Yesterday I rode nearly 90 miles. Adam Mills and Joseph Schmaltz rode over from Lawrence to my house. They had some coffee and we headed South to Overbrook, around Lonestar Lake and then I dropped them off in Lawrence before heading back to Topeka. I was mildly hurt on the way back. It wasn’t like I was running out of juice, it was something to do with my muscles. Kind of a reoccurring theme the last couple weeks.
I’ve noticed that Spring allergies kind of make my muscles work in weird ways. I’ve noticed it just enough, but have no idea how to remedy the problem.
Anyway, I got back and took Bromont out for a short run. I stopped by the Flying Monkey coffeeshop to get a coffee and the owner, Jeff Taylor, was there. That was around 6:30. Next thing I knew it was 11 and everyone was going home. I’m not too much into drinking lots of beer. But last night that didn’t stop me. A few other friends that I hadn’t seen in quite a while came and went. Jeff has an extra ticket for the Bruce Springsteen concert at Madison Square Garden on Monday. I’m trying to figure out a way to use that very ticket.
Anyway, I drank something around 5 or 6 Boulevard Tank 7 beers. It is 8% alcohol. I didn’t eat anything after the ride and only had a few handfuls of olives at the Monkey.
When I got home, I was sure I was going to be hurt today. Badly. But, I woke up this morning not so bad. Hardly at all. I think my body absorbed all the alcohol because of the long ride. Or something like that. Anyway, I like those types of surprises.
It’s raining here, so we’re not going riding until later this afternoon. I’m reading The Hunger Games, so I’m just going to do that until the ride.
I haven't seen the bike cops out this year. They were all over at the Flying Monkey this morning for coffee.
Cappuccino this morning. Very artsy.
Isn’t it called The Hunger Games? Maybe you do have a hangover?! 🙂 I saw our bike cops out yesterday.
Hey Steve, I’ve had allergies here in the NW when the cedar trees let go pollen in about May. Otherwise mouldy barnyards or hay are a sure thing for me. The last couple of years I’ve been taking stinging nettle extract and butterbur capsules, anti-inflammatories that have certainly helped. I recently also boiled up some fenugreek seeds (boil the hell out of them) and drank the tea. It’s quite effective as an expectorant, like for the back side of a lung illness to get the stuff out, but it felt really restorative in this way also. I’m gong to experiment with this more this year. The one other thing that helped is an old friend in LA gave me an ozonator machine (not an air filter with a little O3, but a powerful O3 generator). It helped a lot to run it in my bedroom when I was not in it (don’t breathe high levels of ozone). Maybe there was some black mould present before, or maybe it just knocked down everything. Anyway, these have helped quite a bit.
After conducting extensive research on ragbrai, i have concluded that if you tax your body hard enough, beer is food.
Mark, On the last 39 RAGBRAIs I have typically depended upon 2-3 plates of Chris Cakes in order to get to the overnight town where cold beer awaits.