I'm Jumping into the Mix

I'm going to start blogging in place of the journal I used to keep as it is easier to maintain and manage.  To access my old journal site, you can go to this url: http://www.racingawareness.org/train.html.  Historically, January is a very sickly month for me and this year is no different.  I have been sick at least 2-3 days for the past three weeks.  Once I get over something, I just pick up another bug.  I just realized that I'm no longer in January...crap!  I've been fighting something the past three days and up to today, had been doing pretty well.  I had some night sweats last night and was so congested I couldn't sleep.  But I made plans to go mt. biking with my friend Tom, last year's 50-54 age group world champion at XTERRA.  I'm thinking about dabbling in XTERRA this year and wanted to be formally inducted by a technical, single track ride in Marin.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Since the ride, I've been sitting on the sofa with scrapes to my leg, a bummed right knee, an aching back, and an achy feeling like I got hit by a MACK truck.  This was hands down the most technical ride I have ever done and I had to dig very deep to get through it.  My worst fall was doing an endo and going over into the ravine.  To be honest, I have no idea how I did not break something, actually, I think the bushes down the ravine really broke my fall.  All I know is that my bike was literally on top of me and I had to hike back up to the trail to the surprise of one rider who happened to be riding up.  He either thought I was hardcore or extremely stupid and lacked any technical skills.  It was a 9 mile loop and I was soooo happy to be done then Tom tells me that we have to do an hour climb up Mt. Tam.  I actually started off quite well but as I rode, the endorphins wore off from my fall and I started to feel my back and my right knee.  I was done less than a mile from the top but feel no shame here, I was toast.  Close to four hours later, we ended up back at the car with me bonking and feeling the "chills" though it was 70 degrees.  Having been in this sport for so long, I knew that you could be dead in one discipline but come back to life in another so I joined Tom for the 20 minute run.  I actually didn't have a choice, there's no way Tom would have let me bailed.  Also, I wanted some revenge for what Tom did to me as I am a stronger runner.  Some salt tablets, a gel, three cubes of Clif blocks and off on the run.  I immediately felt great but my knee was sore.  A bit if me wanted to take revenge on Tom but I decided just to keep it steady but I was pushing the pace.  Twenty minutes later we were back at the car.  Tom was checking out this woman's sweet Look bike and he told her that his wife, Maria, was going to get the same bike this year.  I come up on the two of them, the woman takes a glimpse at me and asks, "Is this your wife?"....for real.