I did a bike ride Friday morning. The rides I've been doing in recent weeks have been a little over an hour, and not terribly intense. I've always thought of riding a bike as a fairly relaxing activity. And yet... it seems like I've felt awful the day after a bike ride lately. That was definitely the case yesterday: I woke up feeling tight and vaguely sore from head to toe. I did some full-body stretching, and that was an utter ordeal. I felt about as flexible as a kiln-dried 8/4 persimmon plank. Then I went down to the river and paddled pretty easy for 60 minutes. Once I got warmed up I felt reasonably okay in the boat, but had some soreness in my midsection.
I woke up feeling a good bit better this morning, though I was still tired and a bit sluggish. One development of late is that my weight has been down in the last several months--closer to 150 pounds than 160. Long-time readers might recall that I had a period of weight decline back in 2021-22, and that seemed to correspond with some low energy and listlessness. My doctor's office tested things like thyroid and testosterone levels and found nothing conclusive. Back around 2016-19, when I was racing especially well, my weight was up closer to 160 pounds.
I paddled for another 60 minutes this morning, and felt better than yesterday, but still lacked power and enthusiasm. A strong south wind was blowing down on the riverfront and I mostly just played around in the chop out on the Mississippi before returning to the harbor where I worked on paddling relaxed in beam conditions. Once I'd put in my time I went back to the dock and changed into dry clothes and drove home where some of my favorite non-athletic activities awaited.
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