We cyclists are not known for our self control. Like I mentioned in a previous post on the Team CycleLife blog, I'm like the greyhound chasing the mechanical rabbit: it doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense, when something moves in a race, I'm going to chase it. Thank goodness I found some rockstar teammates that can capitalize on my lack of self control. We are equally stupid on another front - our health. Yes, I know we all try to eat right (despite Ice Cream being my favorite food group). Yes, I know we exercise religiously - to the point of OCD. Yes, I know we dont really drink or party - except the young-uns that can do that crap and still hand us our arses in a race. As you can tell from my first blog post, Friday nights usually consist of gathering gear, clothing and food for the next day's event.
But when we're sick, we pretend it doesn't exist. We can be running a fever, coughing up lungs or nursing a broken wrist, but we still think that we can go out and race. (photo courtesy of demoncats; note Lance, who broke his left wrist the day before this race). I liken this to selective hearing - we hear our calling to train, to eat and drink the right things etc, but we miss that calling that says - Hey Stupid ... You're Sick. Its a Long Season. DO NOT DO THE TRAINING RACE TONIGHT.
Another reason I am writing this as a collective is that it makes me feel better about my stupidity. Hey, if everyone else is doing it, isn't it less-stupid ? So, last night I made the trek down to Greenbelt, where I've been playing with the boys the last few weeks with decent results. I am glad that they know that I can play on a normal day, because last night was a sad, sad performance. It was damp and cool, which probably helped the cold that I pretended I didn't have. A quick warmup told me I was going to suffer, but hey, I just did two hard races last weekend so of course I should be tired. Rationalization: the key to every cyclist's training regimen. An Evo guy (Kyle) took off from the gun and got a huge gap on us - no one seemed to be chasing so, of course, I stood up and took off. No idea what happened behind me, I looked back after the turn and saw that I had a good gap with one chaser. Thank goodness for Rt 1-guy who caught me and gave me a wheel. We were closing on the hill but I saw the pack closing on us, so I sat up. And coughed up a lung as I drifted toward the back. The Evo guy also drifted back and I silently cursed him for jumping (because I have no self control) - it was silent cursing because I could barely breathe.
I managed to recover as the pace slowed. Surrogate teammate Lance started driving the pace and that was it... finally sat up and sat out for a lap. Because I still lacked the common sense to call it a day. The A-guys passed and kind of eyed me up - yes, I know, I shouldn't have gotten shelled from the B race. Happens to the best of us. I jumped back in. I sat in for a lap. This was easy ! Maybe I just needed some recovery from the flyer. Then the whole not-breathing thing kicked in again. Not so easy. Finally pulled myself with 2 to go. As I slowly rolled through the parking lot, people were hacking, sneezing and generally being sick ... I was NOT the only one that attempted to ignore my health. Yes, that made me feel better.
Today I am working from home in an attempt to save my coworkers from contracting my cold and, more importantly, to rest up for this weekend's big races. On the former point, I'm thoroughly annoyed at people who come into work for two or three days, hacking and blowing their nose all over the place, only to infect the rest of us. Employers give us "sick days" for a reason. Use them. Don't get the rest of us sick because you want to use your sick days as vacation days. Yes, I'm bitter, because this is the 2nd time this year that someone at work brought in something and it went through the whole office. Have some common sense, people. If you're not a cyclist, you have no excuse !!!
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