To Be or not To Be ...

... a muscle. That is the question.

Apparently most of the muscles that support my knees and lower back don't work. Not such a hot starting point for an aspiring Argus cyclist (yes - that IS the image I'm creating in my mind's eye). Simple starts yield amazing results and so the biokineticist has given me 3 simple start-up exercises to re-train the muscles-that-were to become the muscles-that-are:
ONE: stand on one leg at a time - if this gets easy close your eyes. Can you believe it? Apparently the little muscles that help to provide balance have been compromised due to my over-mothering of a knee prone to surgery. By not allowing my errant right knee to work properly it has enticed a whole range of balancing and support muscles to become marshmallows.

TWO: Lie on your back and lift your feet to touch your buttocks. After 20 of these bend your knee and and lift your upper leg off the bed. Sounds simple but the first 20 were murderously painful and I was left shaking like a jello ...

THREE: Sit upright with a straight leg in front of you, bend the foot out and lift the entire leg. This didn't go too badly.

WHY? I hear you ask ARE YOU DOING THIS? Two simple goals:
1. Finish the 109km Argus Cycle Tour - no matter how long it takes
2. Raise R50 000 in support of the work that we do through The Chaeli Campaign

And then there's a small matter of being pig-headed in the face of adversity and needing to accept a challenge head on ...