Hi Everyone!

Well, I'm back!
If you thought I was going to wait till the last minute to train... I'm not silly enough to do that twice!!

I kept riding last year and was conquering some huge hills around here until the air got a bit nippy. I was reminded by a pneumonia-like cough and the loss of my voice after a nice climbing ride, that I have a form of exercise-induced asthma. I used to hate 8am gym class and track in HS. I was competitive enough that I ran as fast as I could, somewhere in the slow middle of the class. But when I finished, my lungs were always raw and painful and felt like I had inhaled knives. I was a kid, I didn't know any better... I thought everybody felt that way after they ran. I thought they were all crazy for running since it hurt so much... It never occured to me that it wasn't normal.

I really only identified this silly form of asthma over the last couple years. Fortunately, It only bothers me when I take cool air quickly into my lungs, so I avoid it. Instead, I joined a gym since I heard how fantastic spin classes were for carrying over winter. My first class, I decided not to wear my MS Goldspokes Cyclist Jersey that I earned from the tour. I didn't want to show off or anything... So, I took this 55 min class. After cycling 6+ hours a day for two days, this is gonna be a breeze, right?

Wrong. WAY wrong!!!

That class beat the crap out of me! It was NOTHING like cycling outside! Man! I was certainly glad I didn't wear that jersey, I would have been laughed out of the room! After the gym's tour de hell, I couldn't walk up stairs for most of a week! My family found it hysterical that a little high piched "yow!" came out of me each time I got up or down from a chair, a stair... the bathroom. And you know, they did everything they could to make me yelp!

That was the first and last time I made it to the gym. Instead, it was me and Billy banks in the living room with a little Tae Bo to make it through the winter.