Sick

This entry is in Real Time (tm) because I've now more or less caught up with the previous updates that I wanted to include on this bilgestripe. But as we all know, time is an illusion and can sometimes move in a mysterious way. Enough of 't preamble.

Possibly as a result of the Ultimate Bike Racing experience less than two weeks ago in the freezing cold in Hooglede, I got sick. Fancy that. I wonder how that could have happened? I always cease to amaze myself.

So Tuesday (May 4) I raced (in the wet), then again on Thursday (in the dry, very fast) and by Saturday I was feeling a bit under the weather, which was not surprising as it was wet and I did three hours by myself. The weather was very much on top.

On Sunday I woke up feeling very poorly so I skipped the really early morning ride in favour of another session on the Schelde. 120km compared to 160km. Vive le difference. Of course I went much harder than I intended and by Sunday night things weren't lookin' too hot on the sore throat/headache front. I did an easy ride on Monday before visiting the doctor who told me I was sick and that would be €36. Then I had to traipse around Gent to find a night chemist and get him to sell me some sinutabs + lidocaine lollies which didn't taste so good.

The rest of the week was a write off, but I cracked and went out for a ride with the bunch on Saturday and Sunday. Bloody hell, four days off plus a virus and sinutabs saw me dangling on the back with my HR at 15-20 beats higher than normal. Sunday was just as bad, except towards the end of the ride there was no bunch and I had to drop off the kopgroep on one of the last climbs, only to spend the next 20 minutes at the wrong end of the red zone trying to chase the two leaders. It felt weird to be going that hard - even in the races a couple of weeks ago I wasn't sustaining that kind of HR for that long.

Didn't get 'em of course.


Heart rate/speed/altitude graph for Sunday

Now the headache has gone but I have the good ol' dry cough that follows a cold and will hang around for the next few weeks, no matter what I do or have done (I know this from past experience). Maybe I'll get some more stuff for it. I'm going to avoid anything with pseudoephedrine in it from now on, a) because it's banned in cycling and b) if it raises my heartrate by that much then I don't think it's a good thing. Boom-bity-boom-bity-boom-bity-boom-bity-boom-bity-boom-bity-boom-boom-boom.

I think I need sleep.