The wind was relentless today. And because my outdoor thermometer broke a few weeks ago, I have a much poorer sense of how cold it is outside. I used too little glove, so my hands were painfully cold at times, and I could’ve used hotter embro on my partially exposed legs. I also didn’t drink enough, and so all put together I got a couple of near cramps, but I managed to work past them.

It was the longest ride I’ve done in a while, with 2168ft of climbing, because we’ve been super busy lately… but I knew that folks and Team Fatty members specifically were running the NYC Marathon today, and I used them for motivation.

I only took a couple of pics because stopping was not helpful and my hands were too cold to take my gloves off more than once or twice, but these two capture the sense of the day, cold, clear, and bright. They don’t capture the cold and wind.

This weekend has not been a healthy one here at Circumstance Manor. Noah started off the cold and whatever cycle, Lisa picked it up and has been hacking away and feeling achy for days, and what started off as a few twinges in my stomach over the course of the week became a full blown nightmare.

[Queasy folk should bail now.]

Friday morning’s breakfast caused some mild distress, but the day had already been complicated by Noah hurling at school, causing Lisa to have to turn around, pick him up, and drop him off at his Grandparents’ house for as brief a time as possible.

I thought nothing more of it, despite the continuing ache, until it started to get worse as the day wore on. My abdomen really ached by mid afternoon, and felt rigid and distended. By the early evening I was feverish, dizzy, and shortly after, feeling very flush and finally hurling whatever was still inside.

Although generally one feels better after that, I didn’t. Despite the early hour I climbed into bed, and tried to rest. I woke at 1am to continued pain, that flushed fever thing, and a general feeling of “here it comes again” although it turned out not to be the case. Next time I woke up a few hours later things had taken a different direction… but the ache was gone.

Not having eaten much on Friday, I was good and dehydrated by the time I woke up again, and I gently and carefully began rehydrating. When things felt more stable I had just a bit to eat. That went well too. So now other than general weakness and some achiness, I seemed to be on the mend.

[Queasy folk can resume here.]

Having conquered the basics once again, I attempted to keep things moving toward health by going for my ride this morning. I had nothing and knew it before I cranked the pedals once… and essentially rode 4mph slower over the same route as the previous week. But other than the forgivable weakness it was a nice ride. I dressed warmly hoping to be both comfortable and to sweat out some more of the poison. It was cool and breezy out, but otherwise lovely, and other than my hands which were a bit cool, I was comfortable. I had forgotten how much winter tights add to each leg lift.

I had put Jack Brown Green’s on my bike since the last ride and they were loverly as always. I did notice something that feels like a poorly adjusted headset which I’ll have to have looked at. I had also changed pedals to make wearing mountain bike shoes easier. Winter is coming afterall…

I’ll have to take it easy this week to enable recovery rather than running myself into the ground.