I finally got the cold that was going around work. I started to get a sore throat on Friday afternoon and was not looking forward to riding on Saturday. But when I woke up, the sore throat was only a bit worse and I had no other symptoms. I checked various web medical sites and everyone seemed to agree that as long as the cold was not affecting my chest and I didn’t have a fever, I wouldn’t be doing any harm by exercising. So I did.
I put on every bit of cold weather gear I own, including some new shoe covers. It was not raining as bad as the forecast predicted, so we had a good ride through Almaden Valley: 42 miles through rolling hills and cow/horse pastures and vineyards. It rained during parts of it, but I was dressed properly, so it didn’t bother me too much. I never got too cold and I was working hard enough that the parts of me that were exposed to the rain were necessary to keep me from overheating.
During the ride, I came up with our team name: Team Short Bus. I thought it was appropriate because we are the smallest team. We have only three riders, plus our coach. And a lot of people think I’m retarded for doing these rides in the rain!
I knew I wasn’t going to do the Sunday hill repeats. I told our coach that I thought it was more important to do the long ride and not worry about the strength training. He agreed. And it’s a good thing, too, because I got the full effect of the cold today: sneezing, runny nose, fever and a cough (thankfully, the sore throat pretty much went away). Hopefully, it’s on its way out of my system and I should be able to go to work on Tuesday. Maybe even Monday, but I’m not in too big of a hurry to do that 🙂