The Road to Somewhere

xc62701

Well-Known Member
at least your strava didn't get erased ;)

you are knee deep in it. hang in, it gets better!

speaking of which, my kid just walked right by his folded clothes (which i did) and went upstairs without them. wtf?
so tomorrow i'll hear something about where his pants are! my spouse is away until thursday - hope he set his alarm.

ps - he takes his clothes off inside-out, i wash them inside out, then fold them that way. hope they are coming clean.

Haha I know it could always be worse but it feels good to vent. It’s amazing how a lot of times it’s smooth sailing but when the shit hits the fan all hell breaks loose.
 

choop

Well-Known Member
The shit has hit the fan.

Here’s the recap of the last week:
  • Tuesday night I start feeling crappy - sore throat and congested.
  • Wednesday more of the same hoping to survive the week.
  • Thursday more of the same and a long busy day as I have to host an awards ceremony at the high school. Still feeling crappy but notice my forehead is a little irritated. Great.
  • Friday more of the same congestion and exhaustion and my forehead is getting worse.
  • Saturday no improvement and my forehead has spread to around my eye and scalp. I go to the doctor and he diagnoses me with an upper respiratory infection and shingles. SHINGLES!?!?! Wtf. That’s for old people. Nope I hit the lottery. Oh yea and then my daughter has to go to the doctor as she has a stomach virus. Great. Add insult to injury. My doctor asks me if I have any stress in my life. I tell him I have a wife and 2 kids. He says say no more.
  • Sunday I had a century planned so I say f it. Let me at least start it and see how far I get. Up until mile was 60 was good. After it was not so good. I needed a good tow after that but I got it done.
  • Today - Monday I had to go see an ophthalmologist to see if the shingles had spread to my eye. Thankfully it hasn’t. But then my dog now has an ear infection.
I hope tomorrow is a miracle day and I feel better since my wife is leaving in business until Friday night. If I’m still dealing with being miserable and having all these other issues I don’t know if I’ll make it to next weekend. Adulting sucks.

Thats one hell of a week. Sounds like you need a cookie.
 

Magic

Formerly 1sh0t1b33r
Team MTBNJ Halter's
At least it's not on your thigh and ass cheek so you can still ride! I flew to Prague like that, with pills in hand.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
  • Tuesday night I start feeling crappy - sore throat and congested.
  • Wednesday more of the
I had a stuffy head for 2 wks, sinus headache, stuffy nose. Took allergy pills and Sudafed to keep it at bay. It finally drained and felt relief.
Too much stress will kill you, listen to your mind and body.
 

Dave Taylor

Rex kwan Do
I had a stuffy head for 2 wks, sinus headache, stuffy nose. Took allergy pills and Sudafed to keep it at bay. It finally drained and felt relief.
Too much stress will kill you, listen to your mind and body.
This. I always end up borderline overtraining and I get 2-3 head colds a winter. As soon as I back off they seem to go away.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Sinus issues I can deal with. This is a whole different animal. I feel like a freakshow now. It randomly hurts, then itches, then swells, then throbs. Hopefully it won’t last that long but I need to get on with my life. My blisters are drying up which is a great sign. Tomorrow I’m going to try to go back to work and see how it is and get questioned from everyone under the sun.

I did try to ride today and I’m just tired. It doesn’t look good for trying to race this weekend. I may try and rest up and see if I can survive the Stoopid 50 the following Saturday. Not that I had any great fitness building anyway. It’s been one kick in the nuts after the other trying to get things going for this season. Maybe I’ll have some fitness by June. I just want to put a number on my bike and see what happens.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
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xc62701

Well-Known Member
Yes I was long gone by then. Agreed on conditions. I literally saw only one puddle by the bridge towards the main parking lot. Everything else was dusty, dry, and sandy. I was glad to take the stumpy. I knew there were no rocks but forgot how many roots and root drops there were. I need to ride there more often.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
So far so good or something. I'm surviving the wife being away. The kids have been good for the most part unless you count 11-1? last night when my daughter was screaming off and on. That was fun. The shingles antiviral meds seem to be working as the blisters are drying out and healing up - although my face is throbbing more today. I'm on them for one more day or so. I'm still on antibiotics for the respiratory infection as well and I'll be on them until Monday.

