On Being Sick

It sucks. Being sick and racing a bike is like driving your F1 car on the Nurburgring race track and realizing that you don't have 6th gear. You want to push harder. You know you should be able to push harder. But you just can't; your body won't let you. It's frustrating.

Today I went out to do the New Jersey State Time Trial Championships; a 40km course. I don't live in NJ, so I had to register in the "Out of State Men" category. I woke up early with a headache and congestion, knowing it was going to be a tough day. I popped a couple of Tylenol, started sucking on Cold-Eeze, and walked out the door to my car and some coffee.

My warm-up actually went pretty well, "Maybe today won't be so bad," I thought. As soon as I started my race though, I knew it was going to be a long ride. Riding my new bike, I had the "luxury" of being able to track my power output during the TT with the SRM, and I wasn't liking what I was seeing...

I finished in 53:00 flat, on a course that I originally thought I would be able to do in sub-51:00. Looking at my power file confirmed that I had an off day. I was pushing as hard as my body would let me, but the data collected told me I basically did a hard tempo interval...

Despite this, I still managed to finish 1st in the "Out of State Men" category, and 2nd overall to the winner of the NJ State Elite Men champion, but I'm still disappointed in the way I performed even though I was sick. Went home, took a long nap, and now I'm relaxing on the couch with a tasty Pabst Blue Ribbon brew!

My focus now has to be to get healthy and then focus 100% on my training leading up to Fitchburg and Nationals. I think once I kick this cold I'll be back on track and stronger than before!