Ouch!

I rested my back from Wednesday through Friday last week. When I got up on Saturday morning, I noticed that I could bend down easily for the first time in days. So, I decided to do what any ski-addicted idiot would do - go skiing!

The forecast on Saturday was a high temperature in the 80s with beautiful blue skies. Spring skiing is a lot of fun, it was my first Saturday in a while not teaching, so I was free to just ski with friends. I took my time getting my stuff together and getting to the mountain. I wasn't working, so why hurry? I eventually got to the mountain about 10:30. I got dressed, cleaned out my locker for the season, and then headed out for some skiing. I instantly met up with a friend, and we did an easy warm-up run together and then a really fun double-black bump run. My friend, who started skiing at 9:00, decided it was lunchtime, so I joined him. After lunch, I hooked up with some more friends for a few runs. But, when I decided to squeeze one final run out of my favorite trail on the mountain, the others opted not to go with me.

I quickly found out why. At places, you had to leave the trail and ski in the trees just to stay on snow rather than mud or rocks. After some early rough patches, I finally got to some good snow. And then, I relaxed a bit on the better quality snow, and I suddenly took a fall. My first concern as I was going down was my legs because I was skiing in shorts. Spring snow can cut up your skin pretty badly if you slide for a while. I had that happen to me at Hardrock in 2004, and my legs looked like a herd of cats had scratched me up. But, I came through the fall just fine as far as my legs were concerned. Regretfully, whatever I'd done to my back earlier in the week was exacerbated by the fall.

It didn't seem to bad at first, so I skied for a little bit more. But then, my back started to tighten up a bit, so I called it a day and headed to the outdoor pool for some adult beverages with friends. By now, it was into the low 80s and it was just beautiful. We sat and talked and drank and watched people still skiing.

On Sunday morning, my back was really tight and I had to cook a nice Easter dinner for my wife's family. Just being on my feet all day was uncomfortable. I woke up yesterday nice and sore. Today is perhaps a bit better, but I still need to rest some more.

Right now, my weight is the highest it's been in years, my running is pretty close to non-existent, my lifting is suffering, and I'm working way too many hours. I need to reverse these trends.