I've been sick off and on with sort of the same cold/bronchial infection for four weeks. It's been one-step-forward-one-step-back, over and over again. Put this on top of my four weeks of overtrained/overstressed exhaustion in October, and you get someone who is extremely ready to stronger and healthier. Who doesn't have to think three times before he does anything, like get on a bike, eat a certain food, go outside.
So, I'm asking for your help. How can you help, you ask? Simple. You can inspire me. I know four weeks (plus however many more) is not the most people can be sidelined, not by a longshot. I need to put this in perspective, and I need to be inspired.
Post up your favorite stories of long lay-ups due to illness, injury, or other unavoidable annoyance. Times when, even though you knew better, it felt like you might never ride again like you used to. How did you get through it psychologically, fitness-wise, etc.?
Also feel free to post links to others' blog posts, videos, books, etc. Heck, I'll even take songs.
I had a really bad day. It's time to turn this attitude around.
3 comments:
Lance armstrong had cancer... then he won a record 7 tours de france
Here's a story for you. A buddy of mine named Dan (we actually met during a race) was gearing up for track season last year. Like me, he was looking forward to the weekly races, had a nice racing whip set up, and was feeling strong.
A week into the season, while working a delivery shift, he was t-boned by a car that ran a stop sign and broke his collarbone. He was in a lot of pain, and obviously, was off the bike for six weeks while it healed.
Fortunately, it healed without complications and about six weeks after the break, he was back on the bike.
For three days.
On that third day, he's heading in to work going over the Pulaski bridge, and a trapdoor or grate or something in the roadway grabs his front wheel. Unpredictable. Grabs the wheel, stops it dead, and flings him and the rest of the bike right over the front hub at twentysomething miles per hour.
Breaks the other collarbone, this time requiring surgery, a plate, and a bunch of screws.
When it healed, late in the summer, he started building up a road bike. A lovely steel Waterford with SRAM transmission... which was stolen right out of his office a few weeks after he started riding it.
He's got more bad luck than just about anybody I know, but he still manages to be chipper and cheery, which does slide into bitter and sardonic occasionally, but he still puts a lot of value in being a positive person.
Here's hoping he'll make it out for this year's track season. Because when he's in shape he's a hell of a rider. He's also a hell of an artist.
I don't know if you know, but garlic boosts the immune system and is a hell of a natural antibiotic/antimicrobial. When I'm feeling under the weather (either short term or long term) I make sure to eat a few cloves a day. Kind of powerful, raw, so I mince it and douse it in honey to make it go down more easily.
Best wishes for a quick recovery.
Corn, that's a pretty fair point! I may not be Lance's biggest fan, but I am a big *admirer*. Maybe I'll even borrow one of those hagiographic autobiographies of his from the library this weekend. He was laid up a LOT longer than a couple months.
NOL, that's an incredible story. That's exactly the kind of series of events that would make me start thinking "Maybe I'm supposed to be doing something else with my time." But, like your friend, I know the difference between a passion and a pastime. We stick with what we're given to love. His story is remarkable, perhaps most for his continuing positive attitude.
I'll gladly add garlic to my arsenal. So far, I have ginseng, chinese herbs, apple cider vinegar, soluble magnesium and a handful of other tricks I've been trying. Garlic will be the cheapest by far! (I've actually used it to good effect in the past.)
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