TWEAKED

Ron Saetermoe

Earlier this week a friend of mine and I were moving some stuff . . . some heavy stuff. We moved three large laser printers, two treadmills and some boxes. I don’t know what the printers weighed but the treadmills were 355 pounds each!

We moved all this stuff without incident and then . . . you guessed it . . . . I tweaked my back lifting one of the boxes that probably didn’t weigh but 10 pounds!

Naturally, the thing I thought of first was whether or not I could continue to do my workouts! Funny how we think.

How you deal with injury depends on so many factors. How severe the injury is, your next race, your tolerance for pain, your dedication, your training phase, and even your doctor’s recommendations (I put that one last because most times it seems this is the least important to us).

For me, I subscribe to the “let’s wait and see” philosophy. Rather than call my doc (Dr. Sam Sunshine) and have him order x-rays, MRIs and cortisone injections, I just wait and see. Let’s just see how bad this injury is rather than overreact.

So Tuesday comes around and I’ve got a one-hour CompuTrainer session scheduled. While it’s hard to lift my right leg and get it over my bike, I manage to hoist it over and start spinning. Guess what? It’s a little painful, but tolerable. Okay, this is good.

I’m writing this Friday so it’s been four days since I hurt myself and the pain is still there to be sure. However, since that time I’ve managed to keep working out including a marathon resistance training session yesterday. Very cool!

The real test will come tomorrow though because I plan to ride the 93-mile Palomar loop. Should be nice and hot too! This sufferfest isn’t for the faint of heart but I think my back will hold out.

Now, if my condition gets worse, or if I can’t manage the pain with Aleve alone, I will go see the good doctor, but until then, “rock on!”

Cheers!