So today I (sort of) rode a bike for the first time since last October.
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| My first ride |
For comparison, here’s a ride from last summer:
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| Training ride last summer |
Can you spot the difference?
So today’s ride was on a tandem. I had this idea, that starting on a tandem would be the thing. I remember when my kid was little, I had a trail-a-bike I attached to the back of my bicycle, and I would ride him between morning kindy and afternoon pre-school three days a week. It was a workout for me, because kiddo put in zero effort. They could have pedalled along on their wheel, but fat chance of that happening! I kept us upright and moving, and figured kiddo could do the same for me now that they’re all grown.
Tandems are different, though.
Our pedals turned in synch, so there was no chance for me to just coast along. We had to pedal together. The back seat is close enough that I couldn’t see much beyond kiddo’s back, which was somewhat panic-inducing. Our starts were incredibly wobbly, which made me tense up and grip my handlebars for dear life, which made the wobbling worse.
Very near the start of our very short ride, we took a break so I could do a 5-minute breathing exercise (part of heartrate variability training, to help with controlling migraine and other symptoms). Then tried again. I quietly counted, “one, two, one, two,” under my breath, as a reminder to pedal. I focused on breathing in through the nose, out through the mouth. I focused on the fuzziness of kiddo’s sweater, and trying to relax my hands instead of strangling the handlbars like a maniac. There’s a chunk of the loop that I walked, looking for a washroom, and taking a little break. And then we rode all the way back.
I was starting to feel almost normal towards the end. But I was also asking, “Are we there yet?” well before we were back at the bike rental place.
So—a success? Maybe, in that we didn’t crash (although we did come close) and I didn’t cry (although I did come close) but it’s a long way from being able to feel normal.
A bit headachey this evening, and super tired. Hope I don’t get a migraine from it tomorrow. I am taking a new migraine med, which has been helping so far for the first week I’ve been on it, but I don’t want to count too many chickens.
