Day 7: DC Velo Ride

Unfortunately, I got very sick Saturday night (18th) with a headache, a nose I couldn't breathe out of, and a 101 fever to top it off. Ever since, I've been quite sick and really haven't done any training at all because my body has literally been drained of its energy with fighting off this sickness. This has absolutely killed me mentally because I've wanted to get back on the bike since I got off on Saturday morning. Today is the first day that I feel pretty much 100%.

So, Saturday's ride. This was, very demoralizing. Everything went fine as we left the starting point on our 6 mile slow warmup at about 17 mph average. And everything was still ok after the first 10-15 miles of the actual DC Velo ride with the whole 15 man group. We averaged around 25 mph on regular ground for about 8 or 9 miles till we got to the first climb which is where things started to go badly for me. I got dropped from the 4 man break away group which I hate. So, then I was on my own for rest of the climb plus the descent for the next climb, which I was also solo for. After that second climb I was dead and took a 2 minute break with a friend that had dropped from the break away group as well, Lance. Once we set off again, this is where things got really bad. My left leg was bothering me in the exact same spot as it did on Thursday's stationery ride. At the very top of my lower left leg, right under the knee cap and right next to my shin was a very sharp pain every time to about the 90 Degree point on every revolution. As I continued to ride the pain increased more and more to the point where I was forced to stop at mile 31 and told Robbie, my very good friend and mentor, that I had to go home because it hurt too much to keep on.

It was 13.5 hilly miles of extreme physical and mental pain to get back to my car at Robbie's house. Thinking back on it, I'm honestly not sure how I made it back without falling off my bike in pain or having to stop. There was something that kept me going and I really am not sure what it was. This was a learning experience for me, and really gave me an idea of how much pain I can handle, mentally and physically. The pain I feel on those climbs is nothing compared to the 13.5 mile ride back to the car.

Just for the heck of it, here are the stats of the ride, not that it really matters to be honest: (TRP - 44.64 mi.) (ATM - 2:51:26) (MXS - 33.4 mph) (AVS - 16.4 mph)