Broken

48 Miles
Duck Creek

Thursday night I got an email from Don asking if I wanted to do a ride Saturday morning and if I would set it up with the rest of the team since he was out of the office.  I quickly responded saying that I was eager for the ride and then sent an email out to the rest of the team.  Later that night, I was trying to get the girls to bed and found Sydney hiding outside.  I got up on the trampoline with her and told her I was going to do a flip.  BOUNCE....BOUNCE....BOUNCE....AAAAAHHHH!  Before I even attempted the flip I threw out my back.  I hobbled into the house and then upstairs where I sat down and back completely locked up.  I had to crawl to bed.

I stayed home from work on Friday and tried to loosen my back up.  I went from crawling to kind of side-stepping and eventually to a very slow and careful walk.  My legs were killing me too.   They wanted to move but my back wouldn't let me.  If I happened to find a comfortable position for my back, my legs just ached.

I woke up this morning, still stiff, but looking forward to getting on the bike.  I wasn't sure I could do it  so I was going to send Sarah in my place.  Sarah convinced me to get on my bike and do a test run to see how my back was going to handle.  I rode three miles and my back felt surprisingly good(on the bike).  I decided to give it a go and rode out to meet up with Don.  We kept a good but comfortable pace.

We went up Duck Creek Road to the end of the pavement and turned around and headed out to Laurel.  Riding up Duck Creek wasn't too bad.  We even had a slight tail wind.  As we turned onto River Road to go to Laurel we hit the head wind.  I started to feel it burn in my back but I knew the ride back would be much better with the tail wind.

We made it to Laurel and turned around.  The tail wind was nice and we made it back to Billings with little effort.  I left Don at Pierce RV and headed home.  By then the wind had turned into a crosswind but I was still able to keep a good pace.  When I got home, I checked my bike computer.  45 miles.  Not bad for someone who was crawling the day before.  In fact, I almost considered continuing my ride after I got home, not because I wanted to, but because I couldn't get off the bike.