Looking at my last post, wow ! What a difference a day makes. I went to bed Friday night and my biggest concern was how to fit in a four workout around dropping my bike off for transport to Florida in New Haven at noon. I hate when we have things to do at noon on the weekend...
At 4:00 I woke up with stomach cramps. Half an hour later, I was evacuating my bowels and stomach in a pretty fearful way. I hadn't been sick since August of 2008. I wasn't sure if it was a virus or if it was chlorine poisoning. I'd gone swimming in the Branford pool late Friday night and it seemed like they'd treated the pool right before I got in. Add that they turn the hot water off at night and the showers were too ice cold to bear, and I had a tremendous amount of chlorine on me- I should have showered when I got home. Nauseous now, the smell was making me even sicker.
At 5:15 am Saturday morning, I was up for the second time with a combination of diarrhea and vomiting- just dry heaves at this point- while Margit was upstairs with Ian. I rushed to get out of the bathroom before she came downstairs- she was going swimming and with the next week likely to be a difficult one for her for workouts, I didn't want her bagging her swim because I was sick.
I got up around 6:45 AM and worked on packing my gear bag, which was going down on the truck with my bike. I drank some coffee and did eat a banana, but my stomach was at about 20% and it was amazing that I held that down. My legs were already very sore- when my stomach hurts I sleep in a ball- and that position and less than four hours of sleep makes my knees ache.
I knew the ride (3 hours plus an hour run) was never going to happen, so around 9:30 I put on a pair of tri shorts and ran around the house, thinking I'd swap my Saturday and Sunday workouts. I came to the conclusion my stomach might handle it, but my legs couldn't. I was so dehydrated that I could feel every trouble spot in both legs.
I thought maybe I'd be able to eat some lunch and feel better, so I came inside and mixed some Propel. I never was able to bring myself to eat before we went to drop off the bike.
The rest of the day was spent alternately running around doing things we needed to do and lying flat on my back. I had no strength, I felt miserable. I managed to get down a second banana, an apple, a plain yogurt (something I would never normally eat), and finally, a small amount of dinner. Then I slept 9 hours.
I got up at the ridiculously late time of 7:15. I can't say I was 100%, but I was 90% at least. I had my usually breakfast, a cup and an half of coffee, a banana, half a grapefruit, and an apple, got everything ready to take my Lightspeed out for a three hour ride, or some combination of ride and run. I debated just doing my 90 minute run. That's just part of my routine. I plug into the music and run and just kind of have some time to myself. But i wanted to get that ride in.
We had a pretty viscous storm last night- rain and wind, so there was a lot of stuff down on the side of the road. I got out riding and was doing a pretty good job dodging things, but then I hit a branch about twice as wide as my thumb. My front wheel started to wobble and I know with the Light speed when that happens not to try and force it to stay straight. So I let the bike go off to the right as there was traffic behind me.
Dodge the telephone pole !
Telephone pole dodged, I did a little off-road work, then got back on the road as the truck went by, slowing down to make sure I was all right. I probably should have turned around and gone home.
I was debating what to do the rest of the way out. Ride an hour out, ride back, run an hour. Ride 1:15 each way and run half an hour ? I had to be done by around 12:40 so Margit could get to her massage.
The Lightspeed is an older bike, long past it's last tune-up, and with my gear bag packed and on it's way to Florida, I was stuck with no way top fix any problems I might have.
After the bike skipped gears a few time on me I decided to bring it back home after two hours and turned around in Clinton. I was about 10 minutes past my turn-around when I hit some auto-glass hidden in the leaves outside Hammonassett.
I heard the snick-snick of the glass, climbed the hill, and thought I was all set. But down at the bottom of the hill, I realised I was flat.
I was at 1:11, and I had a total of 3:05 to get home.
I started running- from the far side of Madison, I ran for about 50 minutes, in my bike shoes, to the bike shop in Guilford, bought a tube, and road home, then went out and ran another five minutes.
I checked the phone messages, realised I had to go meet Margit to pick up Ian.
It was a nice, sunny day and I had a good, if weird workout, and hey, I'm still alive ! And still ready to race.
No comments:
Post a Comment