Monday, December 07, 2009

Getting sick and strength

Have you ever noticed that right before and right after a cold you feel invincible? I have an annoying cold right now. Runny, alternating with stuffed up nose, slightly achy, a little on the dizzy/groggy side. Besides the nose, all of those symptoms could be from the riding this weekend.

On Saturday, Mod, Mr. Miles, and I journeyed down the Keystone all the way to the end at Hayworth park and back. About 2.5 hrs with 4-ish big gear workouts mixed in. I MISS BIG GEAR WORKOUTS!! It's been at least a year and I forgot how much I loved getting into the 53x12 and just grinding it out for 10 minutes. I was feeling rather spunky, so I tended to get ahead of Mod and Mr. Miles. Whoops. At least I'm feeling better after my flat pedal fiasco of 2 weekends ago.

I was sore the next morning, of course, but it was mostly in my neck and back(?) I'm not sure if this was my lymph nodes going into overtime to fight off the oncoming cold, but it was nice to think that I could muscle some big gears and not hurt much afterward.

Then on Sunday, Mr. Miles and I visited Swanson before the snow fell. It wasn't that cold when we went at 1pm and the trail was in primo condition. I had my singlespeed, so after a good couple lap warmup, I hit it kinda hard. Mike was having a bad lap, with some bonking, so again, I was off the front. Our final lap, Mike was right on my tail and feeling better as I was pretty much done. 3-ish laps is all I could usually muster at Swanson anyway. My core and legs just can't last for that long. That would be a good thing to work on this winter though.

So after 2 really strong days on the bike, I'm left now with a cold and really crappy weather. I guess it all works out.

2 comments:

Coach said...

Hey...that's true...I'm almost afraid when I have a really good day because that might be a sign of getting sick...There must be some reason...Maybe the temp is slighly elevated and causes things to work better? Maybe the body senses an invader and gives you a little shot of steroid or something. Wonder if there's ever been any studies...then again how would you test that?

munsoned said...

I wonder if it's an elevated white blood count thing? You can push harder and damage your muscles more since they get repaired quickly? Cause I thoroughly destroyed my legs this weekend and I don't feel it a sminch. Maybe the head cold took over the pain receptors, but my legs feel good.

One way to test is to purposefully infect a study group with a mild cold. You'd have to pay them well though, I imagine.