A line was drawn in the sand back after Thanksgiving and my vacation that week. To say that I felt miserable might have been an understatement. Fatigue, headaches and aches populated my days at various times and each occurrence was easily correlated to something I put in my mouth. Some folks might roll their eyes and just say I'm being silly or imagining it - but I really believe those folks just don't want to admit that maybe they don't need that pastry.
Another marker in the negative column was a group ride I did where I got dropped off the back of the lead group - straw/ camel's back and all that.
The day after Thanksgiving was when I knew I either had to get serious about NSNG. I've been chasing the dragon since 2012 when I had the best 6 months on a bike I've ever had and probably felt better physically & mentally than I ever had before. I want to get back there, but I kept fooling myself thinking a taste here and a bite there were okay. That anything I ate my cycling would take care of. But that is a strategy for failure.
In the last two weeks I've had two minor slips, but otherwise I've done well with the whole NSNG thing. I'm starting to feel different and have noticed some slight changes already.
I'll end the year about 1.5k short of my target of 4,000 miles for the year. Some of that is down to personal choices not to ride on a given day or days. But a lot of it is down to illness, which looking back on I know a good deal of it was induced by bad choices and putting garbage down my throat.
The year started strong in January and I ended the month with 300 miles ridden, which is awesome given a lot of it was on the trainer. And then it all began to unravel. A broken toe, a lack of miles, gear & kit problems, illness, feet issues, weird face rash things and then came September.
We moved during Labor Day Weekend and maybe I scratched myself on something or maybe it was the accumulated fatigue and stress of the last few years finally coming to roost, but something odd happened. I got hit by a virus that caused all my joints to feel as though I had just started out powerlifting at full Olympic weights. I hobbled around for about a week and then required another week to get back to normal. My immune system was flatlined and I got a cold. Because of the previous issue the cold lingered longer than it ought to.
With 3 kids, aged 6 & under it is easy to get something from them, but also kind of easy to avoid getting sick from them - that is unless your youngest sneezes in your face and you get covered in gunk. As a result of that another 2 weeks were lost and an additional 2 weeks of just plain coughing ensued. September & October were gone, but I did still get some miles in, just not a lot.
Today being Dec 11th, there are only 20 days in the year left and while I'd planned to get a 40 miler in the forecasted temperatures just won't cooperate. I can ride in the mid 20s F but anything lower and I end up with a lung sear induced cough that hurts and isn't worth it.
That's life. My hope is that when I do get back on the bike that I'll notice a performance difference as I'm getting closer to the minor year end target I set myself the day after Thanksgiving.
Little steps, each one like the ingredients of a recipe getting me to the desired end result.
