Therapy

15 Miles (I think?)
Riverfront Park

Well, this morning my back was feeling about 75% (much better than yesterday) so I decided to go for a ride at Riverfront Park.  Since it's Memorial Day I had as much time as I wanted to goof around and I took advantage of it.  I think I did about 15 miles, my computer read 11 miles but I noticed that it wasn't reading several times and I went much further than usual.  I need to look into the bike computer issue a little and figure out what's going on.

So anyway, I had a great ride and explored some areas that I'm not as familiar with.  At the beginning of my ride, one of my pedals hit the ground throwing my bike into an uncontrollable wobble.  Both feet unclipped and flew from the pedals.  I thought I was going down.  I was able to recover (glad no one saw it) and was surprised that I didn't rack my back any more than it was.

I got lost several times over by the river and finally made it over to Norm's Island.  There were lots of people there so I just passed the island and kept going.  It was a fun ride and by the time I got home my back was feeling 85-90%.  Then I went to Lowes and installed my front door at home.  Back to 75%.

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.

Road Ridin'

15 Miles

I brought my road bike today in anticipation of doing a road ride with a friend who stood me up, he shall remain nameless.  Anyway, I took advantage of the oportunity and cranked over to the bottom of Zimmerman Trail and spun my pedals mindlessly until I reached the top, huffin' and puffin' the whole way.  At some point near the top I glanced back and noticed another cyclist gaining on me.  I wasn't about to let him pass so I kicked it into high-gear at the top and instead of resting I booked it back to 27th Street along Airport Road.  Four miles later I was still ahead but losing ground.  I checked my computer and decided that I hadn't done enough mileage yet so when I got to 27th Street I pulled off the road and hopped onto the Black Otter Trail.  Just then the other cyclist wizzed by on Airport Road.  I held him off, not my fault he wasn't going the same place as me.

The wind really picked up on the Black Otter Trail and I fought it the whole way.  At least it was mostly downhill.  I was able to hit 30 mph on 6 Ave. on my way back to the office because of the tail wind though.

Combining hobbies

Seems like I don't have time to both work and play lately so I might have to look at combining some of my hobbies.

Bike to Work Day

19.5 Miles
Pictograph Caves State Park

Friday was National Bike to Work Day.  I have been promoting the Bike to Work Day all week long and even organized a work group ride to Pictograph Caves State Park.  Well, if you've noticed that I haven't blogged for awhile, its because I've been crazy busy at work and haven't had a chance to go for a ride, or go home for that matter.  I hit my 40 hours some time on Wednesday and finally finished up everything that I was working on sometime on Thursday.  By the time Friday rolled around I was so exhausted that I needed a break and didn't go in to work.  So I bike to work everyday of the year except National Bike to Work Day.  Wow!

Anyway, Sarah and I did meet up with my coworkers and did our group ride.  Mike came along as well.  I wish we would have had more riders but we had a great time anyway.  It was good weather and no incidents to speak of except for some peculiar activity from Mike.  I didn't witness it all so I won't write about it.