The Perfect Storm Leading to Exhaustion

This Ride: 26.7 miles
Month: 148 miles
2012: 236.7 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 14071.4 miles

It has been 7 weeks since I rode with SPP to breakfast on a Friday morning.  In fact, the last time was the day of my surgery … much to the displeasure of my doctor.  It was absolutely great to be able to do it again.  The ride felt good.  The company was fantastic.  The light rain at the start quickly tapered off to nothing.  The morning was exhausting.  I see now that it was a series of events that lead to my exhaustion.

I’ve resumed a restricted calorie diet attempting to drop some weight before the Flèche in 7 weeks.  I made a poor breakfast food choice, with no real protein.  I rode strong at the upper end of my heart rate zone, and it was my longest ride this week.  I showered quick and got to Physical Therapy 30 minutes after the ride.   Those therapists worked me hard.  In fact, as I was leaving after an hour, one of the therapists commented that I looked beat.  I came home, sat down to read the news, and fell asleep within a few short minutes.  Napping at 10:00 am!  Wow!  I didn’t see that coming.  An hour later, I was up and reluctantly working on the “Honey Do” list.

I do recall as I started riding a couple of years ago that when I rode beyond my usual time, I’d be very tired later.  But you see, my mind still thinks I’m a regular rider.  I had hoped to get in 50 miles today.  My body has enough experience to compensate.  But this was a perfect storm of events to cause me to “crash”, and do it hard.  I’ll have to ease into this more than I thought.

With the Flèche looming on the horizon, I’ll need to strike the careful balance of regaining fitness and not overdoing this causing an injury.  It is a delicate dance.