Sometimes you're the nail

A few years back, during one of Lance Armstrong's comeback Tours de France, he was having a particularly difficult stage along one of the cobbled roads of northern France.  When asked what happened that day he simply said "sometimes you're the nail and sometimes you're the hammer.  Today I was the nail."  After the Utah State Road Race Championships this past weekend, I can say I'm definitely feeling like the nail right now.

I showed up at Saturday's start line north of Logan still feeling quite fatigued from the Bikes4Kids stage race.  The state champs race course gives me fits every year and with the way I was feeling, I wasn't  confident with how I would do.  Needless to say, I only lasted 1 lap of the 5 lap, 80 mile race with the group.  Once the road turned uphill, I was dropped.  2 other riders and I tried desperately to bridge back but after 5 miles of chasing at full gas, the group kept extending.  Normally, I would sit back and just continue the race solo for the workout but I felt like garbage so called it quits after 2 laps.  What is most concerning however is that after 30 miles I felt like I had raced for 100 miles.  I just haven't been recovering very well this season.

A few more things are starting to concern me about my health.  Over the winter, I rode more than I ever had, ever.  I was riding between 8 and 16 hours a week and eating reasonably well.  But I didn't lose more than 3 pounds.  I figured it would come off this summer.  But as we enter mid season, I'm still 180-183 lbs, always tired and now my recovery is woefully slow.  Top it off with the poor numbers of my body composition test and it looks like I'm not an athlete at all!

I've been putting some of these things together and thinking about my past health history.  I've actually never been able to lose weight very quickly, but more importantly, I've always been tired.  I've required naps for as long as I can remember.  In high school I would take a snooze before swim practice.  In college, I would need a nap about 2 pm most afternoons and even now, I could nap at almost anytime if you gave me the chance. 

I'm not sure what this all adds up to, but this week I'm going in for a full physical.  Maybe the good doctor can find something that isn't quite right.  I shouldn't be this fatigued, this tired.  With the state crit champs coming up in 2 weeks, I'm taking it easy, but have to balance resting with keeping some speed and fitness.  State crits is big on this year's goal list so we'll see what we can do.