Getting back on the bike

I spent the last four or five days very sick, hardly able to move from the couch. It wasn't a lot of fun. I had no energy at all, i couldn't even pick up a cough drop wrapper. It came upon me quickly on Thursday afternoon. And then it went away just as quickly on Sunday evening. It was clear to me that my body went into defense mode, fighting off the virus, and then on Sunday, won. I could walk around, clean up the house; i wasn't very strong, but i was back to myself.

I really needed to get on the bike. My White Fox (Bianchi Volpe) is of course disassembled right now. (It would've been very nice if it could have been at the paint shop while i was sick. Oh well.) My friend Kent has very generously lent me his Octocog.  This is a very strange bike. It looks huge -- it IS huge, i have trouble getting it in and out of the house for example. The 29er wheels have super wide tires on them, they can roll over anything. I find that i actually AIM for potholes on this bike, instead of avoiding them.

So i called my friend Auri, as usual she was up for a ride.We went for a short double loop ride around Capitol Hill. It was only 7 miles, that was all i could manage. I really enjoyed it, but it felt like 40 miles to me. I started off rough, got warmed up, got a second wind, and then wore out. The last 10 blocks were all downhill, which was good, i don't think i could've made it otherwise.

I really bundled up - it wasn't really a cold evening, but being sick, i bundled up as if it were a blizzard. It was a glorious night for riding, chilly and clear, very beautiful. I love night rides like that. And it was a great ride. It's nice to use the bicycle to stay familiar with our own neighborhood. Poking through the nooks and crannies as well as the famous and spectacular. And except for two short stretches of Pine street, we avoided car traffic entirely.




We rode around the cemetery, stopped at Louisa Boren Lookout for a gorgeous view at the twinkling lights of Kirkland across the lake. Did a loop around Volunteer Park past the Black Sun, a favorite piece of public art, then rode down to Pine & Melrose for some street vendor food, and looped back around along the top of the hill.

It wore me out. I am strongly in favor of exercise when sick. Of course not when i have a fever! Fever is the body shutting down and heating up to burn out the illness. It's useful but dangerous. But once the fever is gone, once that fight is over, i think exercise is not only very good for the mental health, but speeds the healing process. The most obvious thing i noticed was that my nose didn't run at all. We were out for 90 minutes. At home in front of the computer i was blowing my nose every 4 minutes.

It felt good and i'm sure it helped me sleep. Now i'm going to ride down to Fremont to take my frame to get powder coated.... and to keep my nose from running.