Posted on
Sep 29, 2009 by amy
Sunday was my “long ride” day and I headed back to Lancaster County for a 56 mile ride I had printed off of the Lancaster Bike Club’s Scenic Tours website (the “Susquehannock” Ride). The route started downtown at McCaskey High School and I rode quickly to my first “point of interest” - Lancaster Central Park - where a woman in Colonial dress stopped me and told me I couldn’t actually ride through the park. I explained I had to or I’d get lost (I even produced my sweaty folded up bike cue sheet as evidence - as in “take THAT- I do need to go through here”) but she stood her ground and explained there was a battle going on and she didn’t want me to get caught in a skirmish. I then realized many of the people around me were also dressed in 1860’s garb, that she wasn’t merely out of fashion, and I agreed that I didn’t want that either so I detoured and managed to pick up the route a few miles away.
I realized pretty quickly that this was not going to be an easy ride. I guess I didn’t notice when I chose the route that it had an “A” rating which means “difficult terrain”- it was probably a good thing though since my ride is weeks away and it’s no time for me to be wimpy. So to summarize I spent my Sunday afternoon riding up, down, up, down…I’m making the “up” sound easy but it was torture. One hill was so steep I literally came to a stop mid-ascent but luckily got my foot out of the pedal in time. I did become frustrated I have to admit and there was plenty of cursing (to no one in particular, I rode solo) and at one point I was so incredibly sad when I realized I’d gotten off track and had to pedal up a hill I just came down. In fact, I refused. I was 30 miles out and really didn’t want more than 60 miles of that ride (if I’m being truthful I wanted zero more miles at that point!). So I used my phone GPS from there on out, made up my own route and headed back toward Lancaster. There was no escaping the hills though and I pretty much suffered the entire way. All in all, I was glad I did it-- I know there will be hills on the Tour de Pink, and I’m thinking of driving the route to prepare mentally but I’m not sure I’ll be able to find the time to do that…
And since I’ve started whining, let me continue by saying my arm hurt afterwards. It’s fine now but throbbed that night and that happens sometimes; it’s not that big of a deal but here’s my cancer lesson for the day (or said a different way, “here is another weird thing about me that I have cancer to thank for”). I don’t have lymph nodes in my right arm anymore because after I was diagnosed I had the 4 main nodes removed from under my arm and tested to see if any of them had cancer. They all tested positive (I don’t do anything half-ass?) so during my mastectomy my doctor also removed the rest of my lymph nodes (20 or so, only 1 of those was positive). So now if you ever see me in a tank top you’ll notice a “crevice” instead of a normal armpit- my skin sinks in where the lymph nodes used to sit- now it is basically a hole and a scar. That procedure required a lot of painful post-surgical stretching to keep my full range of arm motion and I can still feel the tightness in that area every time I stretch (or move for that matter). Lymph nodes have a purpose though -they fight infection- so without them I need to be careful I don’t cut myself or injure my arm in anyway. I can never again have a manicure again <sigh> - too risky. I carry Neosporin and band aids the way diabetics carry insulin and you may think it’s easy to not injure yourself but I swear if there’s a chance to cut or scrape myself I do it. The risk is that I get injured, there are no lymph nodes to fight infection by draining my arm, I get Lymphedema, my arm swells and I live like that forever and that would seriously annoy me. Why my arm hurts…it just does sometimes and it’s been like that since my surgery. Only my right arm and that’s the side where I lost the lymph nodes…mostly after exercises like bowling, weight lifting, riding up hills for hours on end.
OK, sometimes even I get tired of myself when I complain. I could have it a million times worse but I don’t, so now I’m off to bed where I’m going to start plotting my next to last long training ride!!!