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Written by: Lauren Jacobsen

I spend a lot of time talking about being ON my bike, so let me flip it and talk about being OFF my bike. Yes, it’s more than a real bummer, especially when you come home from the Nationals on peak form and then go straight into absolutely nada, zero time on the bike, the gym or anything else that requires moving.

I knew I was just holding together with tape and gum to get to the Nationals. I am surprised I even made it through my sprints. Once home, I was going to take some time off the bike, maybe a week and then start getting ready for Worlds in Sydney. That was until the MRI revealed 2 bulging disks. Well, that and I could not get into or out of a car seat or any seat for that matter. Pretty hard to consider rock’n some kinda scorching standing start at that point.

So with some anti inflammatories and then a 7-day steroid pack, I entered PT rehab work.

And work it is! Each week I get twisted like a pretzel for a mere 90 seconds but I feel lie I am going to fly off the table like a spring -loaded folding chair. After that lovely moment, I go do some exercises to loosen up the whole pelvic chain.

Seems cyclists have incredibly tight backs. Ya think? We spend countless hours running our legs like pistons and our back has to endure all the punishment we can deliver: cadence, crashes, squats, leg press, climbing, plyometrics, more crashes, racing for months, more crashes and whatever we’ve managed to tear or break during our childhood. And lucky for us, it ‘s cumulative! That’s right sports fans; it’s a lifelong, lumbar savings account. And the big check is gonna get cashed whether you want it to or not.

Yep, it takes years to build up this kind of bank. You have to get your body out of balance and then just keep hammering it so it radiates to as many places as possible. My PT calls them “nick knacks”; a little pain here, something tight over there that pulls another thing somewhere else. Most of the time we ignore it, tough it out, after all what are a few aches and pains. No pain, no gain, right?

Unfortunately, our ability to ignore our bodies is greater than our ability to listen to them. Finally, we find we cannot put out the kind of performance we expect after training countless hours. There is nothing more unsettling for a track sprinter than to suddenly lose power in one leg and have no real clue why. S-C-A-R-Y.

Welcome to rehab and the “lunge matrix”. I’m now starting winter base with 1080 leg lunges 3 times a week. Yes, the number is correct. It’s all about the pelvis. If that ain’t work’n, then nothing is! And that is how you get bulging disks at L4 and L5. Fun stuff…not. I was lucky, I could at least ride my rollers for 3 months. Rehab has been going well. I rode up good ‘ole Benedict Canyon today for the first time in 4 months.

It takes a village to race a bike people.

Luckily, I live in one with a lot of excellent human resources.

Turbo Chicken