Aches & Pains

So my wife and daughter are in Japan.  Have been for two weeks.  What, you may ask, have I been up to while they were away?   Unsurprisingly to loyal readers, I have been riding my legs off.  And nature seemed to play along by giving me 60+ degree days in the middle of January in Ohio.  Taking advantage of this perk of global warming, I rode about 115 miles over the weekend, after not riding at all since mid-December.

Unsurprisingly, my body was not happy with this sudden change in intensity.  The rebellion was led by my knees, who started things off with shooting pains.  The rest of my body was slow to join in but, as in most revolutions, a tipping point was reached, apparently sometime Sunday night while I was sleeping, and I awoke Monday to a sore back, stiff neck, wrist pain, a hot and throbbing knee, and a headache.  To be fair, the headache may have been related to the concussion and stitches in my head received in Japan, but that's another story.  Being a stubborn bastard, I sought to crush this uprising through a combination of pain killers and more cycling, determined to show my body who is the boss.  This did not go well.

Now I find myself like a dictator holed up in a panic room with a dwindling supply of food and water.  I know the revolution has succeeded, I have not ridden my bike for the past week, despite no family and 50 degree sunny weather.  The only question now is whether I will face a trial for my crimes or be allowed to sneak out to a friendly neighboring country with a fake beard and the clothes on my back.  What does that mean?  I don't know, I've lost my way in this analogy and my wife/editor is across the Pacific and no help in reigning it back in.  Suffice to say, I have kowtowed to my aches and pains and hope my tendons get the message and release their strangle hold on my biking ability.