Sunday 19 April 2009

Setback

Day 15 - 'Rest Day'
Rest day, yeah right. After 2 weeks being stuffed full of all sorts, my stomach has thrown in the towel. It's 7.30 am over here and I reckon I've had about 3 hrs sleep having been repeatedly ill all night, unable to even keep water down.

It would be lunacy to attempt the monster stage tomorrow given how I'm feeling now so I'm either going to take the bail-out route or take an extra rest day here.

Off to try and get some sleep now.

The drugs do work

Day 14, Stage 11 - Prairie Creek campsite to Ferndale 77 miles in 9hrs 20mins (incl. 2 large food stops)
Total distance - 852 miles
When Fausto Coppi, a cycling great of the 40's and 50's, was asked if he had taken drugs when cycling his response was at least honest being 'when necessary'. Which lead to the obvious next question 'when is it necessary?' To which Coppi replied 'Almost always'.

Well it was 'necessary' for me today as it quickly became clear to me that yesterday's blowing up combined with the lack of any substantial food in the evening had left me with one seriously heavy pair of legs today. An early double breakfast didn't do much good so I stopped off again after a pitiful 28 miles in ~3hrs 30mins, and decided to go for the nuclear option of chemical stimulants. Namely a cup of warm caffeine - my first coffee of the trip. It worked enough to get me through the next, thankfully flat, 50 miles, worryingly little of which I can remember as I'm lying here desperately trying to stay awake.

Looking forward to a much needed rest day tomorrow here in Ferndale which looks a fantastic little town - just the sort of place I needed to be in after the past couple of days.

The pic is the start of Monday's monster stage, the Mattole Road - 73 miles and 9000ft of climbing lie up that fairly harmless looking bit of tarmac making it easily the toughest day on paper of the whole trip. So I'm signing off to get as much rest as I can for it.