Why I Don't Miss Cycling ... Really

Friday's post was the only post of the week. And it was short.

There's a reason for this ... well, multiple reasons, really. One of them I mentioned in Friday's post.

We were up in the Florida panhandle last weekend, mostly to work on the house that we rent up there. Saturday, we rode before the rain. Sunday, we rode just a bit -- down to Seaside for coffee -- fighting 30-mph winds to get there. Then we drove home.

The wind followed us.

So, Monday, I rode up to the airport to get RandoGirl's car (she flew up, but we drove back together). It took almost two hours to ride a tad over 30 miles. Yep. Headwind. Not really a fun ride.

And I haven't been on a bike since.

Part of it was the weather. Part of it was I needed to do some work. Some of it was some recurring ... um, "interface issues" ... that were just going to need a few days off the bike to fix. And a lot of it was that my mom and her two sisters came to visit Wednesday, and I wanted to spend time entertaining them. I drove them all over Naples on Thursday, after hanging out on 5th Avenue drinking coffee in the morning. It was a lot of fun.

Friday, they had stuff to do in the afternoon, so I went to the gym. Part of that "make my bones dense again" promise I made to the doctor is that I lift weights twice a week. I planned to go out for a quick ride after.

Unfortunately, that plan fell apart. Halfway through the fourth rep of my set on the lower-back machine, I got an "Ouchie" from my back. Needless to say, I did not do a fifth rep.

It really hurt to walk the mile home from the gym, but it's what you do when you walked to the gym. That evening, I still tried to entertain my mom and her sisters. I probably didn't do that great a job that evening.

Saturday and Sunday, Mom and my aunts had people to see up in Fort Myers. They had come down for Pioneer Days up there, which is a thing for folks who were born there (as they were) to get together a reminisce about how nice the beaches were before all of those carpetbagging Yankees showed up.

(To my Yankee friends: I don't consider you evil. Most of the folks in south Florida do not consider you evil, either. You are our friends, and a wonderful source of recurring revenue. We like it when you come visit. We don't even mind that we can't get into Randy's Fish Market during March. It's okay. We can wait.)

Anyway, since Mom and the ladies were busy, I could have gone for a ride, if my back had allowed any movement at all. I hung out with a heat pad on my back instead, trying to do some more work and junk around the house.

The ladies left today. It's blustery and rainy, of course, and my back is still only 50%. Wednesday evening, RandoGirl and I are flying up to Knoxville, and will be driving the RandoDaughter's car back from college over the weekend. No biking.

The time off will do me good, though. It should clear up any lingering interface issues, and give my back time to heal. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. My legs will probably have lots of spring in them by next Monday.

Really.



Stupid back.