Bad Back

Colorado is once again seeing historical snowfall. The people that actually made it to the mountains and are not stuck in the airports are enjoying epic powder, day after day. My powder days are slim, however, because I threw out my back shoveling all of that fun white stuff.

I came back feeling great after our training camp in Telluride and was ready for a great holiday snow fest when, oops, my back started to bother me. I have had chronic back issues dating back to the early nineties so this wasn't much of a surprise. It's not the best timing but it could have been worse. I now feel much better after spending four or five days with my chiropractor, D'arcy Brown, at the Aspen Club. He realigns me, puts me on this machine called "the rack", fondly nicknamed after a medieval torture device, which pulls me apart and gives me some traction. It gives my L5 disc some relief. Also the disc scars down and becomes stronger through the process. It's not my first pick of things to do for the holidays, but it is a reality of being an athlete at 36.

It's not a good idea to enter the season with a bad back because Skier- X can be very hard on that area. I now feel confident that I will be healthy going over on the New Year. Hopefully I dodged a bullet.