Today, before dinner, I rode the Severn Stoke time trial course, a ten-mile loop that’s largely flat but ends with a biting climb. It took me 30 minutes and I pedaled an average of 135 watts. Yesterday morning, after a leisurely breakfast, I rode another rather flat course, the beach road to Mordialloc in Australia.
You will quickly say that this is impossible. It takes more than a day to fly from Australia to England, never mind the transfers to and from the airports and getting ready for the ride. You are right. I didn’t leave Switzerland this weekend and rode both courses in our guest room, where the Wahoo Kickr Snap I had purchased earlier this week clamps to the back wheel of my bicycle to turn it into a stationary exercise bicycle.
Many studies have shown the benefits of vigorous exercise during chemotherapy. It significantly improves physical function and energy levels, and can lessen treatment-related side effects. The Clinical Oncology Society of Australia that was already quoted in the previous post goes on to say that “if we could turn the benefits of exercise into a pill it would be demanded by patients”. As exercise still isn’t available as a pill, one has to work for it. Turns out just riding my bike to work won’t suffice. Guidelines for exercise during chemotherapy are much tougher.
- At least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise, such as cycling, each week.
- Two to three resistance sessions, such as lifting weights, each week involving moderate- to vigorous-intensity exercises targeting the major muscle groups.
This is a month of my previous healthy-self winter exercise activity rolled into a week, supplemented with resistance sessions that I’ve never done. It sounds brutal and rather contrary to common sense for a sick person, but the studies are unequivocal on the benefits. With the Kickr, I’m ready to give it a go.
In the past, riding a stationary bicycle was a dour experience. Exceptional self-control was required to defeat the boredom of going nowhere while sweating like a pig. The only thing that moved was the clock, slowly. I once owned such a device, way back in Utah, but quickly gave up with it.
Things have changed greatly now. The Kickr connects to an app on my phone (currently FulGaz; Zwift is another popular choice) that shows a video of the course I’m riding. The app controls the resistance of the trainer to make it harder when the road rises and easier when it slopes down. Mirrored to a big screen, the experience is not exactly life-like, but it’s motivating and fun. With three 30-minute sessions on weeknights and an hour-long session on Saturday morning, I’ll reach the recommended 150 minutes of exercise a week.
I might even go buy dumbbells for the off-days. Once you start chemotherapy, you suck up any hope there is. I hope that the drugs do what they’ve been designed to do without destroying me completely. I hope that I’ll remain strong to fight this cancer. I’m happy to invite a little bit of pain on an exercise bicycle if it takes away from the much greater suffering that I’ll have to endure.
The irony is that my oncologist had earlier asked me to sign up for a randomized trial by the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research to study the benefits of regular exercise during chemotherapy. The participants will be split in two groups. Half are free to do as they please. The other half are tested by an exercise physiologist and then invited to the hospital for controlled training sessions twice a week.
I declined the offer. There's nothing to be gained from being in the control group, and going to the hospital for exercise is just a waste of time. Instead, I bought a heart rate monitor to make my stationary cycling more effective.
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