Hello all.

I only just found and joined the forum. I am a keen cyclist and runner. Also due to my allergies – very aware of what I eat, so I am willing to share information on queries dealing with dairy allergies.

After having surgery on my back – I gained approx. 25lbs – not thinking that I was eating the same amount and not doing any or minimal exercise. I have started running and cycling again – and 2 years on back to my ‘normal’ (i.e. my jeans fit again!) weight. Now its all about enjoying cycling, running and some strength training (enough to be able to life a case of beer/champagne safely from the shopping trolley into the boot of my car!)

I’m looking forward in taking part in the forum discussions…

Cheers

Beer and champagne? You live in the land of whisky and you are wasting your lifting talents on fizzy wine. What’s wrong with you?
Good stuff on the recovery. I have messed up many things that have required medical intervention but feel incredibly fortunate to have avoided my back being one of them. On one occasion I messed up my hips and knees to avoid it but consider that worth it. Coming back to fitness after back surgery is something to be very proud of.

Haha, I take it you’re a whisky man?? Single malt? Unfortunately I only like the whisky liqueurs! The heather honey here is amazing.

After the surgery – I sat around feeling sorry for myself. I can honestly say taking it time and getting back into the routine slowly and surely is a sure fire way of perking up. Now I have a knee injury for the past 4 months – inflamed ligaments – but working slowly through that by taking it easy on the running (somewhat!).

I am wary that with my bad knee I am overcompensating and sometimes I feel twinges in the right side of my hip – my sports therapist said it is to be expected. If only we were all like superman and healed quickly! 🙂

Hi Jeny and welcome!

I hear you on the slow healing/compensation thing. And unfortunately, it only gets worse as we age… a good friend rehab’ed his knee with bicycling so switching your balance seems sensible. When my knee is grumpy, I find the foam core roller on the IT band to be invaluable.

Teetotaller, but my wife is very partial to Dalmore a select few others that are not peaty and of course liqueurs.
I have a selection of old injuries that come back for visits more than I like, less than I deserve.
Slow recovery is best. Impatience caused me several setbacks, so I learned the stupid way. Damaged my back lifting last year and it’s almost as if it never happened now, patience pays, I used enough this time.
I know there will be a day when my training cannot keep the damage at bay, but until then I will continue to be a bit stupid on occasion and enjoy it.
Sometimes it feels better when things aren’t easy. I am strange in enjoying this but it feels good to look back over years at accomplishments.

I totally agree with you both – healing gets slower with age and I’m about to hit 40! But as you say – it is the sense of accomplishment when you have worked through an injury slowly and getting back to what you enjoy doing. A certain amount of care has to be taken after an injury but the aim of getting back on the bike or running the hills is what keeps me going!

You’re the baby of this thread then. I am already 40 and sure beats us by a decade.
I find the experience I have gained over time means I am able to treat my body more effectively and make less mistakes during recovery. This means I haven’t noticed it slowing down because I am less stupid and impatient than when younger, comparative term of course.

As we get older, wiser it gets better – if we listen more to our bodies we can all hopefully keep the pace as we would like it to be.

Welcome to the thread Jeny. Glad to have somebody new on board.

I am not really suited to take part in the “wiser” part of this conversation, as I am 30 and still consider myself young enough to make stupid decisions, when it comes to training anyway.

Now, on to the whiskey portion of the conversation, as I am a firm believer in only drinking brown liquor

Originally Posted by JustinRVA

still consider myself young enough to make stupid decisions, when it comes to training anyway.

Are we supposed to grow out of that?
If so I have changed my mind, I’m gonna be 18 til I die Bryan Adams style.

I wasn’t planning on growing out of it either.

We’re all entitled to making stupid decisions – we then learn from them!! I keep getting told, stop running the hills because of my ‘bad’ knee – I will listen….someday!

Stuff that. My response would be that you are strengthening your knee by running the hills. Inviting people to join you tends to shut them up too.
I have heard people saying that deadlifts are bad for your back. Everyone I know who trained this way for over a decade has a bad back, because they haven’t strengthened it. I actually hurt my back doing them last year and was able to recover because it had the strength.
My normal style is functional fitness, which is basically distilled insanity and a pinch of stupidity for flavour. There is the system of thinking I want to be able to lift something heavy, so you train to do that, then you progress to wanting to be able to lift something heavy and run with it, then lift something heavy on an unstable surface, then doing all the above wearing tinsel and tree lights, well maybe that’s just me. You end up with a range of abilities you rarely use in normal life but that make you able to do things others cant fathom with ease.
Add to that a rather stupid desire to have fitness of all types and still run at what I consider a good pace regardless of how heavy I am and you get the idea of the name.

Stupidity can be painful, but it can also be incredible fun. I find it incredible how many people fear doing things in case they look silly, that is so much fun. One case I remember was at the last gym I trained in when I was doing push press on the wrong side of a Bosu, a woman complemented my core strength, which is nice of course but there was a better reaction a bit later from one of the regular guys asking what happens when I fall off. When I replied ‘Don’t know, it hasn’t happened yet’ he told me I had to fall off that was the whole reason people watched me doing it.
To give some idea of how little I worry about the opinions of others regarding my looking silly. The team I work with is growing and the need for more desk space meant adding one near the doorway, the person placed there I told was the new receptionist. When he was moved and my boss put there I commented that he was now the new receptionist, you may have guessed that that is now my desk and when moved to it I asked if I was supposed to wear short skirt and heels to be told ‘if I want.’ Next dress down day I decided to have a laugh by turning up wearing my wife’s tennis skirt, her heels are too small, in an all male IT office that went down a treat, especially when the IT director was one of the first people to see me as he brought in a guest. Head office is just around the corner and apparently everyone there knew about it within 1/4 hour. I looked more than a little ridiculous, maybe I should have shaved my legs.

A sense of humour and a good positive attitude – a little goes a long long way.

I listen to the advice and I can decide if I want to act on it or not. I love being out doors and nothing is going to stop that. Maybe I have to slow down a bit – but when I’m ready I will.

I think everyone wants an easy solution sometimes – ‘If they have a knee injury this gives them an excuse for not running as far or as long’ I think they have to ask themselves why are they doing it?? Why make excuses – why not keep going and see what happens.

I had to be assessed years ago when I had been told I wouldn’t walk again and was refusing to accept being classed disabled. They threatened to take my bike licence away and I didn’t take it well.
When I walked into the appointment with my pushbike the doctor thought he had the wrong person until I pointed out that was my walking frame. The session was funny on reflection. He asked if I had walked all the way, I said no. The issue was impact through my severely weakened hips so cycling was fine with high saddle and I could stop by leaning one way and putting the other foot down, my acceptance that a sudden stop would mean falling off wasn’t well received.
One of the standard questions was how far I could walk unaided, which was 1.5 steps. First step I could manage but the impact through the hip I had just put the weight on meant that part way through the second it would give way and I crumpled into a heap.

The assessment at the end was that the damage was as severe as reported but if I said I would recover he believed I probably would. I had to go back 6 months later and have never been classified disabled. Of course now I am epileptic and choose not to ride a motorbike, but that’s life.

belief in myself has caused me harm on occasion but it has been wroth it overall.