The feeling started with a tingling in his right leg. Puzzled, Lucas Hardesty took off his shoe, then laid down. The feeling spread to his right arm. Hardesty knew that wasn’t a good sign. He reached for his cell phone with his left hand and called 911.

On Feb. 17, a Thursday, the Crane retiree suffered a stroke that affected the right side of his body and impaired his speech.

Up until that moment, Hardesty said, “I felt great. I had taken a spinning class on Wednesday. I knew what was going on when it was happening. At the time, I could raise my right leg and arm, and I was thinking I wouldn’t be too bad, but when I woke up Friday, I couldn’t raise my leg or arm.”

Hardesty, who is right-handed, spent the next month at Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital, where he received therapy in the hospital’s stroke rehab unit.

While working to restore function on his right side, he had to learn to use his left hand to eat, brush his teeth and dress himself.

Early on in his rehab, he became determined to stay positive.

“You can either be depressed or laugh at it and go forward,” he said. “Another thing that helped ... you look at what’s happened and say ‘why me?’ I looked at other people and realized I was in better shape than a lot of them. Once I counted myself lucky it wasn’t that bad.”

But Hardesty, 64, had a long way to go. The idea of having to learn to walk again was hard to grasp for the avid bicyclist.

Helping him stay focused were his memories of being physically active.

Hardesty has ridden the Hilly Hundred 20 times and completed the Ride Across Indiana. Prior to his stroke, he and his wife Sherry were working out regularly at Healthy Balance in Bedford.

The day Hardesty took his first step, in the first week after the stroke, was monumental.

“I could have run a mile and expended less energy than that first step,” he said with a good-natured laugh.

Hardesty’s recovery has been a journey of small steps. Where he once could do arm curls with 25-pound weights, he now uses 7-pound weights.

But he started out in stroke rehab with 1-pound weights.

“Not quite where I used to be, but I’m making progress all the time,” he said.

Hardesty left the Bloomington hospital in a wheelchair. Today, he walks with either a four-prong cane or single-prong cane.

“I’ve been done with using a wheelchair about three months,” he said.

Back home, Hardesty received therapy a couple of days a week, but he wanted to do more.

“The doctors and rehab people told me you got to keep moving. I approached Marcey (Phillips, Healthy Balance owner and personal trainer) about coming back. One day I saw the cable machine, which they had at the rehab unit, and she showed me how to do different exercises to strengthen my arms.”

That was in May. His workout has changed since his stroke.

Before, he and Sherry were at the gym three or four times a week.

“We’d do the spinning class, do a mile on the treadmill and another mile on the elliptical and I did all the weight machines,” he said. “On Saturday, I’d get in a 20- to 50-mile bike ride.”

Now he attends Silver Sneakers classes three mornings a week and does exercises on the machines to improve strength and mobility.

Hardesty credits his rehab progress to his years of cycling and exercise.

“It helps you because you’re used to working out and exercising,” he said. “If you never worked out, it’s harder to keep up with your exercises. I’ve learned that procrastination is your worst enemy. You can’t say you’ll do it in a few minutes or you never will.”

“He’s been an inspiration,” Phillips said of watching Hardesty. “He could have chosen to sit in that wheelchair, but he committed himself to getting better.”

Despite his tremendous progress, some days are a challenge.

“A couple months ago I did get depressed. Things weren’t happening as fast. Sherry told me to look back at what I’ve accomplished. She said, ‘you can’t be depressed about where you’re not,’” he said. “Right now the improvements are so small, I have to think back to the beginning—when I tried to raise my foot every morning—to see how much I’ve improved.”

Sherry took time off from her job to care for Hardesty when he returned home.

“She’s been really helpful. She forced me to do things on my own,” he said. “She walked the fine line of being helpful but not too helpful.”

Hardesty was unable to use his right hand for about four months after the stroke. He still uses his left hand for most tasks, but as strength returns to his right hand, he’s using it more.

He sets new goals for himself as he continues to regain strength and function.

“I’m pretty independent right now. My wife went back to work. Every day, I get myself cleaned up. I drive, make my own breakfast and lunch,” he said.

“You’re never satisfied. I want to get back to riding my bike and to walk on my own.”