Race on...

What a past 2 weeks it's been. When I last posted it was full steam ahead going into the May 4th WORS MTB opener at Iola. Having a very good solid pre-season of training and workouts I was opportunistically viewing what would be my first go around in the Expert Category of racing. (Didn't get the USA Cycling license last year hence not the upgrade previously)
Well, things are going all well & good until Friday morning before the race weekend. I'm out cutting single track trails on the 40 acres of woods in the back yard when I bent, turned or twisted the wrong way and threw out my back. For those that have never experienced it, and Lord help you, you never do. Your entire body get frozen in a single position from which breathing is even difficult. So there I am stuck in the woods hunched over like Quasimoto and can't even move so much to reach the cell phone in my pocket. All I can think is "how the hell am I going to get out of here?" and "What's the likelihood of when Kate & the kids would actually come looking for me?" This is NOT how I planned on spending the morning. My four dogs, Oppenheimer, Phoenix, Gabelli and DeDe who come out in the woods with me every time are just wandering around coming up to me occassionally and looking as if to say "Dude, what's your problem? What's the slow down? Come on! Let's go!" They're quite the gracious Lassie types, huh? Anyways, after some more time passes I'm able to position myself well enough to get the phone out of my pocket and try calling Kate to no avail, as I only get her voicemail. Great! Now what? Well, I manage to find position where I can actually move my legs but I'm hunched over really bad -- knuckles dragging on the ground caveman style bad. But since I can at least move I'm able to slowly make it back to the main trail and back to the house.
The worst comes to mind of what happened to my back but two hours later in the Doc's office I'm reassured it probably wasn't a disc problem just a muscle tear so I'm out that door with prescription for some Vicatin and told to hit it with ice and occassionally some brief period of heat.
With it being Friday & the WORS race on Sunday, it wasn't looking good. I had hopes that my mutant healing abilities (at least that's what the massage therapist I go to says about how fast I recover from injuries) would make riding & racing possible but it wasn't to be.
Funny thing was how I could get on a bike within a day or two and ride in relative comfort but standing up straight was still very difficult and sitting for more than a 30min block of time would just kill.
So this previous week, I worked on alot of ice, heat & stretching on the big 'ole balance ball and it must have been enough to as I was able to manage some pre-riding off the Cable Off Road Classic Course and felt good enough to give the MNSCS MTB opener at InverGrove Heights a go this past Sunday May 11th. Recap in a bit, but all the good 'ole crew of riders from the northern parts were there -- Jesrin & Tom Gaier, Charlie Farrow, Scottie Chappin, Todd McFadden, Mike Bushey to name just a few. Didn't necessarily work out to the best of my expectations but given the conditions and what I was coming off of, I was just gracious to be able to ride.