Daily Commute

My lower back went nuts (I lifted something waaaaayyyyy too heavy for me), so I was off the bike for 10 days. This has been my first week commuting. I learned a few things from the experience:

• If you have bad pain, see a doctor immediately. My doctor asked a few questions and checked a few things out to make sure it wasn't something dangerous (which pain can be a sign of), and then prescribed some really cool meds;
• Have a back-up plan to get to work. Mine is the bus. There will come a time when you can't be on the bike for some reason, and you need to be prepared to deal with it;
• You can actually ride slowly in traffic. Contrary to popular belief, there is no law that requires cyclists to sprint between lights;
• Life goes on, even if you don't post on Bike Forums for 20 days (edit, actually, I was only off for 10 days).

Not following my own advice, I sprinted some two days ago, and paid for it that night. But I'm now back to about 80% of where I was before, and each day is easier.

TRUMPHENT

I never pick up anything bigger than my head. Having said that, I have been off the bike for over two weeks. Monday is my first day commuting again. I broke my bike, not my back.

vrkelley

Welcome back! Hang in there Daily...better days are com'n

Daily Commute

Thanks. Better days are already here.

SWYZ721

What did you try to lift? If you don't mind that is (heh heh)

oboeguy

WTF, are you nuts? This can't be true.

noisebeam

Very true of course, but...

Just because you take the bus or drive to work doesn't mean you can't play on BF. Due to knee problem I stopped cycling to work for about 6wks.

Al

buzzman

I've been off the bike and not posting much for the past two weeks due to an incapacitating kidney infection that really rocked my world. Literally went from doing a fast 42 mile ride one day and feeling like I was starting the spring in pretty good shape to taking a slow 5 miler today that I'm still recovering from 6 hours later. Most of my problems are now due to a strong allergic reaction I had to antibiotics.

Have managed to get on the bike 3 times in the past two weeks but I've been taking the bus into work and actually drove once- yikes! and I even got a $55 parking ticket on the one day in at least a year that I've driven to work because I didn't notice some weird parking restriction on the metered spot I was in.

Lots of lessons learned on my part too and I can't wait to get back to my normal riding every day routine. Rewarded myself by taking off my studded snow tires so I don't feel quite as slow as I actually am.