Saturday, April 19, 2008

Healed, just in time!

I received some exciting news on Thursday -- I got a follow-up x-ray taken of my ankle... And they said it's healed! (or at least healed enough) The doc finally said I can wear shoes other than the special "sexy" supportive boots I've been wearing for 10 straight weeks now - wohoo! Actually I'll kind of miss them -- Ever since Feb. 8th I have worn these same shoes. They have been all over Switzerland with me lately...
But now my feet can finally breathe, whew!!

You can still tell that my left ankle is swollen a bit, and they said it still has a little healing left to do. But now I can finally run again and ride my road bike. So now I have some catching up to do!

At least I didn't have to sit around doing nothing during the weeks that it was healing. Actually I could ride my commuter bike just a few days after surgery...
To be honest I really enjoy riding my commuter bike - It has nice wide tires so there's no worries about riding in the rain (which is helpful here in the wet winter/spring), plus the seating is upright and comfy (it's gonna be hard to get used to the "racing" position of a road bike again), not to mention it offers loads of room in its "trunk" for lugging stuff around...Too bad it doesn't offer what this one does though (hee heeeeee)...
Over the past couple months I did ride a "racing" bike (that's what they call road bikes here) inside sometimes, using our Tacx trainer. It's connected to a computer program, and makes your workout like playing a video game - The faster you pedal the faster the cyclist on the screen goes...You can even choose actual epic rides such as Mont Ventoux and it shows actual video of the climb as you pedal, pedal, pedal...

Here I must have been going so fast, my feet disappeared! ;)That program came in handy to still get a workout when it was cold and/or snowy outside, but still I'd always rather bike in the great outdoors. Very near our apartment is a road with an extended hill climb (as hillseekers I guess that is appropriate), going up up up... It's one of the named climbs in the Zurich Ironman triathlon, called "Heartbreak Hill", and there's writing on the street all the way up to cheer on the riders:
Little things like this pump me up and make me push myself up the hill harder... I pretend the messages are on there for me (hey Lance is my middle/maiden name after all!):So I am very thankful that I've been able to continue to be active through the winter. But I'm also thankful that I can ride my road bike and wear sandals just in time for spring here...

This picture was taken in Montreaux, in the french part of Switzerland near Lausanne. This area is often called the "French Riviera of Switzerland", and we could see why - It is gorgeous. You can see more pictures by clicking here.

I hope you are enjoying your springtime as well!

Cheers,
Becky

3 comments:

Brian said...

Woot! Glad the go-go boots are gone, gone, gone! Now get off that damn trainer and go outside.

Traveling Bells said...

Woooohaaaaaa!!! Congrats on the new freedom from the sexy boots. Cute toes:-) Enjoy the 'real' ride now...hugs from Sandy

chocolate girl said...

Yahoo!!! Glad you've got clearance! Great pics and wonderful report:-)