Recovery & Other Things

Four days after Mitchell (seriously, it's already four days ago?) and the recovery is going well. I have been to the pool the day after the ride, which at first sounded ridiculous, but after sitting in an office chair all day, swimming was the right thing to do. I was supposed to swim again yesterday, but my neck was in all kinds of pain, so I did a walk and some light stretching of the neck and shoulder area. I have no clue, if the neck is some delayed soreness from the ride or if I just messed it up sleeping... Who know. It feels much better today and I also had a chiro appointment this afternoon... That should help.

Tomorrow, I have my first bike ride on tap... Just an easy spin in the small chain ring and I guess my first "serious" workout back will be a run on Sunday. My body is feeling better every day and the easy workouts, the sleeping in and the eating whatever I want this week certainly helps.

Starting next week, things are going to get a little more normal and with races lines up over the next three weekends (11K Trail Run, MTY Sprint Tri and a 3K Open Water Swim - seriously, what was I thinking!), I will also once again get more serious about my nutrition.

But before I move on, I just wanted to mention a couple more things, that didn't quite fit into the ride report or that I just completely forgot to mention:

• I can't wait to get back on the bike... No, I am not kidding!
• Somebody mentioned, that AOMM is in the top ten of the hardest rides in the US and I caught myself googling last night, to find the other 9 rides (no success yet) that I want to do now... Or is there something like 50 states epic bike rides??? ;-) Oh boy, I am in trouble.
• They were right when they said, that you get addicted to Mitchell... I am not quite yet saying that I will do it all over again next year, but I am not saying that I am done with the mountain either! ;-)
• The outpour of support from family, friends, team mates and co-workers during this whole process was insane and I am so very thankful for it.
• Having a GPS tracker (review and details to follow) with me on the ride was making me feel like people were "watching" me, so I made sure, I didn't slack! ;-) And they were watching!! I had tons of e-mails and facebook messages. Also, I walked into work the next day and people stopped to tell me that they followed me along! That was awesome!
• Our riding time was 8 hours and 20 minutes... So we spent 1 hour and 10 minutes in the rest stops... It makes me wonder what is possible next year... Not saying, that I am going to do it again! ;-)
• Yesterday, I got an e-mail saying in the first line "calling all climbing junkies and their families"... Now, I am really in trouble! ;-)
• In the process of preparing for Mitchell, there were a lot of question marks... Due to having a great coach, I never questioned my training though! Thanks, Katie!!!