My pictures didn’t turn out at all, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.
Tomorrow is my annual checkup at the VA. I wasn’t too worried about the doctor yapping at me about much of anything. Still, but I was personally unhappy with how that brief period of taking beta-blockers just about killed my metabolism. My waist sized swelled just a bit and kept swelling even after I discontinued them. So finally I got tired of it and dropped all sweets. Keep in mind that I had no trouble eating them before the collision last year and right up until I had so much trouble with tachycardia that they gave me those nasty pills. Suddenly sweets were a problem, but it wasn’t obvious for a while. So I dropped them last week and started into a different exercise regimen to kick up the metabolism from wake-up throughout the day.
In the process, I discovered that my knee is better than I thought. I took a 2-mile hike, wearing a compression brace, of course. With the brace I was able to keep up a fast road-march pace. And when I got back, there was none of the usual pain down inside the joint. I was tired and had ordinary workout soreness, but none of that dull ache that nags for two or three days.
It gave me confidence to try something really big: Today I saddled up and rode the Giant Loop. That’s the Katy Trail to Persimmon Hill, up to Wilshire and all the way in to Nichols Hills. I zig-zagged back down to Grand Boulevard and rolled all the way out to Hefner Lake. I stayed on the south edge, noticing that the lake was down by at least six feet (almost 2m). Boats in the mini-docks were suspended a good bit above the water. By the time I got to the canal, I could see it was flowing into Hefner Lake, which is backward from typical. Then I followed the canal to Lake Overholser. It was quite a drag facing the stiff breeze head-on for two miles straight on the stretch alongside Wiley Post Airport. When I crossed the pump house at the gates over that end of the canals, I could hear the electric pumps just humming away. Overholser has a good water level. I also spotted a car nose down into a tree on the bank of the dam, but it was pretty well hidden from my camera by foliage. I guess whichever agency is responsible just didn’t think it was worth removing the wreck.
There was another two miles of headwinds along Overholser and a little beyond on the West River Trail. Eventually I got around to facing east and it was very quiet and solitary riding the curvy trail to Meridian Avenue. Just before I got to that point I spotted a whole flock of solid white pelicans huddling on a sandbar out in the river, at least two dozen of them. But taking that shot would mean shooting into the sun and I had the wrong camera for that. The crossover at Meridian is just about done, and already quite usable. From there I began to encounter more traffic, mostly pedestrians. I started making much better time, and was zipping pretty well all the way to the Eagle Lake Trail, but stopped at the bridge again. Then I climbed up out of the riverbed area and onto Reno, but dove into the back streets to avoid the heavier traffic. By the time I got home it was about 5.5 hours — really slow, but the fact that I made it was cause for rejoicing.
Addenda: After a quick attempt to calculate the distance, I found it comes close to 50 miles (80 km).
Well done, and congratulations.
Here’s a hint about why sweets have become problematic for you since taking the heart meds. According to this fellow, ALL pharmaceuticals derange the balance of gut bacteria, not just antibiotics.
http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.ca/2015/08/common-medicines-make-superbugs-not.html
No surprise there. Thanks.
Wow, Ed! So very happy for you that are so able and fit to have accomplished this! To me, it is zmazing.
God’s healing power can be quite generous.