Quote:
Originally Posted by Garrus
Feddersen,
I would check with a physical therapist who specializes in sports medicine for the best medical advice, especially for that level of competition. My physical therapist showed me preventative exercises and stretches that have helped me maintain my physical conditioning.
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Been there, done that with success for almost 10 years but a couple of years ago I realized that it wasn't enough. Then all the home work due to Covid-19 showed me that my daily routine at work was actually a necessary part of my well being and I decided to take more responsible myself over my back pain by replacing daily routines with active exercises.
My physical therapist gave me a training program and I did my bike training within the given limitations but I felt that I was slowly degrading (not just by age).
Two years ago I had problems riding my road bike for more than two hours due to back pain. This was with my training/stretch/movability program given by my physical therapist (specialized within sports injuries). Just in order to do more than just biking I bought an ergometer. That moved my limit from about two hours to three hours without giving me any back pain.
As said Covid send me home for work and normally I would use steps several times a day. At home this was eliminated and I started getting back pain by just normal walking. I found that relatively slow running (sometimes uphill) at a pace of 6:00/km / 9:40/mile could substitute the stairs at work. Initially I did 5k at a time one a week and now its normally between 6 and 15k 2-3 times a week – still all without pain. The past six months I have increased my run and ergometer training as much as I could as long as I could do it without back pain.
The increased amount of running in combination with the ergometer increased the strength in my back a lot during winter. Just two weeks ago I got my indoor bike and the longest time on the bike so far has been 6 hours and 15 minutes – WITHOUT BACK PAIN!!
I have been aware of my poor back since I was about six years old. I have had problems with it since I was a teenager and as I finally got the actual diagnose about 13 years ago my goal with training was to be pain free on a daily basis. Now all the varied training has shown me that maybe I can come back to former levels of exercise without pain. Even though I don’t experience pain on a daily basis anymore I always think about what I do due to the risc of pain. But beginning this month I got a glitch of hope that I might be able to train to a level where I don’t even have to think about my back on a daily basis and I literally can’t remember when I haven’t done that. Yesterday, when I went to bed I realized that I hadn’t thought about my back during the day for the first time in at least 13 years.
So the 50k is not for competing as such or for getting a new hobby. It is basically just for finding the limits of my back.