Bravo!!    

Welcome back!

I have a few fine short ride routes that I use when I just want to go out for a quick blast. I'm sure that you have a few in your area. Nothing wrong with a nice 60 mile r/t ride that won't leave you having to recover for days. I spent a good amount of time yesterday looking for this hill about 15 miles from here. I remember it from last year and it's driving me crazy trying to find it again. Came to the top of this road and looked down. Felt like I was on top of the first drop on the Cyclone roller coaster in Coney Island. Didn't find it yet, but it's been fun looking.

My favorite mountain ride is on fire today  :'(

Midnightrider,

Good to hear your not letting your health keep you from enjoying life.  

I struggled with vertigo (2-3 bad spells a week) for a few years and the ENT specialist tried to pin it on Meniers syndrome.  I knew he was wrong because vertigo is a condition that my father and grandfather have struggled with as well.  I thought my riding days were over for a long time as the vertigo spells were getting worse.  It turns it that it is a "weak" inner ear that is aggrevated neck muscle tension caused by my occupation (computer programmer...many hours of stressful computer work).  Going to a chiropractor relieved me of the vertigo spells and I felt safe to ride more often.  I now ride a motorcycle to work every day, as well as hundreds of miles of riding every month.  The riding actually helps keep the spells from happening (stress relief).  I haven't been back to see a MD or Chiropractor about vertigo in over 2 years.  I went from thinking I would never ride again to feeling better than I have in years because of motorcycle riding.

The point of this is to encourage you not to give up too easily just because you may have a few tough days riding.  Sometimes the best medicine we can take is the fresh air, exercise, and stress relief brought to you by an hour or two on your lovely Savage!  Take it easy of course, work up to longer or more frequent rides, but don't give it up too easily.  A few hours a week on a motorcycle actually can make you healthier, at least it has (literally) for me.

200 miles is a long one for me....  

I've got tendertush syndrome....

Two hundred good miles makes for a very good day!

(Professional dental note:  A lot of the drugs you are probably taking have dry mouth as a side effect.  This can be devastating on teeth with exposed root surface -- which we all have at our age.  Be sure to hydrate with plain old water, and if the dry mouth is persistent, you may want to use a "saliva substitute".  Pharmacists know about them, and now that the condoms are out on the racks they need something to talk to people about!  Just dump the stuff into a "sports bottle" and nobody need know what it is!)

Now, here's the four step program:
Hydrate
Ride
Recover
Repeat

60 miles at 1 am Saturday night at about 73°. Better than therapy, or chruch.