Doctor Visit
I went to the Doctor on Tuesday for the yellow smelly phlegm. I am now paranoid that I'll get pneumonia again and end up in the hospital. It seems I was getting better, but the Doc gave me an antibiotic just in case...I'll be holding on to those suckers. I still have the cough, but it doesn't seem to be infected. He cleared me to ride, as long as I didn't get worse.
Saturday was the Glen Echo Century followed by a DC Randonneur meeting at 6pm. The course wanders from Glen Echo to Point of Rocks, Md, crosses over into VA (Right on Lovettsville Rd just after the bridge) then takes Taylorstown Road, Loyalty Road, VA9, Dry Mill into Leesburg (for the lunch stop). The return trip travels along the W&OD to the Custis Trail to the Key Bridge into Georgetown then back to Glen Echo. Since I live right near the W&OD, I rode to the ride start, it's about 30 miles. I was bundled up against the cold (roughly at the freezing mark at 5am when I left) and I had a wicked tailwind to DC. I arrived at the start on time and followed Chuck and Crista out. Ed was there on a solo bike because Mary is in Mexico...where the temperature is probably in the mid 80's. Lucky.
There was a new guy there on a Surly Cross Check, who talked like he was going to be struggling on the ride, but proved to be very strong. Jeff kept the rubber side down, despite the small person wind warnings I had seen on the news Friday night. Gusts of 60mph, who are they kidding? Winds were probably in the mid 20's for most of the day. Imagine crawling at 10mph into a 20mph headwind. Definitely advantageous to be in a group. Unfortunately, I got dropped soon after we hit Rte 28. So I had to struggle for several miles to get to Point of Rocks. Once into Virginia, the roads were a bit more sheltered. I stayed on Taylorstown Road to do the climb and then made the right on to Stumptown Road to add that climb as well before hopping back on the official route. It added about 5 miles, but I needed the climbing. Dry Mill Run has been repaved, so with a little bit of tailwind I rocketed in to Leesburg.
I stopped at the lunch spot long enough to defrost a Powerbar and then headed home for lunch. BAD IDEA...It was nice and warm and there was plenty of food...The kids were mostly asleep. I had already covered 105 miles at that point...Why not shower and take the car to Glen Echo...I had been up at 4am to get ready for the ride and it felt like a good time to take a nap...It was really tough to get geared back up and to head for DC, If I didn't know a tailwind would take me all the way, I would probably have stayed. Once into DC it was 6 or 7 miles to Glen Echo, but the temperature was dropping with the daylight. After the meeting, I called ABL for a SAG. The temperature was much colder than it had been in the morning and I really didn't feel like riding another 30 miles to get home.
Total mileage was 135. Because of the cold, I had a tough time eating. My perpetuem was filled with ice crystals and the Powerbars were PowerSICLES
