Hold the Catch-Up

I haven't posted in over a month.  In that time I went on vacation, came back to the real world, worked hard, and got sick.  I'm seeing a pattern.

In January we were lucky enough to go on a nice Mexican cruise.  Jen and I enjoyed eight leisurely days as a couple, and it was great.  We came home, resumed normal life, and both got sick.

In April we took a nine-day trip to Tucson, Arizona with stops in Southern California.  Again, another nice trip.

Unfortunately, when you get home from a trip, you don't start back at the time you left.  Time has progressed forward.  The grass has grown a foot.  The weeds have grown two feet.  Projects piled up at work.  Bills came in.  So you come off the relaxing trip and start grinding, playing catch-up.  And if you are an idiot, you start playing catch-up on the bike, also.  "I missed nine days, but if I can average 225 miles per week, I can catch up . . ."

I'm learning that this is probably quite the opposite of what you should do.

For the last 12 days I have been sick.  At some unknown point it became pneumonia.  I'm on the mend now, but for a while it was pretty bad.

Looking back, I know the exact point in time when my body was telling me "enough."  I had worked all day in the yard, digging up sod, pulling weeds, trenching and burying plastic mow strip, mowing the grass, and edging on my hands and knees.  That evening we went for a 20-mile ride on the bike trail, and towing the boy around on the trail-a-bike was tough in the winds.  Jen rode away from me at the end; I couldn't put any power to the pedals.  I was fatigued, hungry and dehydrated from a long day outdoors.

Instead of listening to my body, and giving it some much needed rest, I got up the next morning and put in a hard 2.5 hour ride.  I just had to get in those damn miles.

The next day I started feeling sick.  Could I have prevented the illness with a day of rest, good food and lots of water?  I think so.

In the future I will ease back into normal life after vacations.  In the end, playing catch-up doesn't seem to get me much.

Later.