Zach - 2000 to 2011

Quite a few posts back I made mention of my loyal Dobermanns that I've had the privilege of owning down through the years with Zach pictured below being our current Dobermann, well I'm sad to report that Zach passed away yesterday with what looks like heart failure. Over the last few months he's started to display signs of his old age, he was 10 years 7 months. His walks at times were getting slower and slower but his zeal for 'walkies' was undiminished and yesterday we went for our walk in the morning as usual but in the late afternoon he took a turn for the worse and passed away at home at 7pm.   

 

Already just one day on he is sadly missed, I went for our walk today on my own, you can imagine how wrong it felt, the house feels empty, I have lost my pal.

You may say that he's just a dog but you would be so wrong, he was a dog yes but he was also much more than that, he was a member of this family, he was like a child with his own likes and dislikes, he loved a rawhide bone and would happily chew on one all day he also loved his walks especially with 'Dad' - me. When one of us came into the house or first thing in the morning, he would bring you a gift usually the bone, sometimes this 'gift' was unwelcome as he after hunting it down, would often drop it onto your bare feet - that hurt. He loved everyone that came into my house and wanted to be fussed. He was also an excellent guard barking menacingly at anything he thought was a threat, he would even bark at someone trying to leave the house, he didn't want them to go. He didn't like rain... or cats...

Will we get Dobermann No5? You bet we will. Why? The pull of the Dobermann is his character, intelligence and above all his undivided loyalty to myself and family, every Dobermann we have had the privilege of owning have had these qualities and I can't imagine what it would be like to not have one in the house.

Hello World...

Yes hello world that's how I feel right now after being 6 months in the dumps so to speak, I feel fit and healthy and that feeling is the best feeling in the world, you really do miss it when something happens to rob you of your hard gained fitness but enough of that you must all be getting fed up of reading about me going on about these things...

Friday
Sooo, today or rather this weekend has been the most fruitful enjoyable weekends of the year for me and it all started on Friday as I headed to the gym to do a simple all over workout concentrating on my legs but getting in a few upper body exercises. I want to do some proper squats, I hate squats they make me want to puke but they are the king of all exercises as you get a full body workout however all the hard core body builders are hogging the stands grunting out 150+ kg and I would feel a right weed squatting with probably just 60kg so instead I head over to the leg press to force out a few reps, the squat will have to wait for quieter times...

Saturday
A beautiful day in the mid 20's 'C so I set off on my bike to do my usual loop around Preston on the Hill, it's just 20 miles so just over an hours worth of bike and sun. The chippings that the Council in their cheepness had deposited all over the roads I like to ride on and has stopped me from riding this loop has mostly gone, ground into the tarmac or slung to the sides of the roads by a few weeks worth of cars but I'm still cautious travelling these roads however on Saturday it wasn't the chippings that got me it was farmer Giles as he trimmed his thorn bush hedges with yes you can guess it, a puncture. I stop in Preston on the Hill opposite fellow club member Martin Hickmans house but I cant get the thorn out of the tyre so knock on Martins door and with the aid of a pair of tweezers we eventually get the thorn out, so thanks Martin and Jackie for your help. Note to self, buy some tweezers...

Sunday
Another fantastic day even warmer than Saturday and I love the sun, the warmer and sunnier the better for me, so at 11ish myself and Phil M set off on a 30 mile loop. We want an easy ride a steady 15 - 18 mph ride, but today Phil is a bit like my dog with a cat. My dog thinks he is a wise dog, he knows cats can hurt him with those nasty sharp claws but any cat that decides to leg it is fair game and my dog will chase until it's cornered then he will back off, quite normal I suppose. So here we are having a chat along Marsh Lane when another roadie comes past and the chase is on, Phils off after him down in the drops so I follow. We are racing along at 23 to 24 mph and I'm puffed, we catch him as we come to the junction at the end of Marsh lane, roadie turns left as is our route and I thought bloody ell here we go again but there's another roadie having a break on the junction and as we pass I hear a 'Hi Mark', I look and recognise Andy from the club so we pull over for a very welcome break and a chat. We ride on together heading through Comberbach and then cross the A559 into Great Budworth where there's a hill which Andy storms up as myself and Phil climb at our own modest pace, it's here that the 'sprint' we had a few miles comes back to bite us in the bum with tired drained legs as we crawled up this little ankle biter of a hill. Andys waiting for us outside a pub and it's so tempting just to nip in for a pint...

