Picasso had his Blue period, I had my Hell period. For the past couple of weeks my neck has been feeling a lot better. I am still in pain but it is minor. There are some days or hours when I do not feel pain at all, particularly on weekends when I do not sit down, ever. Every day I am doing strengthening exercises and several times a day, I am doing stretches. I am still going to physical therapy twice a week; recieving massage, ultrasound and stim. Also, taking a 30 minute walk seems to "reset" the spine, so I have been taking little Ruby on walks three or four times a week.

Exercise makes me feel better; sitting makes me feel worse. My life now revolves around the avoidance of sitting down.

I think that my belated racing debut this season will come soon. Better late than never, eh? (My Canadian cubicle neighbor is rubbing off on me.) I have been riding for about a month and feeling stronger every week. My biggest strength on the bike is climbing, and I am starting to get back into my "climbing zen". I'm still seeing quite a bit of weakness in aerobic fitness, because when riding hard, my heart rate will rise up to near-LT (for me, that is lower 180s) and won't drop back down after the effort. Nevertheless, I don't feel the desire to get back into a training program. My program is "ride when I have time and want to ride and sleep 8 hours a night". I like this plan.