Rode Myself Sick

And I was having such a good week too. Spring has sprung and I’m actually training well and with purpose for a change but once every couple of years I’ll ride myself into an exhaustion induced sickness. I think between the pollen and the road miles I put in this week along with the two epic rides this weekend it’ll be a week before I recover.

But when I have a bike like this… who could blame me. I stole this frame off a shop owner in San Diego that built it up as a demo and found that, 1) nobody demos a 59cm, and 2) nobody wants to buy a frame that was a built up as a 59cm demo for $2400.00. So he put the frame on Ebay and I got it for a third of retail. Score!
I think the last time I got sick due to over zealous cycling, and I’m bragging here, was in Italy and after 5 days of climbing around Lake Como we did the Gavia Pass in the Lombardy region. I could feel it coming on as I ascended above the tree line where you can gaze over the snow capped mountain range at eye level.

This is after the 15 minute descent back to town covered in sweat, freezing and exhausted.
This time I just should have taken Sunday off the bike. Saturday was a great ride alone from my house to the Ashland area north where the best hills are and the traffic is light. I like this ride because I can put in 3 or 4 hours and have fun the whole time. I had a great tail wind most of the way up and back somehow, was called upon to lead a lost rider to her destination to meet her friends and then got caught in an epic thunder storm as I crossed the river back to my home and survived multiple lighting strikes. I took a hot shower, got some food and was out the door by 12:30 to catch up on my work schedule by cutting a counter top for the kitchen sink, connecting all the fittings and plumbed it in. I made the electrical connections for the garbage deposal along with the microwave receptacle and powered everything up all before 6pm.
I could have easily called it a week and chilled on the couch but Sunday morning I was out the door and had the grass cut by 10:30 and was on the bike by ¼ till 1:00 for my weekly ride to Dorey Park to dice it up with some friend and then head home. I went to bed knowing it’d be a sleepless night with a scratchy throat and an agonizing day of work. It’s worth every minute of it just like the Gavia Pass.