1st ride outside

[JeffM]

Welcome Jeff---- YEA another bike rider!!

I just started riding about 5 months ago and love every

minute of it! I'm still pretty new but I ride about 25 miles a week

and hoping to ride more as I get stronger.

Check out Leeroy's posts, he is a BIG biker.

Also, post on our Friday Throwdowns we keep track of

our mileage each week. Debbie

I'll do that Debbie. By the way, Leeroy has basically coached me via email up to and ever since my surgery. I can't emphasize enough how much he helped me being a cyclist ( a lot better than I) and having had a Ross procedure a few months before I had my surgery. He is the man as far as I'm concerned!

 

[JeffM]

Jeff, welcome back! I just turned 59, but I made the same decision you did. Coumadin was a problem for me. There are only 2 kinds of road bike riders: those who have crashed and those who are going to crash. I put in between 400 and 500 mile a month, pretty much year round here. Like you, I'm hoping to get 15 to 20 years out of my tissue valve and I'm hoping the procedures will be better whenever it happens.

Getting back on the bike was great. They told me to wait 8 weeks before I got back on the road, but I cheated a little bit on a stationary bike. On the appointed day, I went out and did a 30 minute ride, had no problems, and was soon back up to normal distances.

It took a while to get my speed back up, but the endurance came back quickly. I did a metric century on New Years Day, a bit less than 6 months after surgery. Then 11 months after surgery, I rode BRAG (Across Georgia), which was 430 or so miles spread out over a week.

Listen to your body, do what you can and lets all hope for better delivery systems!

John

That's excellent John. And "Amen" to your advice.

 

[njean]

Congratulation Jeff! It appears that you getting back into the swing of things. As others have mentioned though, don't push yourself too much --- there's plenty of time ahead so be kind to yourself!