It all started with a little sniffle. Then it was a lack of sleep. Then it was a major tantrum over having to leave the toy store. Grayson is officially sick with a lovely head cold. That’s a shame, but why is it blogworthy, you ask?  Well, since this blog is about my racing this year, it is entirely about my lack of recovery this week and my overall sluggishness in my workouts. You see, I am a dad fist, rider second.

There are few things in life  (like riding fast) that I feel come naturally to me but fatherhood, luckily, is one of them. So when my wife was completely fruterated with my son’s behavior on Tuesday I knew that one of two things had to be true- 1- he is 3 and is really trying to assert himself, or 2- he is sick and feels lousy. Having been described as ‘one of the only kids that is ok’ by Taylor at SMC (high praise indeed!), I am relieved it seems to be the latter reason. So behaving in my best fatherly way, I have been getting up at night to check on him and comforting him when he coughs himself awake. I have been trying to make sure my wife gets adequate rest so she can take care of him during the day while Im  at work. Unfortunately, this has caused me to neglect myself to the point where I officially am sick as well which has made recovering from Saturday’s efforts rough.

So this morning on my commute to work I simply rode. My legs were sluggish, my heart rate stayed really low, and my change of clothes on my back felt extra-heavy. Its ok, though. No race this weekend for me so I have almost a week and a half to get better for Danville. Im hoping this only lasts a few days so I can get some hill training in (sport class has somewhere around 3500 feet of climbing!) but all in all, I think I just need to rest and get over this, and then just hope for the best. I keep telling myself Im racing into shape for cross after all….because that’s the season that I enjoy most. Pass the tissues, please.