I’m one of those bike racers… A coach’s nightmare… One of those cyclists who likes/craves training. I always want to do more. I always want to go harder. I don’t want to rest. I don’t like recovery days. If I had it my way I’d do double days everyday. I just want to train. Training hard and training a lot gives me confidence. I just want to always be out there training…

I struggle on rest days. And rest weeks – yeesh, don’t even get me started… I know recovery is just as an important part of the training cycle as is the pedaling, but I still struggle with it.

But this weekend, I clued. I listened to my body. I had initially planned to go out to Camp Fortune on Friday afternoon for an “easy” mountain bike ride. This was after doing my sweet spot tempo intervals in the morning. But I really was feeling a bit wiped out in the afternoon. So I didn’t go. I resolved to go on Saturday afternoon instead… This would be after doing some insane tempo intervals that involved 15 second intervals every other minute of the 15 minute block… Saturday was an awesome day – perfect for a double day. But, luckily my brain kicked in. This is because I had planned a big day on Sunday – today was four hours on the road bike with an afternoon ride at the Creative Wheel Center…

Well, I didn’t make it to the Creative Wheel Center… My body just wouldn’t let me do it. This is a first for me. It is not that I’m in a mega-crazy training block. Rather I think it is an accumulation of the training efforts lately, the new training zones, and I’m in an ulcerative colitis flare right now. When I woke up this morning I just knew a double day wasn’t in the cards. Normally I’m wide awake at 6 a.m. without an alarm. Not this weekend – I could have slept all morning. I’m assuming this fatigue is due to the colitis flare. Normally I can get through these flares without experiencing an impact on my energy levels. But this one is rough and I’m not able to sleep through the night and to top it off, I’m really struggling with my food right now.

I still had an awesome weekend of training. My ride today was awesome. I did 120 kms solo in four hours. I’m pretty happy with that. I took a long meandering route out to Almonte. Rolled through town and stopped at the Daily Scoop Cafe for a tasty baked good (apple cinnamon muffin top) and a diet cream soda. (Can’t pass up a diet cream soda!)

Tomorrow is a recovery day. So I won’t ride. In the past I’ve been known to ride on my recovery days. In fact I was even tempted by a ride with my pal Sheri Jay – but I resisted. I need to give my body time to recover and I want to make sure I’m feeling fresh for the NRC crit on Tuesday! Yes, I’m finally racing. Can’t hardly wait. I’m a little bit nervous since I haven’t raced a crit in a while – let alone a crit with the fast guys. But, I have to trust in my training and just go out and have some fun.

Many thanks for the continued support with the fundraising for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada – together we’ve raised $595 – this is amazing. Thanks so much.