Pain is fine now. Also I hadn't looked at the instructions for my pain med prescription because although I had a new prescription, the pharmacy wouldn't fill it. They thought I was drug seeking or something. I finally got it this morning. I still had 8 or so left from last weeks so I'd been taking those as needed. New scrip was same dose although I was advised to take 2 instead of 1. That would have probably really helped that first night if I'd known. Now I have *60* pills which seems like a lot. I still have a few from last week when I was prescribed 20. I really doubt I'll even take 20 of the new prescription.

I can not poop again, it sucks. I am eating huge bowls of fruit daily (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, melons), fiber cereal, leafy greens, raw tomatoes, stool softeners, tons of water. It's been since monday. I think today I'll start with the prunes.

Hope you are doing a little better by now. Sucks you had to have surgery.
Fruit and fiber should do the trick for your second problem. Is the constipation brought on by the pain meds or an ongoing battle?

Pretty much just from the opiods I think. I actually started pooping a few days ago though and it's been fine since. I only take a Percocet now if I'm going to do something I know will hurt, or sometimes before bed if it aches

Whats the healing time on the shoulder? 8 weeks?

I have heard wildly varying estimates. I have a follow up today, we'll see

I did my first post-surgery road ride yesterday. 20 mile out and back ride to a nearby town. Went OK. My shoulder did not bother me at all, the hand was sore and it was difficult to brake and shift on the left.

My company is moving offices next month, to a new location that is both 5 miles further, about 800 feet more climbing, and down a series of roads that are considerably less safe to ride on. That might be the end of me commuting to work, which is too bad, because it was an easy way to get 5 or 6 hours/week of cycling in. Since that 6 hours of riding replaced about 3.5-4 hours of driving, it only cost me 2-2.5 hours of my time. So now to get the same number of cycling hours in, I'll have to take more of my personal time.

I may try something else, like maybe riding to the train station, taking the train to a downtown stop and then riding to work. I could probably make my total bike distance about 15 miles that way. But it would probably take much longer, so it wouldn't really help much.

You are back on the bike faster then I would have thought. Sucks about your commute. I never commuted as often as I should have, but they closed the showers at work because the bathroom didn't conform to the ADA act. Rather then spend any money updating it they just closed it. Tough to commute in Texas without being able to shower when you get there. Maybe in December and January I can.

Yeah if there was no shower I couldn't commute. All the jobs I've had since I started riding had showers. In Austin there are a few places you can stop and shower - like some bike shops will have showers you can use, so if you work relatively near there that can work. If your commute is short enough you could probably get away with it. But 25 miles, whether in winter or summer, I am going to need a shower when I get there.

It's funny you said this seems short, seemed like forever to me. I think it was almost 6 weeks off a bike (outside - like 3 weeks off if you count riding indoors)

Have had a hard time riding this week, people I work with who are from overseas are here so I've been driving here and often going out after work with them.

Not much to post about recently. I'm riding about 7-8 hours/week, no actual training just riding around. My office moved and this makes it very impractical to commute - it's 5 miles further (60 mi round trip, plus +1000 feet over old commute) and the final few roads are extremely dodgy.

Today I bonked hard for the first time in probably 4 or 5 years. I ride with a regular group every sunday, usually 50 miles at a fairly easy pace (16-17). Today was advertised as "15 miles of gravel" but was actually 15 miles *each way* I rode it on a regular road bike - it is a lot more work to ride on gravel than smooth road. The ride was also about 63 miles. And I really did not eat enough. Looking back, I had a donut at 9am, the ride started at 11, I had a cookie mid-ride at a coffee shop, and that was *it* I also did not drink enough water - I am not that confident on gravel so I wasn't pulling my bottle out to drink often enough.

Anyway, I had to stop briefly near the end, everyone was super nice and I limped back to the start. Stopped and slammed a Dr. Pepper on the way home. I now feel like complete **** - I dunno if still just affected by the ride or maybe getting sick. The wife and the boy have both had a cold for the last week.

Oh, also, this week and last week were both guest-led by a local guy who (just this fall) became a pro cyclist. An extremely strong rider who, uncharacteristically, is capable/willing to ride way below his level to make it fun for everyone involved. I doubt he broke a sweat on this ride at all.

How's the wing doing?

Kind of a mixed bag. The shoulder hurt whenever I put any pressure on it after the surgery, like sleeping on that side was impossible. It gradually got better and then a day or 2 ago it got way way worse, like it hurts badly if I roll over in bed or anything like that. Don't know why. I want this piece of metal out - hopefully that's the cause.

My hand didn't really heal that well either. I get twinges of pain whenever I try to do anything with it.

Neither of these really affect me day to day that much, just an annoyance I'll probably have to live with until I die.

Confused by the title thought it meant something different

Now, mysteriously, my shoulder is fine and I slept on it last night.

I really hate to do this because it seems like bull**** but it sort of seems like cold weather makes it worse. The day it got really sore we had an extreme cold snap - it actually snowed for the first time in several years. Now it's in the 60s.

Quarterly news recap:

I ride bikes not a lot these days. I am aiming for 7 hours a week and not hitting it quite a bit this month due to illness and work.

I think I probably posted last year about the kid who got hit and killed. The driver plead guilty and has taken a plea deal of 2 years in jail, 10 years probation. A lot of people think it's not enough, I guess I don't know what enough is, but it's more than most people get. Last weekend was the memorial of the event, a guy I know organized a ride from Austin up to the ghost bike. I met them along the way. Weather looked like absolute **** but I went anyway. We ended up getting rained on for about 1/3 of the way up, but it was clear on the way back. Almost wiped out big time in the rain. I was riding at the back and I saw that a guy had stopped, as I went by I was like "do we need to stop" and he says "yes" so I speed up to tell the people in front of me. Except, they already knew and were just going to the next overpass to wait under it, so I'm accelerating and they're decelerating. As I come up to them the guy in front of me comes to an abrupt stop, skidding his rear wheel to the side. I'm barely able to go around him. Anyway, I'm glad I went.

