Taking a multi-hour bike ride requires a small amount of previous training and a large amount of tenacity. It was what powered me through the many long days on our Goingeast bike tour. It was that tenacity that powered me through my epic ride yesterday. At a certain point, turning around was not an option – after all I only had another 2.5 km to go! My thoughts went something like ‘You’ll be required to rest for the next few weeks, so you can push yourself now’.

Unfortunately, I’m learning that my tenacity is stronger than my body! After dinner last night I developed chills and a fever. Fortunately, this morning the fever was gone but I’m feeling a little bone pain – however, I’m starting to feel the fever come back. Bone pain is difficult to describe – it is like joint pain, except that you don’t need to be moving to feel it – it is an all over ache. Right now, a fever is not a good thing (when is it ever, but particularly right now the timing sucks). I’m scheduled for surgery on Tuesday, and a fever would mean they post-pone.

And so, I need to remember, that I may have the tenacity to bike for several hours, my body doesn’t have the physical ability to recover from it. At least not yet. I am going to need to be more attuned to when my body says “turn around”, that I could maybe push through it once or twice (there is always a second wind, and if I stopped at the first struggle I’d never improve), but that at some point I need to just listen to what my body is saying and stop.

Lesson learned – now time for the headache and fever to go away!