It's Come to This

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

So it's come to this.  Prior to the recent multiple catastrophes, Zwift, and for that matter indoor trainers in general, was something I thought of as a nice occasional training solution for those less fortunate than myself. I'd always been able to put in a couple of hours on the bike, outside of course, before work. The relatively rare days when the weather or other necessities made that ill-advised or impossible served as random rest days in my random training program (I use the term "program" here in its loosest sense). Now, going into my fifth week off the bike during which I have been basically sedentary, I sit at my desk looking out the window onto South Claiborne Avenue at Broadway, watching the cars and bicycles and joggers and walkers go by. It will probably be toward the end of next week before I'll be comfortable sitting on the bike for any length of time, but I figured I should at least get things set up for what I assume will be another two or three weeks of indoor riding. It still hurts a bit to take deep breaths right now, so no doubt it will be a long road back to whatever used to pass as fitness for me. Without the injury, this would be the perfect time to be putting in some long miles, and also to be incorporating some long-neglected upper body work. I've been doing a bit with the Theraband, but I'm not pushing it when I can feel the ribs, which is most of the time. Anyway, a few days ago I figured I may as well go ahead and set up a Zwift account in order to give me something to look at when I finally am able to ride the trainer. Historically, I have about a 40-minute threshold on indoor trainers before I just can't stand it any more. Yesterday I set the Garmin to "indoor cycling" mode and spun my legs for about thirty seconds to make sure it worked. Then this morning I put the laptop into a string backpack (the only way I can carry anything like that while using the crutches) and went downstairs to the basement where I have the Orbea set up on the trainer. I was happy to find that Zwift was able to find the old Garmin speed and cadence sensor right away with the ANT+ dongle I'd gotten, and rarely used, a while back for the WattBike. I didn't have the Wahoo HRM with me but I'm confident it will find that just as easily. I guess I'll break down and pay for a subscription before my free trial runs out next week, link it to my Strava account, and dream about spending an hour cycling through cyberspace. Not exactly my cup of tea, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Somebody just went by the window, turning left from Claiborne to Broadway, wearing one of the old red, white and blue NOBC jerseys. Couldn't tell who it was, though.

Never thought I'd be living this.

Near the end of 2001 a good friend, Gina, who was at the time finishing up her MPH at Tulane and was racing with us locally gave me a copy of The Coming Plague. I read all 622 pages, practically all at once, and wondered why I'd never considered getting into epidemiology when I was in school. I never imagined that it would serve as back ground reading for the current pandemic. Gina went on to get her DO, doing a residency in Emergency Medicine at Emory, and ended up as an ER doctor in Charlotte where she is no doubt employing lessons learned during her MPH coursework. I knew things were starting to get serious up there when she broke her long Facebook silence with "Thank you, pray for us! And educate your friends on the importance of staying at home and social distancing. Transmission stops at the community level. There is no cure. Healthcare providers are at increased risk with repeated exposures to high viral loads. Unfortunately we do not have all of the protective gear that we need. We have children and families who also depend on us. Be a hero. Stop the spread. Stay at home!" 

Things in New Orleans are still pretty critical. The city is mostly shut down and the tourism industry is completely shut down. Normally vibrant hotels are empty. Restaurants are closed or just offering delivery service. The mayor starts and ends her daily press conferences with "stay home!" Hospitals are still scrambling for ventilators and PPE and trying to add more and more ICU capacity. It could easily be another couple of weeks before things peak here, and even if it does, it would be another month or more easily before the situation gets back to where it was just four weeks ago. I'm at least glad that I am comfortable with myself, although it would help a lot if I wasn't still nursing the broken bones and able to at least do some work around the house and get out on the bike.