Tuesday, October 26, 2010

An interrupted ride

Yesterday, Monday, it was chilly and damp when I went out to pick up the paper. There was a little rain Sunday and although the forecast was for dry, I decided I didn't want to ride in this weather. So I drove to the gym and jogged 40 minutes on a treadmill. Ironically, by the time I left the gym it was a bright, sunny day and I felt bad about not riding. So today, Tuesday, which would by plan be a jogging day, I went for a ride instead. Toward the end of the ride, something rather odd happened.

Rancho San Antonio Park


I opted to ride a moderate route, south on Foothill boulevard to Rancho San Antonio County Park. The attraction there for me is that on a hill at the entry, model airplane hobbyists are usually to be found flying their creations. Indeed today there were several men flying not regular planes but model autogyros.


I watched for a bit and wasted a lot of pixels trying to catch the little machines in the air.

Strange Incident

A couple of miles from home, crossing through an intersection, I became aware of something wrong with the vision in my right eye. I pulled over as soon as I could. My first thought was a visual migraine, something I get once a year or so, but this was not at all the same. A visual migraine is a scintillating transparent arc that starts in the center of the visual field and gradually expands outward, lasting typically 30 minutes until it works its way out of my peripheral vision.

What I saw now was quite different. First, it was only in my right eye, not both. And second, it was an irregular, opaque, pink arc that had appeared in the upper left of the field.

Later I worked out the perfect description: put your right hand against your brow as if you were saluting. Now, curl your forefinger down to make a half circle obstructing the inner part of your right eye. That's what it was like, except the pink blotch had no texture or shape. It could have been painted on the inside of my glasses. The bright autumn sky and trees and road were all clear except where the pink blob was.

Second thought: retinal detachment. Agh! I called home but Marian was out. So I cranked up the assist level to 3 and pedalled home, looking up as much as possible out of some notion that gravity might settle a retinal tear.

In fact, the pink blob thinned and disappeared in about ten minutes and was gone when I reached the house. Nevertheless, I hurriedly changed to street clothes and drove to the Palo Alto Clinic where, eventually, my eyes were dilated and examined. All OK; no signs of tears or separations, no swellings or other indications of a constricted blood supply. (And I had not had the common symptoms of retinal damage: lots of floaters and odd flashes.)

So, no problems found—and no diagnosis. Might have been an anomolous migraine. Anyway, an early end to the ride.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Aaaaaand - we're back.

Returned home from a six-week tour of Germany late on Monday the 12th. On Wednesday, Joe Robinson stopped by the house (and isn't that some kind of service?) with the new battery and my old console.

Just to recap, I pretty much ruined my BionX battery pack, but they accepted it as a warranty fix. Also I'd turned in the little console computer because a light touch on the throttle lever, or just road vibration, would make its screen blank out.

Joe said that BionX had sent back the same console, saying they didn't find anything wrong with it. Well, that was a communication failure on one of our parts, but it doesn't matter because as Joe was installing it on the handlebar... it blanked out on him.

I couldn't have been more pleased. He got a good demo of how just a gentle wiggle of the throttle lever would make the screen go blank. So he took it back to the shop with him.

Friday he stopped by again with a new console. He'd been able to duplicate the problem on another bike, so it definitely wasn't the wiring on my bike (I never thought it was; I was and am sure it's either a cracked circuit board or a bad solder joint) and now the bike was complete again.

Saturday morning I spent some time cleaning and remounting the fairing, which had been gathering dust in the garage all these weeks, then went for a 12-mile, flat ride.

Exactly as I expected and has happened after prior vacations, I've got no lungs and precious little leg. But also, the BionX motor does just what I hoped it'd do: assist level 2 makes it possible to ride at what feels like good speed, even if I'm out of shape. So I will be riding.

I have a plan for a new exercise regime, one to please my cardiologist: MWF do the 40-minute ride to the gym for a short workout; and tuesday and thursday mornings do a 5K jog. That will get me the 5x40-minutes of aerobics per week she wants me to have. (And when I see her and can report doing this program, I will be able to needle her for being a couch spud herself, which she looks like.)

I like the jogging because I can listen to podcasts on the ipod, usually the Skeptic's Guide or the Geologic podcast. One drawback with real cycling (as opposed to jogging or sitting on a stationary bike at the gym) is that it really isn't safe to have the ipod in my ears while doing it.

In aid of this plan I went to the Nike store and bought myself a pair of the almost-barefoot running shoes: a segmented rubber sole with light canvas uppers, they weigh almost nothing and feel good. On Monday and again today (Wednesday the 20th) I stuffed them into a pannier and rode the bike to the gym, as planned. They fit the pannier a lot better than the old running shoes, which by comparison look a lot like feet for the Sta-Puft marshmallow man.

Tuesday I did the jogging as planned. So the quest to recover fitness begins anew.