It's been a mixed week for Lee. She's had some good days and we are on the cusp of needing none of the adaptive equipment in our house. So in 7 weeks since leaving hospital Lee has progressed to not needing, chair raisers, toilet seat raisers and a shower chair. She has never used the perching stool in the kitchen and the commode remains unpacked in our bedroom. The jobs around the house are now very much shared between us with Lee doing most of the washing and cooking a few days a week. She has also been doing a lot of sorting and organising. Today Lee had her first cup of coffee since January the 2nd (decaff of course!) Some days Lee has walked up to 2 miles and a walk around a supermarket is now no problem. The trachy scar which Lee described as a second bumhole, is fading fast That's! That's the positives. All of this leaves Lee exhausted, the Nanna naps and early nights continue. The walking distance may be up but its still very slow and she gets out of breath quickly. This week we had another episode of Tachycardia. It wasn't as bad as previously but even so Lee's heart rate was over 130bpm sitting still and stayed there for 13 hours from 17.00 Thursday to 06.00 Friday. We didn't go to A&E this time because Lee didn't want to. I set the rule that if we hit 150 we are going in. I also made sure she spoke to the GP on Friday morning who thought we were foolish not to go to hospital and has set his own limit of 120bpm. Beta blockers have also been doubled! Believe it or not whilst all this was going on Lee was determined to get to the polling station to vote! I'm writing this at 14.10 on Sunday, everything is calm now and the Queen of Cakes has had some lunch and gone to bed!
The flowers continue to arrive and I have to say a big thanks to my ride mates in the Cyclasylum for their kind bouquet!
Because of the bad weather we cancelled our Bank holiday coaching session. Then on Tuesday I got confused and forgot to go for a run! The next day though was another matter!
On Wednesday, Sam and I headed for Middleton to sign on for the RFWCC "dash," time trial. This is a very short 2.7 mile race from Ashley to Middleton. It takes place on one road with no turns...which makes it even more bewildering that Sam went wrong!
After some clever time keeper co-ordination Sam set off first. A minute later I started, fearful that even over this distance young Mac behind me would catch up! At about halfway suddenly Sam was on the other side of the road heading back towards me! Luckily realising his error Sam turned round and finished between Mac and I. Number 2 crossing the line first caused some confusion but the time keepers worked it all out! Sam had seen a sign at the only junction and started to doubt himself. He looked over his shoulder to see two cyclists turn right and assumed that was me and Mac had already caught me! It wasn't! It was just two other cyclists out for a leisurely ride! Personally I think Sam cost himself 1.30 minutes and as such he should have beaten me on the night. I think I might set him up with GPS for the 10 miler next week!
I've checked the previous time we did the dash back in August...I've made a 3 second improvement. Sam did 8.40 last time out, he was only 3 seconds worse this time which is remarkable given his error!!!
On Friday I got a run in. Nothing spectacular just 5km with the dogs. We bumped into the usual 7am regulars on our two laps to the Badger sett and back.
This weekend I'm on call which means long rides are out of the question. So is junior parkrun. On call is either feast or famine but the only definite task takes place between 08.30-09.30, the most inconvenient of times! However due to the weather this weekend, I don't really mind. I won't have a weekend on call for months now, so it looks like I picked a good weekend to be stuck indoors...well except I wasn't totally!!! I did gear up and take the dogs out yesterday morning...as they were soaked already I gave them a proper wash on our return. They were not amused!!!
This morning I tackled an ongoing issue with my Forme Calver. The bike is brilliant in all regards apart from the rear brake!!! To save approx £200 a brake Andy at C&D fitted mechanical disc brakes. This seemed like a good idea at the time but the rear has been a continuous problem. I'm not saying Andy was wrong, he did me a real favour setting up a superb bike at a competitive price. There is just no power or spring back via the cable so today I changed the cable. The one I removed looked fine but took quite a tug to get out. With the new cable in the brake appears to work well again. Now I have a choice. I could switch to hydraulic or keep changing cables. A good quality cable is £3 and a five minute job. A hydraulic brake set is around £220 so I might keep changing cables frequently for a bit longer!
I had two reasons for taking the Calver out for a short spin. Firstly it needed testing but more importantly I needed just a few miles to complete #NHS1000miles. In December, if you told me I would take until May to do just 1000 miles of activity I would have laughed. In a normal year this is ten weeks activity, its currently week 18 of 2021!!! Anyway the 1000 is done now, so is the weekend on call, so it's time to ramp it up!!!
Just in case you thought I'd forgotten Bridget Jones diary...its all going well. No booze for over three weeks, sticking to myfitnesspal, 5lbs (2kg) lost so far!
In elite bike racing news the Giro has started. Unlike last year its a full field of riders with less likeliness of covid19 retirements. They even have proper crowds watching! The race is even taking place at the traditional time of the year!!! So good to see.
Happy Pedalling
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