Weary of Fatigue

I'm really getting tired of this feeling of fatigue that seems to have descended upon me today. Perhaps it's just the lingering soreness from the weekend, or this nagging head cold, or the hours sitting in a hospital room trying to be cheerful. Whatever it is, I was really dragging arse this morning on a day when, ordinarily, I should have been ready for a good hard training ride. Ready or not, though, I was there with a half-eaten powerbar in my pocket for nutritional support. It was much cooler this morning -- refreshing, in fact -- and with a little breeze at our backs and a pretty big group I was expecting a fast start to the 42 mile long Tuesday ride. For some reason, though, the group remained quite civilized for the first few miles as I rode alongside Tim at the front bemoaning our mutual difficulties with getting to this weekend's Giro d' Rankin. Tim had already been riding since about 5 am, so he was on his way home as we were heading out at 6:15. We dropped to the back after a mile or two, expecting the pace to surge, but things remained calm for a while longer. Eventually, of course, it did get fast. Rob was out on his TT bike, and we had Eddie and Matt and Howard and Mark, so you knew it couldn't stay easy for long. About halfway out Rob zipped past the paceline on the left and when he did, the front riders latched on right away, pushing up the speed a couple of mph. Somewhere in the middle, though, a big gap opened and Mark, Howard and I (and maybe some others?) had to spend a pretty long time at 29 mph in order to close it. I guess the group kind of split at that point. It stayed pretty fast the rest of the way to the turnaround with a big surge at the end. The ride back featured a lot of headwind and although the pace was slower, it didn't feel any easier, at least not to me, and toward the end I was taking really short pulls because I just didn't seem to have any power left at all.

It's funny how you never quite know how you'll feel on the bike from day to day. Sometimes you'll do a couple of hard, fast training rides and the next day you feel fast and sharp. Other times you'll do the exact same thing and it takes three days to recover. I must admit, though, that I don't recall too many 3-day recovery periods being needed back when I was younger!

So now it's early afternoon and I am still feeling dragged out, and this scratchy throat isn't exactly helping either. Perhaps it's time for an easy solo ride tomorrow? For now, I'll just make myself a cup of high-octane coffee and get back to work on this African Energy Security Institute paper that I've been dragging out for the last week or so, and wonder if Basso really didn't transfuse and if Bill really didn't inhale or have sex with that woman. I guess if Basso is actually being honest about all of this, I have to respect him for taking the better path. Maybe that's what is making me so weary...