My lower back is stupid, and has been this way for about the past 2 months. For a long while it was just nagging tightness that irritated me, but I was able to mostly ignore it, since running and biking seemed to make it feel better. For about the past week it has hurt a LOT worse and is really f'ing with my sleep and ability to carry on my normal activities. I suspect I really aggravated it during last Sunday's CX race, which had some hills that I really mashed to get up (I have yet to convince DH that I could benefit from easier gearing on my CX bike, since I almost NEVER use my big ring during races and frequently wish I had a few extra teeth in the rear cassette or maybe a smaller small ring up front). Everything in the region of my lower back/upper butt/hips is tight and very sore.

This is probably the nicest day we will see in weeks...or even months. Could be my last chance to get in a ride on my road bike in relative comfort. My mileage this past week was crap. I'm gaining weight (already 25#s over where I'd like to be, so this does not help), I'm losing fitness, and I'm really freaking frustrated. I have a new mountain bike and I can't really ride it well until this is better.

So, I want to go out and ride an easy 20 miles on my road bike. Part of me thinks this is a good idea, since my back seems to feel better while I gently run and ride, but before and after it feels crappy. I don't know if my workouts are helping or hurting. I'm already wisely planning to skip tomorrow's Halloween CX race, since I am certain that that level of effort is not good and I don't really want to end up with everything seizing-up mid-race (I think I got close to that happening last Sunday).

Today the official plan is to do some yoga and an easy 3 mile run (2 with the rugrat). I should probably just run and forget the bike ride, even though I have all my clothes set out and the sun is shining and it's not very windy. I'm so tired from not sleeping well in months, anyhow--I wonder if it's a vicious cycle...I don't sleep well, so my back doesn't heal. Because my back hurts I don't sleep well. It's a wonder I haven't come down with something. I've never in my life dealt with lower back stuff like this, so aside from seeing the doctor in a few days if it's not better, I don't really know what to expect or how riding my bike might help or hurt matters. I do know that I need to be more diligent about doing core work in the future, but in the meantime I suspect that doing core work could make matters worse. Catch-22 with that, too.

Approaching 40 is really for the birds...since this back stuff started I feel really old and feeble. Our mattress is 10ish years old, so we wonder if it might need replacing, but DH has not been having issues and flipping it didn't help.

Thoughts? BTDTs?