Exactly two weeks ago today, I officially picked up my second cold bug of the season (already). The first was a paralyzing head cold last month. This was a throat, ear canal, gross mucus flowing every direction in my head type cold. My ears were so plugged that my left eardrum would twitch every now and then from the pressure. Besides being out sick two days of work, I also stayed off the bike for awhile. I probably mistakenly rode into work on Tuesday the 4th and then was out sick the next two days. I was at work after that but not well enough to ride in. Last week, I played it cautious and still drove in, which was probably a good call. This week though I started the week driving in. Not because I felt sick, but from just plain laziness. Once out of the routine of waking up that little bit earlier to bike in, it was hard to get motivated.
Well, I kicked myself in the pants today and got back on the horse…er…bike. My alarm went off at my normal early “bike commuting” time, I got up, went to the bathroom, thought about biking in or not, and then went back to bed. I even set my snooze timer. After maybe only two minutes lying there, I said. “No. Get up. Bike to work. You’ll regret it if you don’t.” So I got up a second time and got ready to go. (I’m sure that in the darkness my wife was rolling her eyes at my noticeable back and forth decision process.)
Today though maybe wasn’t the best day to get back to bike commuting. The high today I think was 48 degrees, but the worst was the wind. Traveling south, I didn’t notice it too bad in the morning, but there were sustained winds from the north at 20 mph, gusting to 30 mph. Biking back home after work though…yeah, that just plain sucked. I noticeably lost some fitness being off the bike for two weeks, but the rough headwind just killed me. I don’t remember a time that I have struggled in the wind so much. It was probably only a mile into my 5 ½ mi commute back home that I laughed at the depressing thought that I was already beat tired, but wasn’t even a quarter of the way.
What makes things even better is that tomorrow’s weather is more of the same. From the National Weather Service website:
“A 30 percent chance of rain before 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 50. Windy, with a north wind between 15 and 25 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph.”
Wonderful. I think I’ll get to bed early tonight.
