August 28, 2013: The month off.

August 28, 2013: The month off.

Selfie of me and Eric by the Dillon Reservoir

The first thought through my head when I woke up after the last day of Prairie State was “13 days left of season. Hang in there”. The next day it’d be 12. Then 11. I was counting down and hanging on for dear life. It was very hot, and I had been sick with diarrhea and a headache that had lasted through the entire Prairie State series. I saw a doctor and was given antibiotics. Why was I sick in the middle of July? How much of this was physical, and how much was mental? Would the antibiotics clear me up in time for Tour of Elk Grove? 10 days left. The antibiotics worked. Physically I was starting to feel better, but better enough? 9 days left. Riding my TT bike to practice for Tour of Elk Grove felt like cramming for an exam. Would I be ready for the race in time? 8 days left.

On July 28 my dad had had a retinal detachment and emergency surgery. If I did Tour of Elk Grove I couldn’t go to see him till August 10-11. The surgery and recovery aren’t easy. I wanted to see my dad. Thinking about “real life” with my dad’s news made me finally see that with respect to cycling, I was beginning to burn out. So I pulled the plug on Elk Grove, and on my season. I visited my dad, we had a great time and he is recovering well.

At the top of Vail Pass!

I decided to take at least a month off and do whatever I felt like. I made my own soap. I ran the Chicago Tri Club stroke and stride workout with Eric and ran a bit so that I could pace my friend Andy in the Leadville 100 ultramarathon. My soap is awesome, swimming was fun, running sucked- but I had to get my running distance up to ~12 miles before August 14, when we went to Colorado for Leadville. I brought my bike, just in case I wanted to ride. As it turned out, Andy got altitude sick and dropped out of his ultra but Eric and I had a couple epic rides in Colorado.

Our first ride was ~40 miles to Montezuma and around the Dillon reservoir. We were at 9000+ feet of elevation, and there were real hills. My head throbbed, but after 4 weeks rest the bike felt… so… good. I was super-proud of Eric for riding really strong. Our second ride was a 2000-foot climb from 8500’ to 10,500’ at the top of Vail Pass. It was gorgeous.

The next weekend I found myself on the Spidermonkey Saturday ride and racing relay cross on Sunday with Katilyn Bowden, a really great Psimet lady whose partner couldn’t make it. It was easy does it, I was just having fun, but my head was sharper than it had been in months and I hadn’t lost much conditioning. I was amazed that I was riding better after a month of –not- riding.

Always be gracious towards your competitors.

That can happen. I even did the Johnny Sprockets cross practice on Tuesday morning and rode to coffee with everyone… then Bam. The crash was almost instantaneous. Someone turned left in front of Brent, forcing him to brake hard. Eric was just behind and missed Brent but also had to slam on his brakes. I hit the back of Eric’s wheel and went down. I had a sprained left thumb, which as it turns out is a very painful injury at first. I was nauseous, lightning up and down my arm. I was sitting on the sidewalk with the Sprockets guys around me, wincing and shaking and yelling from the pain. And then I had a thought that made me very happy.

“When will I be able to get back on my bike?”

It will be a few weeks. But the hunger’s back.