Tuesday, July 04, 2006

bad back; missed the ride

Man, I threw my back out at work Saturday. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before. I wasn’t lifting anything, I just had a roll of handlebar tape in my hand and went sit it down and when I bent over to do so, I could barely get back up. It was about 5:30 and I had to finish the bike I was working on, but I was in serious pain. I rode home w/ my bag on my back, and riding didn’t seem to bother me as much as I thought it would. Bare in mind I could barely walk at the time. Every step I took hurt. I iced it when I got home, but I was in a bad way. I had to hold myself up when doing anything like cooking, or brushing my teeth or showering. I couldn’t hold myself up using my back muscles. It was weird and painful, but I figured a good sleep would heal it. WRONG. I woke up feeling the same. I was freaking out. I took some more anti-inflammatorys, but they weren’t doing anything. Shane from Muncie had come down to ride the Nashville 90 w/ Ryan and I, but called them to cancel my participation. Shane has had back problems and his wife is a physical therapist, so he gave me a couple of stretches/exercises to do, which I did (and have been) all day. About 11:30am, I decided I was going to try to ride as a couple people told me the worst thing to do would be to sit around and let it get tight. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel, so I set out on the Paragon loop, a 42 miler w/ a relative small amount of climbing. I felt okay, but I could stand up to climb. There are some climbs on this ride that I know ell enough that I stay in a harder gear and stand through them, but I just shifted into my 39x23 and spun up them instead today. Overall, I was pleased w/ and surprised by the ride. And every hour that has gone by since I’ve felt better and better. I am walking fully upright (not hunched over) and can generally support my weight. So it didn’t last long, but I have no idea how in happened, and hopefully it will be fully gone tomorrow (more sleep).
Scared the crap out of me though. Seriously. At least I got a ride in. And hopefully I can work at full capacity too. I know the guy will help me out w/ lifting, but I hate to burden people.

1 comment:

Tim Green said...

It's kind of strange how we work out to the extreme, but then hurt ourselves doing some silly little thing like you described. Hope you recover soon so you don't miss to many training rides! And good job on your races....you rock!