The Accidental Break

It seems that when you're on a roll, something always breaks the cycle of progress. In my case, it's lower back pain. Yes, as the picture to the left illustrates, it is my leading achilles heel. It's debilitating at times, but within recent years, it's effects have been minimal.

But still, it always seems to happen when things are going good, I'm making progress, and feeling really good, then, WHAM! When it happens, I always baby it, do my excercises, stretch and what not, but the pain is always there, waiting, lurking for that one single moment when I bend over the wrong way or dont lift something right.

I was making good progress riding; a twenty-six miler day before yesterday. I was feeling really good about  training for the MS ride in June. I was thinking "Yeah, I can do this". Now, I'm really starting to question things again. Is it me, is it the bike, or is it that my old injuries are still not 100% healed? I guess I'll never truly know the real answer to that question. I guess my next course of action is prevention.

Two things popped into my mind when I was thinking of prevention: 1) weight training and 2) new bike. And here is the arguments for both.

Weight Training
We renewed our YMCA membership, and they have a weight training program that is customized to my body. You make an appointment, and someone helps you work on your max levels, and then they set up a program in a computer. You use your smartphone to track your progress at each machine. It's pretty cool. And since I am smartphone enabled, I can dig that. Now, I just need to set up that appointment.

New Bike
The bike I'm currently riding, a 1990 Trek 7000 mountain bike, is what is called a "flat-bar bike", meaning the handle bar is flat. I like the bike, it has a triple crank, meaning 3 chainrings, it's all aluminum and it's my bike. I've done alot on that bike. But, for someone who has a bad lower back, this style is not too comfortable, especially on long rides, because of the aggressive riding position. Oh, I can get some time on it, if the back is doing well on a particular day. I can log some serious (to me anyway) miles. I havent really measured the bike to see what size it might be, but I'm thinking it's too small. The new "endurance" bikes have a more upright riding position, and are designed for longer times in the saddle. Though I have yet to test ride one to see if that is in fact the case, I will have to wait for warmer weather to do that.

So, with those things in mind, and new pedals attached to the Trek, I muscle on. Stretching, bending and mending. Hopefully soon I can get back on so I can test out the new shoes and practice clipping in and out, so that by spring, I wont fall over when coming to a stop.