Cataract Surgery

Training
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I’m having cataract surgery at the end of November. The surgeon says no swimming or weight lifting for a few weeks. She originally said biking was OK (I think she assumed that a guy my age just pedals around the block), but when I told her what my heart rate and respiratory rate go to during intervals she said not to do intervals. I forgot to ask about running. I will check with her, but I think doing some tempo work will be OK, but no MAP or AC intervals. What have others done before cataract surgery? During the week I typically only have 40 minutes for a workout. What would be good choices for workouts?

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I know people who have had cataract surgery, and for the first couple of weeks they were told not to even walk vigorously. You need to be very explicit with your ophthalmologist and/or surgeon about what you want to do. They are worried about jostling the eye and interfering with the healing process.

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Thanks. Will have a detailed discussion with her. No need to have unnecessary complications.

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Great suggestion. If they give you the green light, Inspirational videos are great that don’t reach FTP. Nothing hard or difficult for the duration they give to ‘take it easy’. I doubt they are going to allow you to run, at all. Too much movement. Walking should be ok as long as you stay out of the power walking range.

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Thanks. This is going to be hard. I actually enjoy doing the hard workouts. Fortunately, it’s only for a short time and I can do the inspiration videos, assuming I get the OK.

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Definitely check with the surgeon. Even getting yourself sweaty with it either running into your eyes, or accidentally rubbing your eye too hard could result in a ‘sub optimal outcome’.

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I’ll throw my 2 cents in. Listen to the doctor and stop trying to push it. You’ll gain fitness back, if you even lose any at all, but you can’t gain your eyesight back without more surgery and more time off.

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Thanks

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Thanks again to you and @Heretic for your suggestions. Greetings from Couchlandria. The list of activities that I can’t do has been reduced from 8,000 to 7,999 :slight_smile: and I can now do inspiration videos at 90%. I have Ride For Your L1fe scheduled for today. What do people think some of the best inspirations sessions are? I realize that this is subjective.

On a related note, I told someone at work that I haven’t been able to workout and she said, “I feel sorry for your wife”. :slight_smile: Unfortunately, “taper tantrums” are real.

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A Dog’s Life (for the views of nothing else), Across the Mountains, Chasing Legends, Crescendo, Fursa, Wolfpack Insider TDF, Women’s Movistar Team.

I’ve not been a fan of a lot of the inspiration rides, but the ones above I really liked. You’ll notice that these are mostly behind the scenes with pro riders. If you like that kind of thing then give these a try.

Also, depending on the intensity you want the recovery rides in all the Week Withs are good to pass some time. Who doesn’t like cookies?

And a special mention for Il Vecchio Saggio in honour of Davide who was killed only a few days ago.

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Also Wahoo Frontiers 2020 and Hour Record. Handily, if you Have ride For Your L1fe today, then these two plus Fursa gives you the Dec challenge!

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Thanks. I will put some of these on the calendar.