I just bought a new bike online - Lynskey had a huge sale and I'd been looking to buy a "gravel bike." I got it for half off. It's one of these:
https://lynskeyperformance.com/2018-...e-gravel-bike/

thanks for the update. everytime i read about bike accidents / deaths they really get to me.
i am honestly surprised that there was any punishment at all, i mostly read of drivers getting off scot free.

do you plan on doing any races / fondos this year?

gravelbike looks like much fun! i bought a new bike as well (old road bike had a cracked frame), currently on 28mm tires + discbreaks, but with enough space to probably put 35mm tires on there. makes some cheap crossbike-possibilities without sacrificing too much on the road (especially uphill, don't care much about my speed on flats)

I don't think I'll do any races this year. I may do some events, maybe even some gravel events. I've done extensive gravel riding on a normal road bike, including carbon frame and 23mm tires. It's doable but you really have to pick your line a lot more than someone on bigger tires. I have a road bike that will take 28mm tires and I did a lot of gravel on that in the summer and fall but I want to be able to keep up with guys on more suitable bikes.

This guy did a hit and run and I think it's pretty likely there were drugs or alcohol involved. If he'd stayed at the scene and not been impaired it's likely there would have been no charges. Just a kid though so maybe he was clean but got scared and ran. His story makes no sense, really. And honestly the witness' stories don't make sense either, I think probably someone knows something that isn't public knowledge.

****, another one gone. A local semi-famous cyclist died yesterday. Andrew Tillin, author of "The Doper Next Door" and a regular contributer to Outside magazine among others. He was a regular on the amateur racing circuit and generally well known around town.

He was changing a tire on a fairly commonly ridden road (albeit one I won't ride any more). There was a car accident - a car t-boned another car, the 2nd car was forced into Tillin. He died at the hospital but it was generally considered that the accident was fatal regardless.

I haven't been around much, but checking in. Sucks to hear about people getting run over.
As far as this:
"I really hate to do this because it seems like bull**** but it sort of seems like cold weather makes it worse. The day it got really sore we had an extreme cold snap - it actually snowed for the first time in several years. Now it's in the 60s."

I got a hip, knee and back that are all achy most of the winter. It ain't BS, IMHO.

I'm going to start logging again. I am having such a hard time getting back into the swing of things, maybe this will help.

A bit of a recap:
I used to ride a lot, I raced a little bit, then I had a series of illnesses and injuries that kept me off the bike for a while. One of the illnesses was Grave's disease, which ended with me getting my thyroid removed. My levels are "normal" again now but I definitely don't feel the same. I have zero WIM, if i sit down in a chair I will stay there for hours doing not much.

My weight ballooned up (see chart). I had been a pretty steady 175 which I was happy with. I'd usually cut down to about 170 in racing season and then it would creep back over the fall/winter. I hit a peak of 200 last summer which was a real wakeup call. I took off 15lb over the last year and then have been idling at 185.

I don't exercise enough, I cheat too much on food, I probably drink too much (which is mostly a problem because I'll end up eating along with it)

So
1. I want to keep eating about like I am now without the cheating. So I'm aiming for about 1750 calories/day, exercise adjusted (I will give a short addendum about that in a second)
2. I want to get aerobic exercise hours up to 7/week. For the time being I won't worry about what kind of exercise this is - right now I am mostly walking, want to mix in more cycling
3. I want to start lifting again - haven't lifted at all since 2015. My lifting goals are very modest. I don't have numbers in mind but I am not looking for big lifts. I may consider some kind of higher volume / lower weight thing, I don't know. I know very little about weight lifting programming tbh.

Regarding calorie adjustments for exercise:
1. I don't give myself any adjustments for walking - i.e. if I walk an hour I don't count that as extra calories I can eat.
2. for cycling my general rule of thumb is that I give myself a 50% allowance up to 800 calories. So if I do 600 calories of cycling exercise, I give myself 300 extra calories to eat. If I do, say, 2000 calories of cycling, I'll give myself 800 to eat.
3. if I do any really epic rides I will adjust accordingly. It's been a very long time since I did one for example I used to occasionally ride 100 miles at 20mph and this is usually 3000-3500 calories. It is actually difficult too eat too much on a day of that kind of ride.

I also want to track calories/week I think. I'm a little surprised most weight loss apps don't surface this number as a moving average. If you are gaming the system then you would tend to eat right up to your calorie number without going over, because that's a win, and once you've gone over you have less incentive to stop eating. With a weekly average, you can essentially bank calories if you go under, and you can and should eat less in the following day to accommodate.

Good luck, Happy to continue following.
Any long term goals? Do you want to race again one day?

Welcome back. I've had some similar issues, maybe I'll bump my own thread. Hope you can get "back in the saddle"!

I do not plan to race again. I would like to be as fit as I was then but that may be difficult or impossible for me. I knew that when I stopped racing I would no longer have a drive to work as hard, because there were no consequences. But I would like to be back in the spot I was where there was basically no rides around time I couldn't jump into and do fine.

So I'd like to be back at 175lb, and stay there, and I'd like to be riding every Sat/Sun again at least, and hopefully a time or two during the week also.

A real problem has been that ever since my office moved to it's current location, it's basically impossible for me to bike to work. That was a very easy way for me to get extra miles in.

Good luck.

Where is your office now? Are you still in pflugerville?