. It was gruelling - the only moment that we stopped from doing squats was to switch it up into lunges. We did all this while doing presses, rows, and curls with the hand weights. The instructor further demanded that we then lift one leg, and do it all on one leg and then the other, to really drive home the punishment - oh, and I guess also to engage our cores. My eyes stung with sweat. My friend and I would stare at each other with horror and disbelief - and even a touch of anger - clouding our faces as we sat out repetitions fifteen through twenty. My entire body was jelly by the end - and my poor, large, inefficient thighs got the worst of it.

I figured joining a resistance class once a week over lunch would be an excellent work-out addition to bike-commuting three days a week. Three days a week I'd get in some cardio, and one day a week I'd do some weights training. Sounds well-rounded, doesn't it? It didn't occur to me that the resistance class would be like a bootcamp. I also didn't realize it would be a whole lot of lower-body resistance work, which can be problematic for me with my bad knees. And not just that - it can interfere with my bike-commuting, as I found out this week.

Luckily that class was on a Friday, and I had a whole long weekend to recover from the horrors of those damn squats and lunges. I managed to bike home Friday afternoon, but the healing of the thigh injuries hadn't fully begun at that point. By the time I woke up Saturday, I couldn't walk without locking my knees to prevent putting any weight on my thighs. Sunday, it was even worse. I stretched and massaged my thighs daily, but to no avail - walking, going up and down stairs, bending down to change my daughter's diaper, even the act of sitting down were all made virtually impossible by the pain I was in. On the holiday Monday I started being able to unlock my knees, but just barely. Tuesday, I decided to skip out on bike-commuting for the day because I was still hardly able to walk, and I know that cycling uses a whole lot more thigh power than walking does.

Finally, today - five days after the original trauma - I got back on my bike. It was okay - I felt a bit out of shape, a bit rusty, and I made sure to cycle one gear lower than I usually do because my regular gear scheme was too much for my still-aching thighs. I made sure to do a bit of extra stretching once I got to work. Oh, my poor body! What have I done to you?

I keep reminding myself that the good news is that all this pain means that I'm building a lot of muscle in those thighs, and that will give me added power in my cycling efforts. Maybe hills will become less daunting now. Maybe I'll start walking around with proper cycling thighs - massive, muscular, intimidating. Hmm . . . yeah, maybe that last part is less desirable . . . but still, there IS an upside! I'll just keep my eye on that upside while I wimper and massage cooling gel into my aching thighs tonight.