A Pain in the B***!

Joy here...Back when I did my first "sportif" event on the bike this summer, I experienced a bit of lower back pain.  Then it came back with a vengeance when I decided to ride the course for the very first bike race that I was planning on doing in July.  Then when I did that very first race, the lower back pain showed up and threatened to derail my entire race experience, and when I rode a 100km sportif event the following weekend, my lower back pain stalled me at km 80, leaving me to ride into the finish line on my own...minutes behind The Man and the friends that I started the ride with.

Me getting my bike fitted at the Cyclery as Chris looks on.

So I've had to grapple with the fact that this lower back pain isn't going away on its own, and I better not ignore it any longer.

I guess these little hiccups--be it my sore knees from back when I was running more often, or now my sore back--come as part of the experience of training for a certain sport.  I'm still quite new to all this training in a serious way, so I guess I'm also kinda new to what it takes to pay attention to my body, and give it the love it deserves.

One little bit of love that I gave it to help address my sore back is to get my bike fit adjusted and tweaked ever-so-slightly so that when I spend hours on the bike, I'm in the right position.

And an even better bit of love that I gave myself to deal with this back pain is a trip to a physiotherapist this afternoon.  The good news is that her diagnosis is that I have really tight quads.  Like really tight.  She had me doing all sorts of diagnostic stretches and tests to see how flexible I am (apparently quite), to see what my range of motion from side to side is (apparently absolutely average), and whether or not my legs are the same length (which, luckily, they are).  Then she had me lay back on the physio bed, pull one knee up while she pressed down on the other leg.  That's when she discovered that my quads are really tight.  She gave my a bunch of stretches to do, and wants to see me again in two weeks, but she's not worried about me at all.

So I'm not worried either.

But I'm not cancelling my massage therapy appointment tomorrow.  That's a little bit of love that I'm actually looking forward to!

Over and out,
Joy

Ride Stats for today:
1.)  Warm Up:
Time:  15minutes
Avg Power:  104w
2.)  Intervals (3 X 8minutes)
Time:  8minutes ea.
Distance:  4.4km ea.
Avg power:  161w ea.
Avg speed:  34km/hr