Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Tuesday, July 09, 2002

Worn Out
When I went to bed last night, I had every intent of today being a normal day. Get up at 5:45 am, ride 20 miles, teach class and do office hours, ride 30 miles, tape the tour stage and work on my MSU course and then spend an evening with Kathy. When I woke up I relaized that my body had other ideas. It was tired. Bone tired. The 450 miles in the last eight days have added up, especially the 100 miles last Saturday. My body was feeling sick so today has become a rest day. No riding and everyhting else low key. What is usually ride time is, for today, nap time.

As my wife will tell you, days like this are hard for me. I like to go full throttle, especially when it comes to riding. If I don't take a day off, I'll dig a deep exhaustion hole for myself and I'll have to lose even more time and training later. When I think about it, I'm pretty sure that life is the same way. There are days when you go all out, days where you ride easy and days where you just have to take some time off. I look around and I see people who go all out all the time. You can see the strain on them as they won't slow down. They keep digging themselves deeper and deeper until they grind to a halt. After that, they're just going through the motions. All they do is try to get through each day and dred the next. There is a time for everything and when you get exhausted you need to rest. The world will go on without you for a short time. Friends will help out and everything will get done. That scares some people. They begin to think they're not needed or that no one will care about them and their contribution. The truth is, though, is that people will appreciate them more when they are of good cheer and when they are centered.

So its rest and recovery for me today. Tomorrow I'll be back on the bike putting in the miles and enjoying the road. Until then I'll enjoy the view from the front porch.

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