Fast (for me) Century, Fatigue and Summer Colds

I've had an interesting week hence the interesting title. After my torture session (or massage), I woke up feeling really sore and had a bike ride on the schedule. Even though the weather looked great I decided to set up the trainer instead thinking I could minimize the discomfort. But after a few minutes of pedaling I could tell I was in deadsville. I was utterly fatigued from head to toe and just had nothing. I survived 30 easy minutes and used the rest of my morning to clean and organize my apartment, a much better use of my time given the circumstances.

As of Thursday I was on vacation for a long, relaxing weekend and I can honestly say I've never needed it more. I slept, and slept and slept, nearly 12 hours one night. I did a short ride Friday and still felt flat so a seed of worry was planted. On Wednesday I had signed up for the Montauk Century since I had 100 on the schedule and figured it would be nice to do it in an organized fashion. But nothing sounds more dreadful than a hundred miles on dead legs. So I crossed my fingers and hoped.

On Friday night I developed some chest pain and tightness along with a nagging cough. I brushed it off as another lingering symptom of fatigue and prayed I wasn't getting sick. But after four short hours of sleep I awoke Saturday morning to a miserable chest cold. I was fine otherwise - no head congestion, no fever, no aches, no sick feeling. So I got dressed and soldiered on, hoping the century would go well... and it did. While I didn't feel my best I felt good enough to push and it paid off. I completed my first sub 6-hour 100 and I felt great. I hit the century mark in 5:41:29 and ended up completing 102.6 miles in 5:49:02. I really worked for it, but I also didn't feel destroyed. I've been putting a lot of energy into improving on the bike and feel like it's finally paying off. I can't wait to see where I am by October.

Today was a sick day in the world of training. It included sleeping nine hours, having a leisurely brunch (involving a delicious bloody mary), watching a movie, having a late lunch (involving a beer) and a very lazy evening (involving a few sips of wine). All day I debated heading out for a ride or testing my lungs on a run but it was 90 degrees and humid and my lungs were unhappy so I decided to just relax. I can likely beat this with a few missed days, but if I push too much I'll have multiple missed days and even more miserable days so I'll be patient. After all, a brunch, a nap and a bloody mary never hurt anyone.