Birthday #51-Recovery

Yesterday I celebrated another year older on the calendar. Yeah! How wonderful it is to be aging. As you can see I'm thrilled to be 51....whatever. I know, I should be greatful, thankful, and exaulting the fact that I have another year under my belt, but let's be honest hear...getting old sucks! I don't care how you look at it.
Now, on the positive side of this aging thing is the fact that I am in pretty good shape for one my age however I do realize that this can be improved upon immensely. Providing the fact that one can keep them selves from getting sick in the first place. Being a teacher can provide some challenges in this area and I do believe that I have been exposed to every possible bug that has been going around this winter and a week ago one of them bit me.Yesterday was the first day out of the last eight that I actually felt I had enough energy to get in a decent ride without having to worry about weakening myself even more. The fact that I slept well for two nights in arrow, which in itself is a miracle, also helped in this recovery. This day was also my birthday and no way was I going to spend my time at home sitting around doing nothing...or grading papers! The temperature when I left school was 65 degrees and there was not a cloud in the sky. This meant that there was only one thing I could do...get my ass back in the saddle and do some riding. However, I also had to be careful not to push myself so hard that I would relapse. After all...I'm over 50 now, I have to treat myself with a little more respect. There were time during the ride that I did push it hard, mainly on the hills. Last Friday I tried this for an hour and damn near passed out when I got back to the Chalet. Tonight was different, my legs had that little snap back. I push a hill and keep the pedals turning when I reached the top, rather than having to slow down to recovery. Ahhh! a small victory in my recovery.
The park was absolutely beautiful last night and I didn't run into any other mountain bikers on the trails I was on. I knew Bob and Kenny were up at the north end of the park hammering out the single-track. My body is not ready to hammer anything just yet so I decided to go it alone to avoid that temptation.

Kenny and I had an interesting phone conversation before I got on the trail. He said some things that I found hard to believe. You see, he's rubbing my face in the fact that I have some catching up to do because of my illness. I of course said some things in reply that I really can't repeat on this blog. However, I will say this..."Thirty hill repeats....my ass!"

The ride was absolutely perfect, but not without some interesting events. Particularly my attempt at blowing a snot rocket while on the bike. This has failed me immensely in the past and last night proved to be no different. Now I don't really know what the problem is, but for some reason I have not been able to master this particular talent. I'm not sure if it is a learning disability, a bad gene pool, of which I have already been a recipient of some poor genes, but the fact of the matter is...I just can't do it in a professional manner and the results are gruesome. Believe me...there is nothing more gross than having snot sprayed all down your leg and on your bike. Too much information for some, I know, and for that I apologize. TOB would be very disappointed in my inability to perform this seemly simple little procedure. So, needless to say, I think this will be an off bike procedure from now on. I really don't feel like practicing any further.
Tonight turned out to be much the same as last night. I logged another two hours of riding. A bit more fatigued tonight, but I still felt strong. Tomorrow we have our school CD Club's music exchange. I'm really looking forward to this since my friend Andrea is making this months CD. I like her taste in music so I know that it will be good.My plan is to leave school ASAP and drive home...hop on the old winter ride and head downtown for an evening of fun and come home with some good music.