Recovery

Sitting at home Saturday night writing a blog, not because I don't have anything better to do it's because I'm sick.  I don't know about everyone else but I have the ability to tell when I'm going to get sick usually 24 hours before, sometimes a little earlier.  Last week I announced it about the 24 hour mark, but I can tell you I totally could have prevented it, well most of it.

Last Sunday I did a race in California the Dana Pt Grand Prix.  It's a race on USA cycling's national calendar so it brings out some of best cyclist in the country.  My training leading up to the event had been little to nonexistent from circumstances out of my control.  Going into the event I was hoping to do well but unfortunately hanging on for dear life was good for me at this point.  Well my race started about mid morning and seeing the earlier races I knew this was going to be tough.  I headed to the starting point for my race and I was thrilled to hear it's a record field of 106!  The race starts off just the way I thought on the gas right out of the gate.  Well to spare you ever little detail I was full throttle the whole time and after 4 crashes and a very fast pace less than half the field finished.  I managed to hang in there despite begin behind every crash and having to bust my butt to bridge the gap that was created.  Unfortunately with two laps left the guy right in front of my clipped his pedal and his foot came out.  He panicked and pushed me towards the curb by the time I got around him the field had a big gap on me and I couldn't pull myself back in. 

As you could imagine I was completely wasted after this effort.  My legs were completely shot and I felt so drained and out of it.  I quickly tried to work on recovering after all I had another race in an hour and half and I wanted to get back out there.  I got caught in every bad situation in the race I thought I could do better with a little racing luck.  So I started my recovery I quickly mixed up a recovery drink (Ultragen the best) jumped on a trainer for a cool down.  But my legs were sore and fatigued I needed something one of my teammates turned me on to a pre and post race body spray.  I was desperate and willing to try anything at this point.  The spray worked out pretty well I think I will look into getting some.  (Kool N Fit)  Well it worked good enough to get me to the starting line.  I started in a much better position this race unfortunately it was packed with national champions, world champions, and a couple of pros no big deal.  I thought the last race was fast, right.  This race was moving to say the least and my legs and body were not taking part in this.  So I went around a few laps and bailed out I knew I wasn't going to do anything except cause more damage to my body.

The day was forecast for rain but turned out to be perfect.  I ended up as always taking care of everybody’s last minute race details and being the team cook.  Yes, we bring a ghetto grill to the races and I'm the cook just deal with it.  I managed to relax enjoy the rest of the races but I still felt really drained and fatigued.

At the end of the day we packed up and headed to the hotel.  Once to the hotel we stopped in the lobby and made plans for the rest of the evening before we headed to our rooms to shower and change.  This is where the fatal mistake was made.  Instead of telling my teammates to go fly a kite and go to my room shower, eat, and go to sleep.  I started with a beer, showered, ate two pieces of pizza and then started playing a ping pong drinking game.  I have one word to say STUPID idiot ok maybe two words.  So after a night of foolishness I headed back to my room and passed out. 

The morning came quick; it was raining all night so of course the day was going to be miserable.  Nope the next morning it was beautiful and the guys wanted to do any easy recovery ride.  Funny they have no interest in recovery after the race but somehow a ride the next morning makes up for poor decisions the night before.  So we headed out, it started great but on the way back the clouds rolled in and dumped on us.  Just great, that's what I needed to be soaked and cold after a long night.

Well you can pretty much guess what happen next, we got back to hotel shower, packed, and headed out.  We decided to stop in Palm Springs and that's where it happened.  I made the announcement little did I know what I was in for.  We stop at an organic cafe to eat another feeble attempt to erase the memory of the night before.  We ate and then continued homeward.  Although I said I was going to be sick I didn't think the organic cafe was going to do it but it did.  Food poisoning just wonderful, Charlie's organic cafe in Palm Springs thank you!  Well then next 24 hours I sure was sick and as soon as I got over that I ended up with a cold what a shocker!

Now I haven't ridden my bike all week and there is a race in town tomorrow, I will not be doing it.  Point of my story when you take your body to the limit you are vulnerable to all kinds of bad things take care of your body and it will take care of you.  A shower, good dinner, and hit the sack instead ping pong drinking games and my whole life this week would have been different.  That's what you get when you do STUPID things you pay the price.