going nowhere gradually faster
getting going again
Finally, but tentatively, I have started trying to return to some semblance of fitness. One of the questions I had for the cardiology consultant in a follow-up after my AF event was 'Will it be safe to be getting my heart rate up and do some exercise now?'
Thankfully the answer, after so much enforced idleness - and the accompanying and inevitable weight gain - was 'Yes - in fact it will help to get your heart stronger again - but give yourself a couple of weeks rest to get over this event first, and for us to make sure the new medication is working'.
I waited the two weeks. Then J got covid for week. Then afterwards I had covid for another week. Then my MS fatigue kicked in for a few days, as it generally does after being otherwise ill.
There are times I have felt like I'm under a constant bombardment and the universe has had something personal against me this last couple of years.
I started feeling a bit more with it on Sunday, had a good night's sleep, and so I thought to myself when I woke up Monday morning, "OK... It's today."
cycling nowhere
I enjoy cycling. I enjoy cycling more when I am fit enough to enjoy my cycling. So when I'm unfit, as now, I am not keen to get riding out in the lanes and end up getting off and pushing the bastard thing up the hills because I am not fit and strong enough to get up them. Or call J from the middle of nowhere to pick me up because I've run out of beans. I have never done either of these things, because I like to build up some base fitness first.
For this, I'll use the old bike that's mounted on a trainer in the garage. Many cycling purists scoff about indoor riding, but for me it has always been a massive help. I first used it extensively to help me recover from a stroke many years ago now.
I've moved up in the world since then though. That one was in a shed, and I've got a garage now.
These days, indoor cycling has inevitably been 'gamified' - and monetised of course - with people spending thousands on set-ups. Expensive smart trainers, monitors, stands for monitors, cooling fans... and of course annual subscriptions to a branded cycling platform of some sort, your Pelotons and Zwifts etc. These allow them to do realistic simulations of famous races, routes and climbs, and take part in virtual racing leagues, etc.
My trainer is not 'smart' in any way, but it does have five resistance levels. Fancy. It is, by today's standards, very old fashioned. And a bit rusty. My one concession to a slightly more modern approach is that I have a Garmin unit that senses speed, distance covered, and cadence (how many revolutions per minute you're spinning the pedals at). Plus - and I consider this pretty important now, I can tell you - I wear a heart rate monitor, so I can measure my efforts and see the numbers, in real time, on the unit on the handlebars.
I get on the bike, plug my earphones in and select a playlist on my phone, put it in my pocket, and ride.
targets
This week, I've managed to hit my first target. Three rides, Monday Wednesday, Friday. Not caning it, but each time increasing the tempo a little. And I've managed the modest milestone of doing a total of 100km distance over the three rides. Oh, and I'm still alive.1
It's tentative. My confidence in my heart's strength, something I had been certain about as little as two years ago, has been rocked somewhat, and I am a little bit in the dark as to what my numbers should look like. I'm on beta-blockers now. I know my resting heart rate has decreased, so I should probably be expecting to see lower numbers on the display than I used to get. I'm trying to recalibrate my expectations. 2
A limiting factor for how long I can be on the trainer for at the moment is a physical thing, for which there is nothing but persistence to get over. When you start riding after a long lay off, and I'm sorry if you are eating... your arse hurts at first.
It takes a few rides for the muscles in umm... delicate areas to get used to being called into action. And probably not helped much by the fact that you are sat in a similar position on the bike and not shifting your weight as often as you would be on the road either.
roadmap
The plan now will be to build up from here. I'm just a week in, so there is not much gained yet, but I'm hoping that having made a start, I can ramp it up gradually from here. My early goals are very loose really. I have done Week 1 at the number two resistance level setting, and I know when I'm fit I spin comfortably (and faster but not so comfortably) on the number four setting. Also I am two gears lower on my bike than before, and my cadence could be a bit faster than my 75-80 rpm now.
Also, probably after another week like this one, I shall start mixing in some separate physical floor exercise sessions off the bike, on the in-between riding days, with a focus on core strengthening.
With the MS ever looking to get an opportunity to floor me for a bit, I am always mindful of pushing it too hard to start off with (and failing at that quite often), so if it looks like quite an unambitious plan to you able-bodied fitness freak sorts, just bear in mind that you are lucky not to have that to contend with.
But, I've started. Normally I get going again on my annual reboot in late January, after having a lay off over the cold, windy and wet (and sometimes snowy) months of November and December.
Late October is the latest in the year I've ever started my yearly fitness drive. But I should have a good start for 2025.
Click the toast if you liked the post. (Just close it and quietly sneak away if you didn't)
If J is working when I do my cycling, I am under orders to message her when I've done a session on the bike to let her know that I've survived.↩
There is a way of doing a self-test on the Garmin unit, to calibrate the heart rate zones it uses to your particular level, but as it involves deliberately working yourself, and of course your heart, very hard indeed, I'm not going anywhere near that yet.↩