recover, sunburn, recover, chunky lungs

Thursday I did some active recovery and rode over to my brother's house and cruised by the lake. It was nice.

Friday I did 2.5 very hard hours in the wind and sun. Due to time constraints I couldn't do the full time I'd scheduled, but managed to have a good hard ride.

Saturday morning I spun out my legs in preparation for the Campus Crit in Minneapolis: a race I thought I had a shot at winning.

Sunday morning saw rain, and tons of it. The course had puddles that would get swept out by course marshals between rider gaps. The 4s race had 5 participants, and we went hard from the whistle. It strung out, and on the windy backside, we got split apart. I chased up to the front two riders, and as soon as I got up there, the 2nd place guy(Randy) drilled it. He got another gap, and the GP guy who was with us jumped and went right past Randy. I tried to chase and popped.

When I dropped back to the last two, they weren't talking to each other or me. They wouldn't work together, and they kept attacking, trying to get back up to the front GP rider. It sucked, big time. They kept attacking me until I couldn't respond. There was no recovery, and I rode the last five laps alone and discouraged. According to the official, it didn't even look like a race after the first three laps; Just one rider every five seconds, hammering on his own.

I was soaked, cold, and shaking when I got done. I warmed up, stretched a ton, and went to the Mall of America to get some shoes before driving home through terrible rain that night. The saddest part is that when there's a good field, that race is awesome.

Cold, damp weather always does a number on my lungs. I felt them constricting right away after the race and just for safety took some mucinex the next day. It got a bit of the congestion out, and I feel better today, but chunky lungs always make me nervous.

A year-and-a-half ago now, I was going into the collegiate MTB season feeling great. I felt strong and excited about the chance of qualifying for nationals (I would have gotten smoked at nats, but it would have been awesome). The last road event I was going to go was the campus crit. I had a bit of a cold, but I didn't think it serious enough to drop from the race.

I raced hard that year, and was a little hung over from the previous night, so my cold turned to serious bronchitis in a day or two. It took me off the bike for three months, out of the MTB season, and involved weekly visits to the doctor to check on my progress. The most frustrating cold I've ever had wasn't severe, but I put on 15 lbs, missed my last collegiate MTB season, and learned a big lesson the hard way.