Involuntary Fall Break

It was Tuesday evening of last week and I was sitting in a rather crowded conference room in the AAU office up in D.C. when I started to feel the scratchy throat.  Perhaps it was just coincidence, but I'd just spent a couple of hours at 30,000 feet breathing dry communal air.  I was trying to be optimistic, hoping that it wasn't what, deep down, I knew it probably was. Later that night I searched the little ziplock bag I'd brought to hold my toothbrush and stuff, hoping to find a couple of decongestant tablets, tylenol, aspirin, oxycodone - anything - but I'd packed light for this quick trip and hadn't brought my usual travel supplies.  The next morning I stopped at the local drug store before heading back for another six hours of workshopping. Although I didn't feel terribly sick, I had a pretty good sore throat and low-grade fever, held somewhat in check by the generic CVS cold medicine. By the time I got home late that night it was taking its usual course.  The sore throat was going away and the bronchitis was starting to kick in. I already knew it was going to be a week or so before I'd feel well again.  Naturally, The Daughter was also arriving that night for a visit.

I spent the next two days at home nursing the developing chest cold.  It seems there is always some combination of events, usually including work, illness, and other things beyond my control, that puts me off the bike for a while this time of year.  It's one reason I never actually plan to take a week off.  For one thing, I just don't train hard enough to justify a week or two of extended recovery.  For another, I know something like this will force me to take a break anyway.  One thing I know for sure.  You don't go out and try to train in the cold when you have a chest cold.  A bout with pneumonia will put a big kink in your fitness plans.  Been there, done that.

So although I wasn't feeling quite up to riding, I was reasonably busy over the weekend, went out for an easy little spin on Monday morning, and made it in to work with a pocket full of pharmaceuticals.  That evening we had our usual Halloween open house.  That tradition started the year of Katrina.  Halloween was the first weekend that most of the block was back at home, and we all ended up out on a neighbor's porch drinking wine, telling our Katrina stories, and waiting for the lone little trick-or-treater who ultimately showed up.  This year the street was packed with kids and lots of people stopped by the house for gumbo and pasta salad and related snacks and adult beverages.  I still had a nagging little cough and some chest congestion, but have been more or less on the road to recovery since then.  Even so, since there was no real urgency to get back on the bike, I figured I'd give it another day or two just to be on the safe side and set my sights on Wedesday.  As luck would have it, I ended up with an 8 am conference call appointment this morning, so rather than blow off yet another ride, I hit the road in the dark and put in 25 miles or so, arriving back at the house well before 7:30.  Riding solo on the levee in the dark with nothing but a little blinking LED headlight is remarkably stressful.  If I had to do that often I'd definitely be in the market for a real headlight that allows for seeing in addition to being seen.  Anyway, I survived it.  Hopefully I'll get in another ride tomorrow before heading off for the annual USAC Local Associations conference in Colorado on Friday and the NCURA conference in D.C. from Sunday through Wednesday.  Like it or not, I'll end up with essentially two weeks off the bike.  Situation normal.