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I’m Back!

Lisa Eirene

About Lisa Eirene Lisa lost 110 pounds through calorie counting and exercise. She swims, bikes, runs, hikes and is enjoying life in Portland, Oregon. Her weight loss story has been featured in First Magazine, Yahoo Health, Woman's Day and Glamour.com.

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22 Comments

  1. Logan @ Mountains and Miles

    I feel like it’s the exact opposite here! It’s been kind of chilly and gloomy and this weekend/next week it’s supposed to rocket up into the 70’s!! I’m not a HUGE east coast summer fan (me, heat and humidity is not a pleasant mix), but I am ready for it to be warmer in the mornings. I used to bike to work every day, but lately I’ve been dropping the ball. I started having knee problems that I KNEW were from my bike and just didn’t have the time or energy to make adjustments and test them out. I went back down to biking about once a week, instead..I finally got around to making the adjustments last weekend and still failed to bike more than twice this week (fail), but I am hoping to get back on the wagon next week.

    I LOVE biking to work. I get really cranky on public transport and the metro in DC – it’s crowded, people are cranky and pushy – plus it’s really expensive (at least for me). Biking to work lets me ease into my morning, enjoy the beautiful DC sights along the way, and get a great workout in.

    Glad your knees are feeling better!!!!!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Oh no, I hope your knees are ok. I need to take my bike in ASAP to get fitted.

      I agree with you, public transportation is awful. I hate it and refuse! It’s crowded, dirty, people are gross and obnoxious…the list goes on and on. And I’m also impatient. πŸ™‚

      1. Logan @ Mountains and Miles

        They’ve bounced back. I tried to figure out what your knee troubles are but can’t find a post that talks about it – I think you tagged something “Runners Knee”…so I assume that’s what you have (Chrondomalacia Patella/Patellafemoral Pain?)? I had intense pain caused by that beginning in 2009 and going through 2011. It hurt to do everything…walk, bike, take the stairs, sit for too long, sometimes it just ached to be achey. I did EVERYTHING to try and solve it – rest (for about 6 months!), PT and strengthening (for about another 6+ months), hyalgen injections (basically a gooey lubricant they put in to cushion the knee) and nothing worked. Finally my doctor suggested getting it scoped and it was like night and day afterwards. Two weeks after my surgery I was moving without pain like I hadn’t done in years. When it was bad, biking was one of the MOST painful exercises I could do – and why to this day I freak out when I get knee pain while biking. I’m about two years out from my scope and, while I still have some aches from time to time, it feels 99.99% better! I know PT and rest work for most people, so I am so glad to hear that you are having results!!! One of the things that I really focus on now is my hip/quad/glute strength (particularly my hips – gotta love the clamshells!) and I’m hoping that’s enough to keep it at bay for now.

        1. Lisa Eirene

          Yep, Runner’s Knee. Been doing PT since October. I’ve had bouts of great improvement, only to have a setback. I’ve tried orthopedic massage, acupuncture, stopped running/bike, tried taping, etc. It sucks.

          What was scoping? What exactly did they do?

          1. Logan @ Mountains and Miles

            arthoscopy. A big problem with runners knee is that your cartilage gets frayed, which then rubs and catches. So with the scope, they basically go in with a miniature razor blade and shave it down smooth again so it doesn’t catch or rub anymore. It’s more of a “last case scenario” and I wasn’t seeing ANY improvement (not even little wins like you). My Dr. said even the scope wasn’t a sure fire – that it was hit or miss with patients and I just got lucky that I was one of the ones it worked for. The pictures they took are crazy..I keep meaning to post them on my blog, but I did write up a brief post on it back when I first started blogging. http://mtnsandmiles.blogspot.com/2012/10/chrondomalacia-patella.html

            My Dr. thinks that my problem may be more genetic than misalignment/weakness related (my mom has bad shoulders), so she said the scope was a temporary solution that that I would probably have to get it done again (but she couldn’t put a time frame of when that was – 1 year, 2 years, 5 years…). So far I’m still good and I have been doing higher mileage than I have ever done before in my life.

            Taping helped me a bit, too..it just got tiresome. It’s an incredibly frustrating problem and one that I feel like you HAVE to catch early to avoid all of these months of recovery. I totally feel you, though, I didn’t run much from March of 2010-March of 2011 because it had just gotten so bad.

            You should ask about hyalgen injections. They didn’t work for me, but they work wonders for my mom. Their not steroids…it’s literally just a lube that they inject into your knee (totally painless…but feels a little “full” at first…it’s a weird feeling).

            But the fact that you can bike again is a great step! Hopefully it keeps heading in that direction!!

          2. Lisa Eirene

            Thanks so much for the advice! I’ll look into your suggestions. I’m glad you found something that works. I think my issues is bad alignment. My knees have an inward rotation and my IT Bands are ALWAYS tight no matter how much stretch I do.

            Taping worked for a long time, then it stopped working. I don’t know why. It seemed to make it worse. It also tore up my skin in a horrible way! πŸ™

  2. Roz@weightingfor50

    YAY!!!!! Bring on the summer indeed!!!

  3. Cindy

    That is so awesome! You must be excited to be able to bike more often now.

    I really hope we get a decent spring/summer here in Glasgow. I’m freezing!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Well our cold weather and rain is back, sadly. So I’m freezing now too!

  4. Michelle @ Eat Move Balance

    It made me smile to read how excited you are to be biking. I completely understand that feeling!! Pure euphoria when you can get back to doing what you love. πŸ™‚

    1. Lisa Eirene

      I hope it sticks around!

  5. Biz

    So happy the ride didn’t cripple you! We got up to 55 today, I want summer (or spring rather!) to get here soon too!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      55 sounds great! πŸ™‚

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Smoked Gouda is my favorite cheese, followed closely by goat and feta. Michael had a local Gorgonzola on his burger. That’s pretty tasty as well.

      Hmmm I should do a post on cheese…

  6. Deb

    Send some of your weather this way! Its been hot- like low 90’s hot- here on and off for the last few weeks. It should not be hot enough to run the cooler in April!

    Dinner looks good! I had salmon, asparagus, and potatoes. πŸ™‚

  7. Trevor

    Way to go Lisa! Hopefully your knees are healing up for the long haul. Sounds like you had a great ride. And grilled burgers with smoked Gouda sounds simply freakin’ fantastic! I can’t wait for grilling season to start out here in cold-ass Vermont.

    Cheers!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      The weather here has turned back to cold and rainy. But sometimes we still grill outside. We have a covered deck.

  8. Lynn B

    This is awesome on so many levels…of course that your knees are feeling better being #1. But also just getting outside. I love bike commuting and commuters! I used to ride an 8.5 mile (one way) route to work every day until I moved out to the country. Then, unfortunately, there were stretches of road too dangerous to ride (IMO) but I also started working from home. Now that we are on-the-road full-time we try to find every opportunity to ride in the areas we visit. Trying to get on a more regular schedule so I find this post very inspiring! Bring on summer!!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      That’s so great! It sounds like your commute is similar to mine. I think you’re smart not trying to bike in unsafe areas. That’s so scary. I’ve seen so many terrifying things.

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