Post Sciatica Reformat and Reinstall

 

I went four weeks without riding. On December XX, I rode a stationary bike in the workout room of a Boise hotel. The next day, I went skiing. Since then, the most I’ve done is gone for a walk. The reason was that I was attempting to let my body heal somewhat from the sciatica that has been plaguing me since mid-November. Oddly, it’s not necessarily skiing or riding that aggravate my back, it’s really a lot of ancillary stuff, like getting on and off the bike, stretching, or putting on boots that cause the most discomfort. It seems like once I get settled into a position, like in the saddle, I’m fine, but getting out of that position can be temporarily painful. In fact, through most of this, the most painful thing I could do was get up from sitting on the couch.

Saturday, I got on the trainer and did an hour of Zwift. Did the same thing Sunday. These were primarily endurance zone rides, but I did push into threshold a little today when climbing. All I wanted to gain from these rides is some insight as to how my back would respond. The results seem promising. I’ve been feeling gradual, but noticeable progress for the last week approximately, and while I think I still need to see a physical therapist for a full recovery, I don’t see any reason to not ride.

What’s most difficult about this is summed up in the image below. A sea of red on a month’s worth of workouts indicating missed rides. 

 I'm basically planning on restarting from Week 2. This isn't hitting the RESET button, this is basically reformatting and reinstalling, but obviously I can't jump into the fire, so here I go, take two. I completely dropped out of the BaseCamp society once I decided to put a halt on training. There didn’t seem to be much point in participating in the community when I was trying to keep my mind off the fact that I wasn’t riding. But now I think I can restart, but I have to admit, after a month of eating what I want, sleeping in, and focusing on some of my other avocations, I’m not sure I am too revved up for rides at 6am, playing the laundry game, and self-motivating, but I should really look at where I was physically a year ago and remind myself that’s what I’m doing this for.