I haven't ridden since Tuesday, and I don't know if I'll have the energy to hit the trainer today. Or if I should even bother. I did sign up to race at Mayhem. What the hell was I thinking? I will get to the line at least and then evaluate from there. I would like a good opener before the Stoopid 50 next weekend but after the week I've had with being sick and all I don't know if it's the smartest thing. I'm sure it isn't, but its always good to be on the bike, especially with good friends around. I figure at worst I'll bag the race and then hang and heckle people. At least it'll get me out of the house. But of course I realized after I registered that my wife has an appointment literally at my starting time so I hope we can negotiate and make this work for both of us. I'll try and get on the bike today if not tomorrow to see how the legs are feeling but social pace might be race pace for Saturday. At this point I'm hoping I can drop some fatness for fitness, but maybe by June...
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Ok so we have worked out the wife’s appointment conflict so I’m good to race. I should say I will be at the race. Whether I will actually “race” is a long shot. But I will be there. I will be happy to ride on dirt. Give me a beer if you feel bad for shingleface.
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Here’s a recap of what went down yesterday:

I headed down hoping to have a good day. If that meant racing, spectating, joy riding, or just enjoyjng the day out of the house that was my goal. It’s ends up that I did more than that.
I got there an hour early, got dressed, went to get my number and started to roll around. I had almost zero riding this week except for limping around hartshorne on Tuesday. The respiratory infection and shingles kept me tired and in pain for most of the week so I just wanted to ride. I had thoughts of lining up and just seeing what happened.

I got to the line and there were 9 or 10 of us. I only recognized a few and knew that it could be anyone's race. We chatted on the line for a bit and it helped to calm the nerves. As the whistle went off I clipped in quickly and put a few hard cranks down and got the holeshot. I just waited for everyone to come around me. And I waited... and it wasn't happening. I knew the entrance to the singletrack was not not far away so I put in a dig to make it there first at this point. I entered first and just focused on riding smoothly. Every time I started to pedal and get my heart rate up high I knew I could not hold it. I just wasn't at that point physically. I kept it consistent and aerobic as I was afraid of not finishing the race or even lap if I went too deep. I could see a couple of guys close to me early on in the first lap and I was just waiting for them to get close and pass. It seemed as if I was holding them off in the tight twisties so I was hoping for separation at some point. Over the short punchy climb and into the mud bogs seemed to do the trick. After that I didn't see anyone near me. This is just about the time that the SS leaders came through as well. So there was lots of traffic that we were passing and then traffic coming through our race as well.

As I finished lap 1 I wondered how I was going to do 3 laps. That was a pretty long distance for a cat 2 length race and especially with my current health situation. I told myself to keep it in check and if I would need to start digging deep to hold someone off, then I would try. Lap 2 was more traffic coming up and passing through, but really uneventful. I had to keep it steady for 1 more lap. Same as lap 2. I was feeling more fatigued for lap 3 but just held steady and didn't over extend myself. I didn't wear my heart rate monitor for fear of having it psych me out during the race but I would have liked to see the data now in hindsight. Whatever I did to get through the race, it worked. I rolled through the finish and was happy to have come in 1st!

I have no idea how I did that given how I felt and the week I had leading up to this race. If I was sane I probably shouldn't have been out there but I'm competitive and I haven't really raced yet so this was a good early test. I have Stoopid 50 coming up next weekend so I needed a test before that kick in the nuts. That will hurt but at least I know I have some juice in the legs somewhere. Comparatively though I looked at the other times and I've got a lot of work to do. If I was in the 19+ cat 2 race I would have been 25th. I know the fatty is a little slow but I've gotta get my shit together. Hopefully this is just the kick in the ass that I've needed.
 
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