Friday the 14th (aka insomniac ennui)

What an amazingly long and energetic week.  Where does one begin?  From all my undergraduate physiological testing (quid pro quo from the racers was free blood work if you agreed and signed the death waiver for nutty physiological experiments from the grad students) from the best University in the world-the Universtiy of Texas-I deduced my fatigue comes from my lack of Fe, Iron, pronounced Eye-ern.  It has 26 protons and what this lovely element does for us is that it provides the backbone of hemoglobin.  Heme holds four oxygens.  When I was racing for UT what the physiologists noticed that I was rather anemic.   

So are you suffering from trouble focusing?  Maybe fatigue?  Perchance insomnia?  I is peeps.  Not chronically but now.  What my friends at work are suggesting is to eat a big steak.  As tempting as that might sound, I am a vegetarian, okay a pescatarian for my occasional forays into sushi. What prompted this bout of anemia you might ask?  Well, I raced a cyclocross race Wednesday and yes, as well as the release of endocannabinoids, it also made my hip flexors rather sore.  So what does one do to up this?  Ride the hour of power the next day.  I was yawning up a storm before the ride but the need to ride the bike supersedes the sloth-like tendencies of riding the couch (if I had a couch).  Remember too that as a teacher I have to do stuff like grade and plan and setup/breakdown labs between my bouts of playing racer wannabee.  Grading is not so bad when you have class company but regardless, the racing and teaching reduces sleep time.  Been slacking on my recovery rides and drinks post race too, so I guess that's partially my fault. 

Ahh shite.  Did it come to a head today!  As soon as school got out I crashed!  After I got up amidst a crushing headache I wanted to eat.  Without my kids apparently I don't have the wherewithal to buy groceries.  Opened the fridge and there was nothing inside except butter (contained in Jay's butter dish-that's another story), pickles, a chunk of cheese that I'm pretty sure is past due, Sirachi sauce (yea!), Picante sauce (yea!),  flax seed...etc. You get the picture (of the absent minded single Dad)?  My hurting unit self went back to bed in my foggy stupor of a headache and grumbling stomach to sleep.  Slept off the headache woke to a roaring stomach now I'm hungry and it's 1:30 in the morning (Saturday).  Found some leftover pretzels from our trip to Pecos so now I'm typing and snacking while listening to my latest used CD musical score:  Rudy Van Gelder's Remaster of John Coltrane's Standard Coltrane.  Paul Chambers and Red Garland accompany him on this one as well.  Gives me goose pimples listening to this stuff from the late fifties. 

Why even mention this?  Because I need to prepare myself mo' bettah for Sunday's cyclocross event (on a 29er nonetheless).  Live and learn.  There's time for me to correct my position and fly straight, so that's what I'm going to do.  As soon as a breakfast joint opens I'm going to eat, eat, eat, and maybe do some more eating, then I'm off to watch my eldest play her old soccer team in the high foothills later this morning.  Drowsiness coming up, Coltrane's done playing, better take advantage of it...