I got in 100 miles on the bike this week. Not bad, I’m thinking, considering that on Tuesday, I was diagnosed with strep throat and bronchitis. And that wasn’t even the main reason I was seeing the doctor. That was for a follow up on my cratered lower back that had taken me to the emergency room a week earlier.

They did x-rays of both my chest and lower back. The chest x-ray showed bronchitis, but no pneumonia (and thankfully, no cancer). The lower back x-ray showed a narrowing of the space between the vertebrae in my lower back. That’s no surprise since I’ve had degenerative disc issues in my lower back for more than 20 years. It hasn’t flared up this bad in a long time, though. In fact, it hasn’t been this bad since I started riding a bike in 2004. I’m going to have to feel my way along to figure out how much I can do on the bike with my back like this. I’m thinking I need to just do short, easy pace rides for a while. That’s pretty much all I do in the winter, anyway. I’m glad I’m on a recumbent bike. I don’t think I could ride an upright bicycle at all right now.

I felt enough better on Wednesday that I did a 30 mile ride out to Purtis Creek. Before Wednesday’s ride, I had been off the bike for 16 days, my longest break from riding since the 18 days I missed while having, and recovering from, lung surgery in 2007. On Friday, I rode another 40 miles, so today’s 30 mile ride gives me 100 miles for the week.

Friday’s 40 mile route.