Just Call Me Lance

If the fact that I have hair in this picture didn't tip you off — that, and two breasts — let me clue you in: this photo of J and I is NOT recent. I swiped it from a biking buddy's Facebook album (thanks QB) to illustrate the direction my mind keeps drifting now that the snow is melting and the temperature keeps creeping up.

I love riding and I love the companionship of my club, but biking makes me nervous right now. Not just because of my usual litany of complaints — lower back and hip stiffness and pain, foot numbness and pain — but also because on chemo I find my energy level can plummet without warning. Out on the road there's no option. As they say in our hilly biking community, what goes down must come up.

Another thing I was taught as a beginner, shortly after purchasing my first and only intimidatingly fancy new road bike. It's a deceptively tricky bicycling fundamental: Keep the rubber side down.

I'm considering joining a group outing tomorrow, if only for a little while before peeling off and heading home again. Even if it feels great I expect fifteen or twenty miles will be plenty.

Or maybe I'll wake up in the morning utterly depleted. Keeping myself upright without a bike might be challenge enough. In that case, I will remind myself that this is temporary. That it may not happen as quickly as I'd like, but I will finish this damned treatment and I will recover.

What goes down must come up.

Chemo #6 today. More on that soon...