So soon? It's looking like my goal to storm the Winter Park Hillclimb is already in serious doubt - I came down with a cold 2 weeks ago, which has now transformed itself into double pneumonia. Lovely. Aside from the lack of getting *more* fit, all the inactivity has also allowed me to gain back 3 or 4 pounds (and no, I'm not interested in trying to starve myself while sick). So it's looking like I'll be starting over from scratch when I'm finally able to ride again in a week or two (assuming the antibiotics work with relative alacrity, that is). 2 months of riding the d*&! trainer and suffering in the cold... for nothing.
The thing that really sucks about the whole situation is that I've been here before - pneumonia (3 times in a single year) was what originally killed my ambition to be a "serious" bike racer. I could always maintain mid-pack fitness, and I could train a bit and be a LOT faster - enough to be duking it out with the really fast folks. But both years that I actually got fast, I almost immediately got sick, and stayed that way for months at a time. I'd rather be slower and able to ride than fast and sick all the time, so I gave up on racing in any even vaguely serious way.
I was hoping that some of the reason for the repeated illnesses in the past was my crappy nutrition and generally unhealthy bachelor lifestyle (not enough sleep, too much fun, etc). But I eat well now, and sleep enough, and am married to the lovely Sarah.
Apparently I just have a crap immune system, or the worst luck on earth.
I'm not giving up yet, but my confidence has really plunged.
Sheesh. I should just retitle this post "pity party". My life could suck a lot more, that's for sure.
9 comments:
could it be diet related? can you get enough vegan protein to do tons of training? I mean, if they recommend 1g per kg of body weight, you'd be hard-pressed to get enough protein, that your body can absorb, in a complete amino acid profile, to sustain that kind of training. But what do I know, Gunnar Shogren and his wife eat nothing but rabbit food and they are both hella fast.
That sucks, I hear ya. I've gotten dinged twice this year by the fully off the bike sickness and it's miserable to get fatter and slower at the same time.
Hope you heal up soon. I had the big P half a dozen times growing up and don't want to have it any more.
Yowch, no fun! Get better soon and plan your racing future then, not when you're feeling like cr@p!
p.s. That diagram-guy looks altogether too happy given the symptoms he's got.
Well, to be accurate, I'm veggie, not vegan (meaning I eat lots of dairy, eggs, and fish) so I don't think I'm all that short on protein, though I haven't calculated it out.
I mean, it's not that I get sick more often than other people. I rarely get sick. But when I do, it inevitably is followed by a secondary infection in my lungs.
Sorry to hear that. Get better and get back to riding!
Perhaps you should ask the easter bunny for a new pair of lungs?
pescatarion?
the protein worry always make me laugh,
ive been vegan for about 7 years and never had any problems with protein and i get sick a lot less and heal up a lot quicker.
good diet is key, no matter what you eat.
also try mullen tea or smoke a mullein and coltsfoot mix. the stuff is incredible.
Dude, WTF? I've gotten pneumonia exactly never and you get it every time you try to train.* That blows.
*Now that I think about it, I don't really train so much myself.
In any case, so long as we're giving anecdotal dietary advice, I'd say that given my stellar health record, you should eat a variety of fast food burgers 4-7 times per week.
Hey Walt,
What a great opportunity to drop some weight, look at the happy side, now you don't have to be as strong.
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