It's been a rough winter in the northeast. We've had a total of about
12.5 feet, but what remains now are 8ft snowbanks and about 20 inches
of solid ice where it hasn't been plowed, shoveled, salted, danded, and
otherwise dealt with.
I've kept up my riding, despite the weather and the bitter cold. After
all, by the time the snow melts, it will be June, and I'll be heading
to Nova Scotia. So, I rode in the cold, and the snowstorms, and the
wind, keeping Ride The Lobster in my mind, swearing that I would not
let my teammates down (even though they both live and train in warmer
climates.
So, I got a new helmet, new gloves, new MP3 player, ordered a new
unicycle, took the weekend off work so I could do a long-awaited and
much needed 40-mile ride. I bragged about it, I told people to watch
for me, I talked to a newspaper about getting some pictures taken for a
nice article... it was kind of a big deal.
About 12 hours before I planned to start, I landed myself in the
emergency room with intense chest pain. The doc said I had
pericarditis, which is an viral inflammation of the lining of my heart.
They could treat the inflammation, but not the virus, so I'd have to
take it easy for a couple weeks, and wait for my body to fight it off.
Oh, and no unicycling.
"But, doc, I'm training for a race. It's the biggest, longest, most
grueling unicycle race in history! I have to ride," I protested.
"Well, if you really get your heart rate going, it's going to inflame
your pericardium, which makes your heart work a lot harder that it
should. So, if you keep riding, and don't give it some time to get
better, you're going to be riding that race with a lot of chest pain,
and a very tired heart."
So, I didn't ride that weekend, or the week after. Coincidentally, it
was the nicest week we've had in almost four months. Now that I'm
nearly recovered, it's gotten very cold and windy.
So, it's either bad luck, or bad karma, but I need to turn it around
soon.
Monday, I get checked out to see if I'm okay to start riding again. I
should be getting my new unicycle any day now, but until then, I'm just
staring at my coker in the corner, just waiting...
--
sockmonster
www.unicyclemax.com
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