It’s been nearly two months and it was time to get on my bike and see if I can ride. Chris, who also had a herniated disk, said it took a year for her back to heal. She took up spinning and liked it. So I got on ol’ Bambina, my trusty steed of 30 years, clipped in my shoes and started paddling around the block to see if I can do the same. I felt a sharp pain in my butt immediately. Oh shit my back feels like a rusty hinge. Luckily I had my handy dandy iPhone clamp and started playing my iTunes to calm my mind.
I kept paddling around the parking lot wincing and taking in the irony of it all. As I warmed up, the pain subsided somewhat and the biker in me couldn’t resist taking on the moderate the hill to the Deli. Once up there, I decided to test my back on the Mill Dam hill… about a mile straight up. I noticed that going uphill was somewhat easier.
It felt so good to power up this hill. I felt alive. I almost felt a shadow of my biker-self. The muscle memory of tens of thousands of miles on this bike came flooding back. As I slowly powered up, the Allman Brothers blared an old blues tune…Sometimes I feel like I’m tied to Whipping Post. For me it was bitter sweet and sounded more like… Sometimes I feel like I’m tied to the Sitting Post. I got to the top rather easily and decided to run back down and give it another go this time to a livelier tune. A rolling affirmation of sorts.
