Nice photos, RNRG. We'll take your snow any time. We're way below normal this year...
So my latest is surgery is scheduled for 2/18. I will be having anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) of L5 and S1. I'm nervous, and anxious to get to the "recovery" phase, in spite of the fact that it will be a long one. I hope to be hiking by summer and maybe even doing a little easy riding by late summer. Probably no running for quite some time.

No way am I going to risk messing it up. My long term goal is to be running regularly again in 2011. But I also know that I need to be patient and flexible (well, not literally for a while at least).
I'll check in every now and again. In the meantime, I'm working on getting as bada$$ as I can before surgery.

I met my only presurgery goal earlier this week and was tickled with myself, even though most folks in my life have no idea what I was so excited about
: I did not one but TWO muscle-ups. See evidence
here. (This is the same day we did 1 mile run for time, on the sidewalk, in the dark. I managed 6:33. Happy wit dat!
even though my back was not...)