Steve Tilford

I would like to be writing something more fun here, but am not able to. I woke up yesterday morning with crazy diarrhea. It came out of nowhere. The only thing I can think is maybe it was the antibiotic injection, plus the oral antibiotics I took for my “farm injury” to my knuckle or maybe a few slices of beets I had on a salad the night before. I was searching around the internet and found this about antibiotic induced colitis. The symptoms seem right, but it’s just one of a zillion things it could be. Maybe the tetanus shot. All guesses, I doubt I’ll ever figure it out.

Whatever the reason, I spent the majority of the day in the bathroom or in bed. I managed to get out on my bike for 5 miles and had to go home because of a splitting headache. I never took my temperature, but I didn’t feel well. I went to bed around 9 pm last night and that is pretty much the day.

It wouldn’t have worked out for the heat training because, one, I didn’t ride and two, the heat never came. The high yesterday was 81 or so.

I think the deluge has sort of subsided now, but I am super weak. The Tour of Lawrence starts tonight with the downtown street sprints. I’m just going to go over there and ride the 200 meters once and out. Hopefully another day and a half will be enough to get some strength back. We don’t race until 4:30 Saturday afternoon for the circuit race.

Sorry for being so boring and such here the last few days, but this week didn’t really go to script. Actually, this year has really went to script, but I’m trying not to dwell on that too much right now.

I’m going to try to lay around in bed all day today until later. If I feel any better, I’ll go out for a short ride. That is really the only way I really get back on track after being down and out. Sometimes it isn’t so good for the mentality, but physically, it definitely puts me back on track. Usually. I hope I feel better for the weekend. I always look forward to this weekend and it’s been such a roller coaster recently, I hate to think I’m just going to be spectating. Okay, that’s it for now.

Lawrence Street Sprints from a couple years ago.

Tour of Lawrence, Street Sprints 2011 from Gizmo Pictures on Vimeo.

The Tour of Lawrence Street Sprints were last night in Lawrence. It’s not something that I’m very good at. Especially right now. Don’t get me wrong, I sprint okay, just, but starting from a standing start with a screwed up shoulder, under the weather doesn’t make for a stellar showing. That’s okay, even when I’m going good I suck at it pretty much.

So, I rode a few rounds and out. I rode the first two times against Brian Jensen, my TradeWind Energy team mate. We didn’t really race, but didn’t completely sandbag it. I thought it was really weird because Brian beat me by about a wheel the first time and he had a max wattage of nearly 1400 and I was at 868. It must of been the initial pedal strokes.

It was good seeing a bunch of guys from out of town. Brad Huff, Jelly Belly, won the event over Colton Jarish, Think, and my old team mate, Ben Stover, Velotek. Those three take the event semi-seriously, so it is good they all made it to the podium. The points for the overall are pretty even, weighed more heavily for the circuit race and a little less for the criterium, so it should be tight. Brad can climb when he wants to, but you never know.

The circuit race tomorrow is going to be harder than usual. Just pretty much up and down Mt. Oread. They took all the middle flattish section out of the race because of road construction. It is going to be an enormous amount of climbing in 50 miles. I’m guessing 8000 feet. That might be too high, but not by much.

I have no idea how I’m going to race. I felt better yesterday on my 11 mile morning ride. I did eat a full dinner in Lawrence after the sprints and it stayed down, which was a positive sign. I’m not usually a guy that just pops right back from sickness quickly, but I can always hope.

The Tour de France starts today. Live video already up. I hate guessing winners on stage races, before the race. They are so unpredictable, which make predicting them so hard and mainly lucky. Froome is obviously the favorite, but I guess I’m going with Cadel. It is really hard picking Cadel after he rode the Giro, but I’m doing it anyway. He is like a diesel engine and stays out of trouble. Foome is so frail that if he has the least bit of bad luck I think he’ll break. And there always seems to be bad luck in the Tour these days.

Okay, enjoy the day and the Tour stage. I don’t race until 4:30 this afternoon, so I have another half a day to recover some.