Out of the groove

The last week hasn’t been bad, but it’s certainly been one of those weeks where you remember all those things you have to be thankful for. One Wednesday night I felt a sore throat coming on and woke up Thursday morning contemplating going into work. I wasn’t dying and didn’t even feel that bad. But I wanted to try and stop the cold before it started so I’d be fresh for the weekend. It was Memorial Day weekend after all.

The days went by until Saturday morning and I woke still feeling tired and with a runny nose. I was really bummed, but I had to miss the snake. Watching the race from the sidelines was still a lot of fun. It’s a very exciting race to watch as the riders have some of the best pain faces because the snake is unforgiving. My teammates had ok finishes, but didn’t perform how they wanted to which was too bad. But either way they rode hard and that’s all one can do.

I was able to race Sunday in Melon city. Not much to say here except holy crap that’s a hard race. It’s pretty obvious what you get when you put some of the regions fastest riders and tough course. But actually feeling that is another thing. I was dropped after 22 laps and did 2 laps by myself. Sad thing is I still finished well. Next day was quad cities, similar story except I was able to hang in there. The race was fast but I sat in comfortably and worked on pack presence. I thought once about trying to get into a break, but only once. The last 7 laps were ridiculously fast and I was only able to hang onto the back of the pack rolling in 45^th place as the last rider on the group.

All this is fine and dandy, but I want to talk a little about how the cold is affecting me. Over the last few weeks, Training with Gordy has got me into this nice little rhythm. I can tell that I’ve been riding about as hard and as often as I can without killing myself. I’ve felt good at all the races, but I was tired during the weeks. Basically I think things were going really well. But when I got sick I had to take 2 days of training and 1 day or racing off. It felt like an eternity and I felt weird on the bike on Sunday. I didn’t like this at all. I didn’t really feel normal or good until Tuesday morning. In fact I still feel kind of fat and slow.

I think the reason I got sick was that my body was obviously worn from training, plus not getting enough sleep. I knew this would lead to something bad and it did. I need to make a better point of being less sloth around the house so that I can get to sleep on time. I remember a time when I could handle a night with only 6 hours of sleep, but on this training schedule, it seems I’m barley still functioning with 7. Hopefully things are ironed out by Wausau. I’ll have another front row start and I don’t want to waste it.

Other notable happenings:

Ran out of Clif Bars and I’m freaking out!

Couscous has been the most recent source of carbohydrates. I made a slamming veggie and couscous dish, really highlighted the flavor well.

I finally got around to replacing the chain on the road bike. It was making all kinds of noise.

Short and sweet, now back to work; Thanks for reading.