Walkies: legs? What are those?

[mdlbear]

(Cross-posted to healthy_fen.)

Set out for a walk around the Rose Garden, having decided to stay close to home in case the knees acted up. But in the end it was the shins that stopped me. Didn't even get to the Rose Garden before I had to drop down to a strolling pace and turn around. Guess I really needed a bit more recovery time from yesterday. Very annoying. Total time about 20 minutes.

I tossed my shoulder bag, a small water bottle, and the knee braces in a backpack this time. Definitely more clumsy than the bag when it came to getting things out, but also more comfortable.

Comments

[andyheninger.livejournal.com]

Are you doing any stretching?

There's stretching and there's stretching, and the wrong kind can make everything worse, but gentle stretches that loosen up tight muscles can really help keep joints happy, as can exercises that strengthen the muscles that support the joints.

Stretching, by Bob Anderson, made a huge difference for me, when I discovered it sometime back in the late 80s. Before figuring out a set of stretches that worked I had completely stopped bicycling because, with almost perfectly reliably, any significant amount of it would give me back problems 2-3 days later. After the book, almost no problems with biking, and very few with my back in general, for many years now. The book's still in print after all this time.

So I do a set of stretches each night before going to bed. Takes 10-15 minutes. Makes a big difference in flexibility. It doesn't make everything perfect - my hips and ankles are both showing their age - but it does make them less bad. (What they really need is for me to weigh about 25 lbs less.)

Today's ride was up Montebello Rd. in Cupertino to the top of Black Mountain again. There was more car traffic than normal, which usually means something is happening at one of the wineries along the way. Also passed a group bike ride that was strung out over a fair distance working its way up the hill, including a tandem pulling a trailer loaded with stuff. Between last week and this week the grapes in the vineyards along the way had been picked. HRM statistics: from home to the top, average rate was 145, peak was 174, time was an hour and a half. On the return, measuring from the corner of Stevens Canyon Rd. and Montebello to home, average was 122. (There's no point in measuring Montebello itself on the way down, it's the brakes that get a workout, not me)

[mdlbear]

Thanks! (Just ordered the book from Powell's)