Back in the Saddle

I have gotten back in the saddle. I have decided to start blogging again on this private blog. I have missed writing. Now that I have absorbed the shock of Mark's prostate cancer diagnosis, I recognize that I have felt something missing in my life: my writing. So, I'm going to give it another whirl - but no promises as to how faithfully or how long I will write this time.

Mark and I have also got back in the saddle of our respective bicycles. Neither one of us had been our bikes since returning from our cycling tour last fall. I wasn't sure, frankly, whether I could remember how to shift gears. But it all came back, of course, once we got out on the road last week after returning from Maui. 

We went out today and rode I don't know how many miles. Last year, I kept a detailed log of how far we rode each day. This year, I haven't bothered setting my Garmin watch to calculate how far we've ridden, how many vertical feet we've climbed, etc., etc. We're just going out and riding.

Of course, I am way ahead of where I was last year, when I had to build up confidence, strength, stamina and the capacity to breathe. It has been immensely gratifying to feel the strength in my legs and in my lungs.

There is no cycling trip to France planned for this year, but we will be going to San Francisco in late July - early August to ride the Marin County Century (100 miles). On the way out there, we're going to stop in Lake Tahoe for a couple of nights and ride around the lake which, weather permitting, should be absolutely spectacular - all 72 miles of it.

I still haven't perfected the art of the "selfie," as is obvious from this picture taken today. Less nostrils, please.

We do hope to do another Erickson Cycling trip next summer, if the gods are favorable - i.e., if Mark is in good health. All being well, we will tackle the Eastern Pyrénées, hopefully with some of our friends from last year's epic Corsica trip.

I am pleased to say that Mark is doing very well after commencing hormone therapy in early April. His strength and stamina is excellent. As most readers of this blog will know, he retired from Emergency Medicine after the diagnosis came down, but he is still very much involved in his hospice work. Part of his responsibility is to be on call periodically, and this is his week. Thus, we had to stop a couple of times today on our ride so that he could take calls.

Yours truly has also been trying to figure out the panorama feature of his new iPhone 5, my previous phone having given up the ghost shortly before we left Maui. I'm still working on it. I have to ask my 14-year-old how to do it. Meantime, the lead photo and the following photo are my initial attempts at figuring the *!$x& thing out.