She's Gotten Soft….
No, I am not talking about my no-longer-lean frame, although the title works for this, too. 
I rode yesterday with Wylie, Trey and his friend, Corlie… rain and even occasional thunder for most of it. At 6:30a it was raining, not hard but it was raining, and doppler radar showed thunderstorms rolling in. I made a face and called Wylie and Trey, encouraging them to bail with me. They weren’t having it – “it’s just a light drizzle” Wylie said, and Trey (and Corlie) were already in their cars heading to the ride start. Ug.
Alright, I was in. Was this ME??! There was a time in the not-so-distant past (though it seems like forever) when I wouldn’t have even considered canceling. I yelled at myself for having become such a wuss. “You’re riding!”, I said to myself, disgusted in my lack of discipline.
So Trey, Corlie, Wylie and I pushed off a little before 8a. This was the 5th time I have been on the bike since October 4. We had a few portions of the ride where the sun peaked in and the rain ceased, but mostly it just rained, and rained. Early on Corlie made the remark, “If we were 4 years old, this would be fun.” I thought that was really funny, so I kept saying that phrase every time something icky happened:
If we got splashed by a huge puddle when a truck rode by, “If we were 4, this would be fun!”;
If we heard thunder and the rain came down harder, “If we were 4, this would be fun!” …. you get the idea.
We rode for 4.5 hours and I really enjoyed it, much to my surprise. I’m completely out of shape but that is to be expected, and I really didn’t mind the time just riding in zone 1. I just happily rode along, not really caring about my current fitness. I had spoken with Wingnut (Wendy Ingraham) recently and how out of shape I obviously had become… as I pedaled along I heard her saying in my head, “Just ride your bike, Carole”.
My new Trek bike from Timex is SWEEEEEEET and it was the first time since 2006 I have been on the bike and actually just enjoyed riding. I used to love it… then I grew to absolutely hate it … yesterday I felt the spark of loving to ride again. That was nice, and surprising. Even in the rain I actually enjoyed it. What a gift!!!
I had to stop to stretch a lot and my back was hurting pretty bad during the ride, and when I dismounted at the end I just about cried because it hurt so bad. 
The usual deal – I was hunched over, unable to stand and it took a while to align my body just to a basic standing posture. Insane. It ached for the remainder of the day until I took 3 Tylenol PM at night to relieve pain and help me sleep. So, pain notwithstanding, I was enjoying the ride.
I am eager more than ever for the shot this Wednesday… there is no way I could train like this – and there is NO WAY I could really run off the bike like that. I am planning to ride on Wed before the shot. I want my back to be as inflamed as possible so Dr M has the reality to work with. It is as bad as ever, so he’ll be getting the real deal.
Dr Brian (my best friend and ER doctor in the Bronx) encouraged me to ask for Lidocaine to numb the area first … uggg – hell YES!
Hopefully this will do something….
I’ll report in at some point.
