A little swim... a little ride...

Being sick of my sedentary life, I decided to attempt swimming last Friday. I was surprised to find out that I had NO PAIN AT ALL while swimming. This is huge, considering I've been in pain constantly for a year now. Yes, I had times when I had less pain, but I don't think I've been pain free for a very long time. Anyway, swimming was good! I only swam 320m before I had to leave. Apparently, I have also lost of lot of muscle strenght in the past few months. I really could feel the effort in my triceps and biceps. After the swim, I had one of the best endorphin rush ever! That's the upside of starting over, I guess.

On Monday, it was beautiful outside so I decided to see if I could ride my bike. I was able to sit on the saddle, which was a small victory and then I went about 2K before being in pain. I rode another kilometer and decided to head back home. 6K was the maximum I think I could handle on that day. On top of the "saddle soreness" which I always get on my first ride of the season, I had the tailbone pain - "la totale" like we say in French. ;-) But I was able to ride my bike and it was awesome! Again, I noticed that I lost a lot of quadricep strenght... but it didn't stop me from climbing hills and it will come back.

My cardio on the swim wasn't too bad, but it was awful on the bike. So, i'm back... sort of.

PRK... one year follow-up appointment

I had my one-year appointment this week, as my last follow-up appointment for my 2nd PRK laser eye surgery that I got in February 2008. I was happy to find out that my vision is better than perfect, at 20/15. I knew that my vision was sharp, but I thought it was still at 20/20, like it was 2 months ago. Finding out it had improved slightly was a very nice surprise!

There are no scars in my eyes to prove that I got PRK. My eyes are like new! I almost never need to use hydrating drops anymore: all signs of dryness are now gone.

I still have a bit of astigmatism, which I unfortunately notice in my daily life, but it's not bad enough that I would get glasses or a third surgery to treat it. I just hit myself a little bit more because I don't assess distances very well. I don't know if I can blame my falls on the stairs at home on the astigmatism, but it could be one of the causes [that, and my clumsiness]. ;-)

All in all, I'm happy I got the surgery. It was a long journey and there were many obstacles along the way, but my life is simpler now that I don't have glasses. I wouldn't say the surgery changed my life, because that would be an exageration, but it sure enhanced it.

Annoyed!

Today, I went to the off-leash park with Jake. To get there, I drove on the Parkway. While on the Parkway, I had all these memories of riding my bike on this road. It occured to me that I have riden my bike on the Parkway more than I have driven my car. And at that moment, a feeling arose, but I can't clearly identify it. It was a cross between nostalgia, sadness, anger, frustration... How I wish I could ride my bike, go for a run or a swim and plan my racing season. Instead, I plan my life around my injuries and the fear that there's more coming my way.

Yesterday, I was at Bushtukah looking at the new running and cycling gear for this season and I had the same feeling, except there was more sadness in the mix. I wanted to sit down, scream that this is unfair and cry until I had no tears left in me. Instead, I bought new walking shoes because I can walk right now. Gotta concentrate on what I can do, to not fret about what I can't.

Sigh.