Highs and Lows

This weekend had both highs and lows.  Yesterday's ride was just a smidge over 105k door to door on  my mountain bike - Yak Attack shakedown - which is a good distance for a mountain bike ride.  We hit up the sweet conditions of Tuscany coulee and put down respectable climb times despite walking two ice sections, then made our way west along the river.  I felt decent on the climbs.  Great lunch in Cochrane, then it was time to hit the pedalling non-stop on Tower Trail.  Felt good the whole way, even when Shawn did some burnouts near Lower Springbank road.  Good times, body felt good.

Today was another story.  As it turns out, both Cindy and I had knotted stomachs last night.  Likely the ground beef from our dinner.  Then my back froze this morning, haven't had that in years.  I had to just lie down in temporary paralysis on my bathroom floor.  Ended up putting my socks and shoes on lying down on my back.  It's only one position that's so bad, so I went to Bow to drop off the Flash for some race season work, and had to drop off the Moots regardless for recalled brakes and was just going to leave it there while in Nepal.

I felt ok once at Cadence, the jiggly ride of the Defender actually helped.  Off we go, and I felt best in the bike position, so that was fine.  I haven't lifted anything heavy, or fallen, or anything.  I've been doing lots of stretching and strength for last 2 months.  Best I can figure is my saddle was a bit high yesterday and my lower back rolled around just a bit and loosed up that area.

Had fun up on Tuscany ravine, felt fast on the 'cross bike but in reality with yesterday's fatigue it wasn't that fast.  Up and out of town to the north in the big winds… until I was dogging it behind everyone, drafting Shawn and Kate up a headwind climb.  No shifting, no nothing - just derailleur spontaneously wraps around cassette.  

Shawn and Kate helped pull it out, I called Cindy, and miraculously she answered (thought she might be at yoga).  Shawn and Kate headed off, and I put on everything I had and started walking back.  The 50km/h gusts weren't fun to walk in.  I did around 5km I think before Cindy got me.  That was enough.

So one day you can go from feeling the best in years, to absolutely feeling the worst a day later.