Long Streak

It had been a long time since I skipped a day. A week ago, the day after Mardi Gras, I felt great riding the WeMoRi, but by evening I knew something was wrong, and by Thursday morning I knew I had picked up some kind of Mardi Gras virus. Although it was looking like we'd have a couple more days of warm weather before the next cold front came through, I was in no condition to enjoy any of it by then. It was the first day I hadn't been on the bike since September 9 (yeah, I checked). I had a headache, low-grade fever, post-nasal drip, and scratchy throat. I dug the last of the zinc lozenges out of the medicine cabinet, and was pretty miserable Thursday and Friday. On Saturday I ventured out for a short ride on the levee, which served mainly to confirm that I was still a little sick. At least it was still warm. 

The weather was so bad on Sunday that hardly anybody rode, but by Monday morning I was starting to feel a little better. Unfortunately, the weather that morning was featuring a 23 mph north wind and a temperature in the low 40s -- not exactly ideal weather. Throwing caution to the wind, I bundled up and went out anyway. Three days of confinement had taken their toll and I needed to get back on the bike, if only for psychological reasons. Consistent with the psychological theme, the only other person at the 6 am meetup was Colin. This was both good and bad. On the good side, at least I wouldn't be alone and tempted to turn around and go home. On the bad side, having only one person to hide behind on such a day wasn't going to provide a whole lot of relief. The ride along the lakefront with a stiff crosswind, in both directions of course, was as hard as it was slow. The hardest part was keeping the front wheel pointed in the right direction. The wide Reserve wheels on the Cervelo are supposed to be engineered to be more stable in crosswinds. I'd hate to be riding 44 cm wheels that weren't, because even these were quite a handful. Anyway, we survived, albeit mostly well below 20 mph, completing the normal Mellow Monday route. It didn't kill me, so I guess it made me stronger??

I was still not feeling exactly great by Tuesday morning, and went out into the 37° darkness debating the wisdom of that decision. Fortunately there were a few people on hand for the ride, and by then the wind had died down a bit. I was still moderating my efforts quite a bit since, if the color of my snot was any indication, I was not fully recovered. As we finished up the lap of Lakeshore Drive where some riders usually split off for home I was secretly hoping everyone would do so and I could follow without feeling guilty. Instead, Charles and Rich continued, so I dutifully tagged along, again questioning my life choices. It turned out to be OK since the pace stayed steady, and I got by with taking shorter pulls for the most part.

This morning I went out to the WeMoRi. With a light south wind and the temperature rising into the mid-60, I was a little over-dressed but pretty comfortable. Still dealing with some upper respiratory sequeale, some of which was dripping from my nose, I was again planning on limiting my efforts. As usual, when I saw the lights coming down Lakeshore Drive around 6:10 am, I turned onto Marconi and waited to be swept up by the group. First, though, Rob and Maurizio came flying past, well off the front of the group. Of course, I made no effort to go with that. I figured Rob would probably turn off for home on City Park Avenue anyway (he did). The group came by maybe fifteen or twenty seconds later. Not surprisingly, since Rouge Roubaix is this coming Saturday, it was smaller than usual. Also not surprisingly, there did not appear to be any interest in closing the gap to the breakaway. Fine with me, considering. So it was a somewhat subdued WeMoRi - basically just paceline at like 23 mph. Maurizio picked up Lisa for a while after Rob turned off, so we didn't see really until he met back up with us on the cool-down. So I'm not feeling fully back to normal yet, but at least I think I at least avoided pneumonia this time. Earlier I'd been thinking about a last minute entry into Rouge Roubaix, but the combination of having been sick, and the $150 entry fee, killed that pretty quickly.

On the home front, I should now be all set up with Medicare and Blue Cross and Humana for health insurance starting next month, so that's good I guess.