Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Picking up where I left off

It's fitting, really.

My last post from 2016 was about being in the hospital after a spontaneously collapsed lung. In March, the same thing happened again and I had a pleurodesis surgery to correct it. I am now recovered enough from that surgery to start something resembling exercise... but I'm not in great shape right now.

I haven't seriously trained or raced in quite a while. I dabbled in short track speedskating in 2018, but it really just wasn't for me. 

In January, I developed a bulging disc in my neck. That had me off training for a while.

In February, I had a bad flu with a high fever that had me laid up for a few weeks.

In March, I had my next lung collapse and surgery. My surgeon told me to only do my rehab until the 6 week mark, then I could start light exercises, with no weight lifting that required the valsalva maneuver (holding your beath when you lift heavier weights).

So, here I am starting out again.

I'm looking for new performance goals to help motivate me. Probably a Gran Fondo here and there, with a metric century or two thrown in for preparation. I won't be the same rider I was before, I know that.

I'm starting out rough:
Body Weight: 196 pounds
Body Fat: 23%
Estimated Threshold Power: 150 watts

It's a far cry from the 164 pounds and 280 watts I was doing at my peak.

Here we go!