Spinning wheels, but in the literary not physical sense but also

Last week was supposed to be lived La Vida Bachelor style. I had what I'd call "high aspirations."  I was gonna still be constrained with the doggy daycare drop off/pick up around my 9-5, but the evenings would be mine to do things I deemed worthy.  

I started into it from a weekend with some good rides stacked up, but something felt a little off with each effort.  Monday morning it was apparent that I was sick.  Not flu sick, not Covid sick, not RSV sick, not Ebola sick... just the sick that we used to randomly afflict us before March 2020.  You know, the kind that if you don't run yourself down too much, you might get over it in a week or so.

Work was stressful every fucking day.  I spent all that time Monday night getting the gravel bike ready for trainer duty, and ended up not getting on it one single time.  I wasted a small portion of my life making the Stickel into a geared bar bike, rode it, hated it, and it's now back to being a single speed.

I went from so wanting to Zwift my face off at least three times to leaving for my commute early so I could ride as slow as possible and keep my lungs happy (whilst breathing through a cloth neck tube).  Beers sorta to a minimum, sleep needs respected, random medicines from the cupboard ingested in a shotgun approach.

I was just feeling like I was on a roll a couple weeks ago with something close to "training," and... sigh.  Guess I'll start over.  Again.

The Pie came home on Friday, and we stayed up late and shared tales of our week apart... and then despite knowing better, I went to the Ales and Trails 6th Anniversary Party on Saturday

I'd "promised" to defend Sean and mines relay race title from '21.  As soon as we locked eyes at Brawley's Beverage, I told him I'd had a cold all week, so I'd be alright with stepping aside so he could seek glory with a proxy.

"I had a flu all week and was going to say the same."

So two sick, sad boys decided to join forces.  Sean managed to get us into a good enough position on his loop that I was guilted into trying, and once we again we barely took the win.

Head over to the Tech Loop for a time trial, and I'm still hacking up a lung from the previous effort.  I was thinking I'd just attempt to defend our relay title, and make that my only effort of the day... but I miss riding my bike in the woods, so...

I "try."

Again.

I absolutely love this stupid move on the Tech Loop, and had I not spent years and years riding it as it has degraded into the state that it sits in now, I don't know that I'd be all about trying it.  It's awkward and stupid and made out of garbage and falling apart... so it's an appropriate feature in this neck of the woods.

I did run up the stupid techy rocky loose shitty climb in front of an audibly disapproving audience, but being that I'd failed at my last forty or fifty attempts trying to get up it cleanly in the past (while sustaining more than one injury), I knew what to do.

I won regardless of trampling people's feels.

A very unfair image of my relay partner on the Tech Loop.  I'm sure he's sailed this thing AWOL style dozens of times, yet this is the only proof I can find of his existence near a bike from Saturday.

Ales and Trails has the best prizes...

Surprise, it's beer...

and more beer (further evidence of Sean's existence in the background with his winner's flu medicine).

After a few yummy Birdsong Higher Ground pints (my fave local brew), it was home, bubble water, bed... and back to waking up coughing because I did a dumb thing.

Sunday was the second saddest of the Sad Dad™ rides, the north greenway and beer at The Spoke Easy on the way home.

I'm solidly back in the world of random coughing.  So begins another week of wait-and-see before I can commence with the Zwifting of things.  I plan on eventually writing about that after I do more of that, because as of right now, everything I know could fit in my belly button and leave enough room for an elephant to run around in it.

Attempting to develop any routine during the holiday season should be illegal to discourage people from even trying.