recovering the cyclist

At last the day arrived: 40 miles on the schedule for me and the Schwinn. 40 actual pavement miles. Not spin class, not trainer. Actual bike miles.

I assembled a crew to assist me in recovery from PTSD following my crash: my beloved husband, and a dear friend who has pretty much cycled all the miles there are to be cycled (Dave). The kiddos were secured at Nana's, the weather report looked great, I had a brand new jersey...The morning was ours.

Oh yes, I did it.

Oh boy did it suck!

We were only 3 miles down the road when my beloved said "well I'm gonna go on ahead and warm up now". I'm thinking Oh God, 3 miles in and I'm already sucking wind at an average speed of about 15mph. Ugh. Please...go on without me! So I shooed Dave off after him, and said, don't worry about me kids, I'll be fine. The two of them shot off like rockets down the bike path as I pushed along.

Eventually they came back warmed up. I'm told they were chasing each other at 30mph.

Boys...what are you gonna do?!

10 miles out we left the bike path for actual road. My beloved was still jonesing for speed, so he pushed off ahead at his own (90mph) pace while Dave cut a generous hole in the wind for me for the remaining miles to Bernallilo. Thanks Dave!

After coffee and empanadas in Bernalillo, Beloved strapped on his jet pack and went back home while Dave and I moseyed back. Beloved covered the 20 mile return journey in just under an hour. Our pace was a touch over that..by half an hour or so? Maybe? Ack!

I feel OK now, no lasting effects from the effort. It did not feel like this time last year, when doing 40 miles would have put me into a coma for the day. My saddle was surprisingly OK.

If we had planned any more miles, however, I'm positive my ass would have jumped off my body and walked home.

I suppose I could blame this past week's training as an excuse. I've done a lot of running this week, and I did run about 7.5 miles yesterday, 4 of which were speedwork miles. I was definitely tired, and that was a factor.

I suppose I could blame the cold I'm fighting off. This is definitely a factor - in spite of it all, I'm training at about 80% this week. So 40 miles with a cold is pretty good, on the scale of things.

I suppose I could blame the arm, but it was actually mostly OK. I would say it's about 85% functional for riding. I had to change position a lot, it mostly hurts when I put weight on it in rotation for extended periods. 3 hrs today was the limit.

I suppose I could blame PTSD, but I had no twinges, no cold sweats, no vomit-inducing panic attacks. There's been enough water under the bridge that re-visiting the scene of the crime did not feel at all weird. I did notice that I am a lot more cautious about pretty much anything within 15 feet of me at all times. Luckily, I completely trust Dave, so I was able to stay on his wheel without too much weirdness.

I suppose I could say I'm out of shape, and on the bike I think that's true right now.

The truth is, while these are all factors, and darned good excuses, I will just have to start recovering that person who could go and go and go all day.

Here's to starts: you can't finish without them.