Friday, May 17, 2013

The hard way

I have been pretty lazy for the last week and a half. Perhaps lazy isn't the right word for it. Busy? Unmotivated? Something.

Last week, I exercised three times - if you can call it that. I went for two hikes on Friday and walked 4 miles on Sunday. I definitely exercised my digestive muscles more than the rest of my body.

This week was off to a rather sedentary start, as well. And the weather took a turn for the cold and dreary.

On Thursday, the temperature spiked back up to a warm and sunny 77 degrees and I mounted my bike for the first ride in a few weeks.

I knew this might be my last chance to ride the Farmington Canal, so I wanted to go farther than I have been going since the start of the season. This meant one thing: conquering the dreaded, awful, terrible hill that I normally stop at.

Things were going well. The sun was shining, bugs were hurtling themselves at me, I was working up a good sweat and feeling pretty good. The hill was glorious to go down and I kept going and going until I got over 10 miles and realized it was nearing 7 oclock.

The way back was miserable. I managed to conquer the hill just fine, only having to drop down to 3rd gear to make it up that long and steadily inclining beast. But I started to feel the twinge in my foot, the twinge that could only mean one thing: impending foot cramp.

Every time I do a long bike ride, I end up getting debilitating foot cramps. My toes curl up, my leg shakes, it feels like someone is running over my foot with a car. I sometimes briefly consider amputation because the pain is so unbearable. I try to walk it off to no avail. It sometimes leaves me in tears. It is miserable.

I could feel the muscles in my feet start to twitch. I was still over 8 miles from my car. I hopped off, walked a little bit and realized that at my pace of 2.3 miles/hour it would take me until 10p.m. to get to my car if I had to walk the whole thing. I hopped back on and began the race...with myself.

Racing against your own body is a terrible thing to have to do. My hands grew sweaty, I felt anxious and nervous that my feet would seize up at any time. I pedalled faster than I have in a long time, with an average speed over 15 mph (my normal speed is approx 12.5). I just kept telling myself to go go go go go.

I was afraid to move my feet at all on the pedals or shift the pressure of my body against my foot. I was afraid to stop, I was afraid to keep moving. I counted down the miles. By the time I reached the 2 mile point, I knew things would be okay if I had to walk the rest. But I didn't. I reached the finish line, ripped my shoes off, and proceeded to get a miserable cramp in my left foot that spasmed for over 20 minutes.

Apparently, this is a common affliction. I read a lot about cycle-induced cramping when I got home. I may consider getting a primary care and seeing if they will prescribe me a low-dose muscle relaxant to take before I do a long ride for preventive purposes.

Here's a great article I found about these cramps:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/202134-how-to-prevent-cycling-leg-cramps/

And here are some snapshots from my ride yesterday:


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