Phone Books are Obsolete Anyway, Right?

Doesn't everyone use their phone books to level their

mountain bikes when riding their bike on the trainer?

I got in aboout 40 minutes on the trainer today. I was working pretty hard while watching a couple of episodes of Weeds on Netflix. Riding the bike on the trainer isn't too bad although I've discovered that it's a dismally poor substitute for an actual mountain bike ride.

First of all, you don't actually go anywhere while riding on the trainer. At first I was dismayed because I hadn't put my Garmin on before the "ride". Then I realized that the Garmin wouldn't actually record anything except my heart rate which would stay pretty steady once I got warmed up. Boring. Athough, it would have recorded the amount of time that I rode and I suppose that would have been useful. I'll use my Garmin next time and upload the plot to The Terrible Triathlete. I'm sure the 2 or 3 of you that actually read this can hardly wait.

Secondly, there's no real skill involved in a ride on the trainer. I can't work on my cornering skills or my braking skills, although I can do strength work I suppose by cranking up the shifter to high gear and trying to maintain cadence. I am trying to work on my pedaling technique a little bit to be more efficient and get the most power out of my stroke. I can't tell yet if it's doing any good really, but one of the benefits of the knobby tire against the resistance roller on the trainer is the noise it makes. If I'm spinning efficiently on the pedals the noise level should be fairly constant meaning that I'm applying constant power to the back wheel throughout my stroke. At least I think that's true. It gives me the illusion that I'm actually "training" while I'm on the trainer.

Here's a shot of the incision exactly three weeks post-surgery. It doesn't look too bad and seems to be healing nicely. It hurts like hell most of the time though. I wonder when the yellowish discoloraton of my chest will go away.

The skin area surrounding the incision from my neck to my shoulder and down into my chest is completely numb. I'm washing the sling right now and typing this on my laptop while lying on the couch. the pain is pretty strong, a five probably on a scale of one to ten but if I don't move too much it's tolerable.

I'm VERY slowly getting mobility back in my arm and shoulder. A week ago the pain from typing this would have been completely intolerable so I guess this is progress. And I guess I'm going to have to learn that this is the pace that the progress will take. It's terribly frustrating though. I'm going on six weeks without any real use of my left arm, although I have reached the point where I can put my pants on almost, but not quite, normally. I'll know I'm healed when I can pull a pair of socks on my feet with both hands.

I can sleep fairly well. I've discovered two positions that don't feel too bad. I can lay flat on my back with my left arm cradled across my stomach or I can lay on my right side with my left arm balanced on my left hip and the side of my left thigh. This works great as long as I don't move. Apparently I move quite a bit as I'm frequently awakened by pain and have to very carefully re-position myself and my left arm into another relatively pain-free position so I can go back to sleep.

And the adventure continues...

The Terrible Triathlete