Serendipity

My husband bought a used bicycle a month or so ago and wanted me to get a trike to ride with him on a beautiful county park with 6 miles of pavement through the woods. I balked at the 400 dollar price tag, however, and every time one appeared on Craigs List it was old in minutes.

Yesterday a truck was idling outside our house and my husband went outside to see what was going on. In the back of the truck was a trike and my husband asked if it was for sale and for how much. He agreed on a price and ran in for me to try it out. I admit after only 3 minutes my legs felt like lead but I have hopes of building up some extra strength by persevering. We ran in the house, well, I hobbled, and were able to pool our cash to buy it. When we came out the man said 2 other people had tried to buy it from him while we were inside but they were kids and wanted to put a boom box in the back and he hates the music the kids play on those so he told them it was already sold, which was the truth.

Now, some evening or early morning, we will go out and ride. If the little slopes are too steep at first I will go as far as I can, turn around and coast down, then go back up. Since this is Florida and in the summer, it has to be either very early or very late. I doubt if my ride lasts more than five to ten minutes at first but I hope to build it up from there.

I am still practicing a bit of yoga each night, especially rolling my shoulders and doing both should and leg stretches and flexibility asanas.

I keep expanding my horizons and keeping my mind focused on strength and health.

Yoga for Physical Therapy

I started practicing yoga again last week. My first yoga instructor specializes in gentle, therapeutic yoga and is developing a regimen for my specific needs.

The first class consisted of discussing my limitations and abilities. We spent about 30 minutes talking as she took notes. After that, she got out the mats and we started.

We worked on the legs and hips to start with by limbering them up with toe stretches and lifts. After 20 minutes or so we did about 10 minutes with my hands.

That was enough and I told her I had to quit. I should have stopped earlier but I have always been a type A and push myself beyond the limits so I was weak and dizzy. She finished up the exercise with a 10 minutes healing meditation that helped me to once again ground myself.

We discussed future goals and how I need to back off pushing myself to the point of pain and damage and will have shorter sessions from now on. I am not certain if I am going to go weekly or every other week. I think that this combined with my rolfing will add more range of movement and better balance for me.