When "X" no longer defines you.

[pdonk]

Originally Posted by benb

This is awesome to hear, but did the doctors every figure out what was wrong?

Sounds like a season to celebrate!

No diagnosis, they think it may have been some sort of viral infection. The language they used was it has "resolved" itself and not "presented" itself in a way that they could figure out what it was.

Realistically, I am about 95% physically and 75% mentally. The decrease in acuity is harder to come to grips with then losing a year of riding.

[OtayBW]

Originally Posted by pdonk

After last year, and still wondering what happened to me, it is nice to return to a sense of normalcy in terms of physical activity and how I feel about my self and riding.

As someone with an puzzling and unresolved medical issue that has limited my riding severely, I'm glad to hear you're back on track.

[AngryScientist]

Nice.

In general nothing to be embarrassed or worried about taking some time off and coming back to rebuild. Sometimes that’s the fun part; watching the fitness progress.

[jamesdak]

Glad to hear things are coming around for you and congrats!

I totally failed at "coming back" from my 2nd knee replacement this year as planned. Due to several health reasons.

But I plan to keep after it and am hoping for a better year next year. But to be honest it hasn't bothered me that much to not be riding as fast as I'm used to. It's thought me that even a slow, chilled out ride on a bike is still a good day.

Positives in life exist everywhere. We just need to find them.

[JMT3]

First I was a runner. Then I was a runner that cycled too, duathlons. Hit age 50 and the bulging discs at S1 and L5 turned me into a cyclist that sometimes runs very slowly. I used to get mad if I wasn’t running 6 minute or below miles and now I’m excited when I get under ten minutes per mile. Now neck pain keeps me in check but I still ride. Now at almost 68 I can give the sub 30 crowd a run for their money on good days. I like who I am and need to periodically adjust that.

Life can and does get in the way of life.

[mhespenheide]

I had my first child late in life, at 47, five years ago. Before that point, I ran a lot, cycled a lot, backpacked a lot, and took a lot of road trips. Basically all of that went away after my son was born. Don't get me wrong: he's fantastic, and I wouldn't change it for the world. And things are slowly starting to creep back.

But I still struggle, sometimes a lot, with not being the person I was before he was born. I had that former identity for 25-30 years and I've only had this identity for five years.

And that's something we took on voluntarily, trying to think about what was going to have to change. It must be even harder when the change is imposed from the outside, whether by injury or accident or otherwise.

[dave thompson]

Originally Posted by zmalwo

muscle mass can be easily regained so i wouldn't stress too much about it.

Really?