Phil M & Andy

We resist the urge and carry on and then it's Andys time for a turn on the front and when he does the pace goes up so once again I'm puffed but it's all ok as this sort of pace is whats needed to nudge those poor fitness levels up a notch or three.

  Arses of which Phils was very sore - new saddle...

 

Eventually we say our byes to Andy as Andy heads over to Tatton and we carry on heading north through to Appleton Thorn and then west where we were down to 15 mph into a bit of a headwind which leached energy like multi coloured fairies as we headed towards Stretton and finally home.

30 great warm sunny miles in the bag, great stuff and my leg didn't hurt at any point in the ride. Later came a stubby or two in the garden to top the day off and a fantastic way to finish the whole weekend off ...

My Stats

30.5 miles, 2 hrs, 15.2 mph average, Av HR 144bpm (75% max) 901 ft climbing (garmin)

Six months...

January 2nd to July 2nd 2011
It's six months today since my spill in January which resulted in a broken hip, radius and ulna (elbow) bones and I think I've had a remarkable recovery. I'm not blowing my own trumpet in saying that, I put it down to modern surgery and recovery techniques. This last six months has had me go from lying on my back in a bed wondering if I will ever get back to walking normally never mind getting back onto a bike to now being limp and pain free and to top it all I'm getting back to some sort of normality when it comes to cycling. I'm not out with the club regularly like I used to be just yet, that's for the near future but I'm out on the road or on my turbo 3 to 5 times a week.

I said I'm pain free and limp free and that status has only been achieved over the last couple of weeks. Courtesy of the NHS I have been on a physio 'knee class' for the last seven weeks. For the first couple of weeks I definitely improved in my strength and gait but after those initial two weeks I felt I went downhill in that I suffered for the rest of the week after a Monday session, my limp was pronounced and I was in pain however I missed a week due to a hospital visit during week 6 and I feel that that week of rest from physio helped me to recover enough to gain more strength and to get rid of the pain, to heal, I needed that rest. I've finished with the class now I have been cast off with instructions to carry on at my own convenience at my local Fitness First gym, an instruction I need to keep.

Osteo what?
I may have already mentioned it in a past blog entry that the reason I broke so easily was that I have started with osteoporosis in my hips and a milder form of osteoporosis called osteopenia in my spine. How did I get to this unfortunate state? Apparently my other problem of renal failure and transplant combined with the immunosupressant drugs that stops my bionic kidney being rejected can cause these conditions, bummer eh! Now, exactly six months post breaks I can say that my legs have gotten back to that stage where I feel like I float when I walk, like I'm not walking but gliding and my limp has gone, just disappeared and that feels abfab.

I'm a Junkie
Initially from the accident on and every 4 hours or so and more recently mostly at night I been been taking strong pain meds with codeine, codeine is an opiate, a derivative of opium. Maybe as a result I have lost some kidney function as I was told last week so I decided to go cold turkey on the pain meds. I have recently only been taking them at night or when I've been in pain during the day but it's now day 4 off them and I've suffered, I've had some withdrawal symptoms. Can't sleep, can't sit still, stomach cramps, the trots but the worst is the jitters. Sitting here I would get this overwhelming feeling where I just want to get up and run, to scream, I would clench all my muscles really tight and shake, this feeling would last only a few seconds but I want it gone and today, Saturday, day 4 they have gone and I'm off the codeine. Codeine is a minor drug compared to the really hard stuff and what I went through to get off them was bad enough, can't imagine the torture some people must have to go through coming off the really hard stuff...

So where am I now...
I'm walking normally
I'm pain free
I'm regaining my strength in both my left leg and arm
I'm out cycling
I'm happy because of all the above

What do I aspire to...
To get back on the Sunday club runs and back to the Velodrome.
Regain my confidence on the bike

Lastly
I would like to thank everyone that has given me support, from my many club mates from the North Cheshire Clarion who came visit me and provide me with mags and DVD's and the many words of sympathy and support through the clubs forums, texts and phone calls, from the unsolicited help via email from strangers, individuals who have been through similar and took the time to write out lengthy but very informative and encouraging emails namely Mike. My family, my wife Mel who has helped me through this, help you cannot put a price on...