I'm this close: > < to declaring myself fit to ride to work. I made two short rides through the neighborhood this evening (boy oh boy was that enjoyable!) and felt no pain whatsoever, even though I'm still a little stiff when getting out of a chair if I've been sitting a while.

D.C. had a rash of blowgun shootings eight or nine years ago. They caught the kids. It was just after 9-11 and everyone was worried about poison darts when it started. No. Just stoopid kids.

Glad to hear you are feeling better Doohickie. Of course don't rush back into it. Are the doctors having you do any strength or stretching work to prevent this from reoccuring?

Do the stretches!

Several years ago I had back pain that made it difficult to bend down to put on socks. A chiropractor gave me a series of stretches that I do every day, and I have had no more probs, except when I skip the stretches for a week or so.

Gotta keep the mechanism loose!

The naproxin is a muscle relaxer. It's likely you had a muscle spasm - I get them all the time, and tend to get them when I ride in the cold rain/large change in tempature (hot/cold). Everyone is different - so who knows...

Stretching helps alot. If you have one nearby, a trip to a hot tub will make you feel a ton better - I use one at the gym. Push-ups against the wall in a hot shower can also help loosen things up.

Honestly, the best thing for my recovery was an old "bean bag" my wife got from a friend that's filled with rice. The rice feels dry, but retains enough moisture that when you nuke it for a couple minutes it is toasty warm and stays that way for an hour or more. I put that on the injury site when I went to bed and it felt wonderful, and when I woke up the stiffness wasn't too bad.

I have a day off tomorrow. Saturday I will probably do a breakfast ride; I may go with the cruiser group instead of the pacers so I don't have to ride too fast. I guess I'll gage it on the ride to the meetup point.

The short rides I took last night took their toll; I could feel it this morning, but it was more of a muscle soreness than spasm or acute pain. It's definitely on the mend.

I might have ridden today except my wife had some car trouble and dealing with that delayed me. I was late to work as it was; riding would have only made me later.

Too late. I did 15 miles yesterday on my Schwinn Varsity with tourist bars. I felt 100% fine during and after the ride, so I did our club's breakfast ride this morning, on my Raleigh Marathon with drop bars. When I went down into the drops I could really feel the pull on my back and feared that taking a bike with drop bars was a big mistake. After 42 miles and a hot shower, though, I feel fine.

The soreness I've feeling at this point is clearly in the "muscle ache" category and not spasms or anything worse. I think I'm just gonna have to ride through it. The two concessions I'm making are that I am not standing on the pedals to accelerate, and I'm staying a gear or two lower than I normally would to keep the rpms up and the forces on my legs and back down.

I bet if I had physical therapy for this they'd have me on a stationary bike anyways. The first day I took a bike out (Wednesday night), I was a little sore the next day. The last two rides which involved extended periods of moderate pedaling (especially coming home; I live "up hill" from my usual haunts) seem to be working out the kinks.

And oh GAWD does it feel good.

Naproxen is not a muscle relaxant but is a Cox 1 / Cox 2 inhibitor.

I have serious back issues and would love to take Naprox except it makes me sicker than a dog.

Stretching on a daily basis is essential for everyone and without my daily session of stretches and a tri-weekly physio session I would not be walking or riding... and the riding is actually one of the best therapies for what ails me.

I had a similar experience to the OP, my back went out as I swung my leg over the saddle, and I was basically crippled/imobilized. As the screaming whole body agony subsided, the pain localized to a glute, so whenever I feel lower back twinges, I step up the stretching of the lower back/upper thighs.

Also, yeah, riding was about the only thing I could do w/o aggravating my back or sore muscles. Not sitting, standing, lying down... well, that plus ice, a lot of ice.

Of course, we had a blowdart pirate out here too a month or so ago:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...he_buttoc.html