2010 Bicycling Goal Met

 Bicycling Adventures  No Responses »
Oct 102010
 

With a surge of fantastic Wisconsin autumn weather, I had a chance to ride for a few hours yesterday.  With about 45 miles for the day, it pushed my total year-to-date up over the 3,000 mile mark!  That was my goal for the year. 

Every mile I add now goes above my goal and adds to my personal record number of miles.  (Actually my personal best was about 2,650 last year, so I kicked butt on that already.)

September was my best month of the year with nearly 534 miles in that one month alone.  It helped that I rode a century ride on the 29th.  I rode alone and just wondered through the “wilderness” of SE Wisconsin.  OK, maybe it’s not really wilderness, but I did get onto a lot of roads that I hadn’t been on before.  That was quite enjoyable.

What made the 100 mile ride even better was that just 4 days prior I had intended to ride 100 miles, but had to stop early.  The cold headwind beat me.  But the conditions turned around and I was blessed with an opportunity to ride.

Since it’s still early in October perhaps I can get up to 3,500 miles this year.  It’s possible as long as we get some dry weekends through November.

Stress Fracture – Laugh or Cry?

 Health Updates  2 Responses »
Oct 282009
 

Over the past two months I’ve had some pain in my left foot, toward the front, bottom, outside half.  At first I thought it was just some muscle pain.  You know, after putting on 2,500 miles bicycling and then figure skating once or twice a week, it seemed logical that I could have pulled something.

But it just didn’t get better.  When I visited my doctor he thought I might have a stress fracture.  I had an x-ray, but it was negative.  So, then I had to endure a bone scan.

For a bone scan, I had to be injected with some radioactive substance, then return three hours later for a more detailed picture of the foot bones.  Still negative.  It looked like no stress fracture.  That’s good news.

The next step is physical therapy.  So today I had my first physical therapy appointment.  After Tammy, the therapist, poked and prodded my foot for a while looking for the point of pain, she concluded one of two things.  Either I do have stress fracture, too early to see on xray or bone scan, or an inflamed nerve.

Then she went in pursuit of the definitive stress fracture evalution tool — drum roll — a tuning fork!  So here’s the deal; whack a precisely tuned fork, and when at a good vibration, place on the bottom of the foot.  If the pain intensifies it’s a stress fracture, if not, something else.

This is what makes me laugh or cry.  If a stress fracture can be determined with something as simple as a tuning fork, why did I have to be radiated by xrays and endure an injection of some radioactive isotope and try to hold still for extended periods of high tech photography? 

OK, so a tuning fork is not a glamorous billion dollar diagnostic imaging contraption, but if it gets the job done, you’d think the insurance companies would rather go for the tuning fork!  I’m sure that’s the bill I’d rather pay.  (Oh yeah, I’ll end up paying for all of it anyway since my deductible is about a gazillion dollars.)