Kind of a Hard Day | Apr 10 2021

April 10, 2021

No more Peloton. That’s the big takeaway from yesterday’s check-in with Dr. Radiology. My body is working too hard to repair the onslaught of radiation and chemicals to handle the demands of this kind of exercise. Her idea of treatment-appropriate exercise is like what her husband recently did with their daughter: a bike ride to the end of the street where his wristwatch heart rate monitor didn’t indicate he was moving.

Oh.

Cuz this is what I’ve been used to doing:

Except this is the graph from March 29 and when I did this same ride a week later I dropped out of the target yellow range at about 33 minutes– I just couldn’t do it. I rallied after some recovery time, but still…. When I mentioned this to the doctor, she gave off some very agitated vibes. No. No no no. I couldn’t tell you the cell-level stuff she went into. Cytokines is one word she mentioned. But the bottom line: no.

She’s talking about movement not even in the gray range of this chart, which is considered active recovery. She’s talking about walking around the block. I don’t know how to even think about doing that.

This bike is how I’ve made it through Covid. It’s not a real Peloton– it’s better, in my opinion– but I use the Peloton app and another bit of software that lets me get some cool metrics for Peloton’s PZT (Power Zone Training) program. I was hoping to do a big hard road ride this summer, from Portland out to Multnomah Falls, a very hilly 75 mile ride. Maybe a century (100 miles) in the fall.

Not this year.

There’s also this pesky chest stuff going on that she is not happy about– that fist in my chest is not what should be happening and we need to figure that out.

BUT, and this is the cool part, as soon as she sees the tumor shrinking, she’ll show me. “It’s very motivating,” she said.

I’m going to have some sadness today– I’ll probably cry a little– but than I’m going to think about those Bad Boys getting fried and that is just awesome.

Meanwhile, did you catch the Portland Thorns soccer game last night? FOUR red cards in the final minutes of the game?! AMAZING and crazy. It was good to spend such a wholesome time eating burgers, fries, and homemade pie and not thinking about anything related to body parts.

Thanks for reading.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay