Hope you can get a handle on your back issues, Crankin. I hate it when my back is bugging me, as it was last week. I wake up with a sore lower back with some frequency, but it almost always goes away during the morning hours.

DH will ride with me on our rides together if he's doing a recovery ride, but like you (and I) don't always enjoy staying with riders slower than us, it's not much fun for him to stay with me the entire time when he's feeling good, since he could go a lot faster than me. So, we start and finish together and have a place in the middle where we meet up at a park and ride a couple of laps along the road in and out. We touch base, exchange stories from the ride if anything interesting has happened, and then separate again for a bit. I take two breaks on this ride (one to pee and stretch, one to eat and stretch), and he takes none. So with the way we do it, he gets extra miles in, like he wants, and keeps his average in the 15-16 range like he likes, while I'm normally somewhere in the 13s somewhere.

Got back out on our usual route this morning after taking five days off (other than short cruiser bike rides around the campground) to recuperate from this virus. I felt great today and had no more aches and pains other than the usual old nagging injury stuff, but nothing new. Weather was gorgeous after a very stormy night, sun came out, fresh breeze, cooler; almost felt like fall in central Florida! Blustery headwind on the way back but my mood was too good being back on the bike and feeling like myself again after being sick, that nothing could bring me down. The pool at the end felt awesome as well -- the rain had cooled it down, so it was incredibly refreshing. A good day on the bike that reminded me why I ride!