Riding Those Waves

Still riding the confidence waves up and down as they happen. Sunday was a low point. As I’ve said before, my balance has been giving me fits and starts for a while, and I even whined about it last week. Well, Sunday it whacked me in the face again. Normally, my balance is not really an issue when I use my elliptical. Every once in a while, I feel a little unsteady on it, but most of the time it’s not too bad. Sunday, however, was a big problem.

I got on my elliptical Sunday with the plan of doing 50 minutes. After the first few minutes, something wasn’t quite right. I did not feel stable at all. I felt like I was going to fall over. And I kept jumping at any little noise. I jumped when the display screen reset. Jump, jump, jump…I ended up with a death grip on the poles. At 17 minutes, I got off and tried to collect my sanity. Got back on, and no change. Even getting on was an issue. Transferring my hands from the display screen handles to the poles, I felt like I was going to fall off. I took one more break and then finished the 35 minutes. I didn’t care that I was 100 revolutions away from one mile, I just wanted off. But I finished the 35 minutes. I was super slow. I only went about 45 RPM. I normally go at about 53 RPM for my average pace. Any faster than 45 or so, I felt really off.

Today, I’m happy to say that my balance is back somewhat. I did my mile today with no balance issues. I was a little slow still, but not as slow. I wanted to build up the confidence a bit before testing myself with a faster pace. But at least I did a mile in 35 minutes, almost exactly. So that brought me up to a high confidence wave, at least a little higher than it was.

Then, it sort of dropped again. I use a suction cup safety bar when I get in and out of the tub/shower. Been working just fine (with a few confidence issues here and there) for about 3 years. I’ve found a safety bar I really like, and I’ve actually bought 3 of them. My newest one I’ve only used for the last month. I don’t know if they changed the mechanics of it or what, but it doesn’t seem to work the same way as the other two. It seems a bit more glitchy. It sticks to the wall the same way, but it makes a noise that the first two didn’t make when I first used them.

So, today when I went to take a shower, I put the bar up. Got in just fine. Every time I stand up in the shower or get in or out, I check the bar first to make sure it’s stuck on securely. One of my fears is that it will come loose as I’m getting in or out. Well, today, it was making a noise that sounded like it was loose. I gave a little tug, and it popped off. Usually it makes a squeaky noise when it’s loose, and I’ll reattach it. It did make a noise, but then it popped off after the first light tug. So I reattached it. Gave a little tug to test it out, and it sort of slid along the side of the wall, and again popped off. Great. I’m going to be stuck in the shower forever.

Luckily, I still had my older safety bar as a back up. I make sure to keep it within reach. It wasn’t totally dead, so I kept it just for times like this. So I stuck the old one on and got out. Phew. Not sure what’s going on with the new one, but I don’t know if I’ll use it again. That kind of threw my confidence off a bit. I’ll check Amazon to see if they have any new types of suction cup safety bars. I like the one I use a lot, so I might buy one more of those and see if it’s any better. They’re only about $10, so why not. They work well when they work. But that kind of confidence dip wasn’t what I needed today, especially since I had a better day on the elliptical and was feeling good.

Other than that, not a whole lot is going on. I’ve got other things to say, but I’ll leave that for tomorrow. Here are the last few pictures from the virtual walk. Sunday’s “bad” mile and today’s good one.

Mile 265.6



 

Copyright 2006 Lawrence Berkeley Lab

Mile 266.6



 

Copyright 2006 Lawrence Berkeley Lab

Keep moving…even when it’s hard.