Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Vets Park Made My Lungs Bleed!


This was a pretty common occurrence for me last weekend. Running... Thanks for the photos Bruce!

Ouch.

That's all I can muster after a tough weekend of racing.

Saturday
Saturday was a fantastically stereotypical cyclocross day with cold, biting wind and a nice on/off drizzle. Perfect for the embrocation. I laid it on so thick my legs looked like Magda from There's Something About Mary.

The course was set up so there were two pretty decent climbs as the major elements. One was a forced run-up with a set of double barriers at the base of it. The other was steep and a bit soggy so you (or perhaps I should say, "I") had to run it. That made for a lot of running. I hate to run. On about lap 3, I noticed that my lungs weren't really cooperating, in fact, I actually walked one of the run-ups that lap. Not even a slight jog to make it look good, I WALKED. That's humbling, when guys are passing you and you're having troubles putting one foot in front of the other. Oh well, suffering is a good character builder. All that suffering and not even a top ten, I ended the day in 11th place.

Sunday
The course was basically a reverse of the previous day which meant those hills we were running yesterday, we were bombing today. That also meant a fast course. It had dried out a bit so you could sustain your momentum and the wind had died down. All in all, it was a great day to race. Except I woke up feeling a bit crappy. Regardless, I figured I'd give it the ol' college try. I told myself to focus on one thing, getting a good start. I certain achieved that! I was sitting nicely in 3rd place when I began to fade about 3/4 of a lap in. This trend continued until I got into a group of 4 and we spent the remaining laps battling for 9th-13th place. I ended up in 12th. That's when things got ugly. I had a couple coughing spasms (seemed like your typical CX cough) at the race and on the drive home. No biggie. Later that night, the coughing really hadn't stopped and, not to be gross, but I noticed some blood... Well, long story short, I went to the doc's and I have a nasty bout of bronchitis. Sucks. I'm going to take a bit of a break here and rest up, then it's off to Florida for a little R&R. The humid air will do the battle-scarred lungs some good! Hopefully I will be recovered enough for Stony Creek, cuz I love the sand!

Thanks to the usual cast of photogs for capturing the fun:
Bruce

No comments:

Post a Comment