Week #63: Unplanned Rest for the Weary

Frank and I ended up getting 4th place in the co-ed division in the Death March, so it turned out much better than we expected. Of course, it mostly just left us playing "what if" regarding the 20 minutes separating us from the podium. Our navigation was flawless, but there was leisurely cookie consumption by both of us at different points after Combs Rd. when we just wanted to make it back alive. We probably would have summoned a lot more old lady/man strength had we known we were in contention rather than just survival mode, but as there were at least four teams ahead of us going our direction, plus Scott and Janelle taking a different route and blowing everyone out of the water. However, when the checkpoints were tallied, we came out ahead of a couple of teams that finished before us. Oh well, there was no symbolic beer on the line this year, anyway.

The past week was mostly spent trying to recover from the combined stress of my job search, the resulting cold, and doing the Death March while in terrible shape and still a little sick. I was pretty trashed all week and ended up calling in sick on Friday when I spent most of the night awake with the weird inexplicable stomach pains that I get a few times a year but can't link to any particular food. At least the much-needed day of doing practically nothing except napping started me on the path to feeling normal again.

On Saturday, we were able to get out for a 30 mile mixed-surface ride, which after the week I'd had, felt almost as hard as the Death March did. It was a little demoralizing, but I knew that it was important to get back on the horse, er bike. I rested more on Sunday, and now I'm hoping to get back into a semi-normal schedule leading into Barry-Roubaix.

Otherwise, the big challenge of the week is resolving our housing situation. The current plan is to try and find a place that we can go ahead and move into May 1 and keep through at least August 2015, while Frank's roommate and his girlfriend will live in Frank's current place until their lease is up in August. This plan also includes me and the kitties basically being squatters at Frank's house for the month of April and then coming back to actually move my stuff at the beginning of May. It's not an ideal situation, but it will be nice knowing that we'll be settled in a place of our own for the summer. Also, I'm still looking for a subletter to relieve some of the financial burden of all these moves, so pass this along to anyone who might be interested: http://bloomington.craigslist.org/sub/4370170037.html