Today, dear reader, I’m going to ask you to help me to solve one of the mysteries of the universe.
All right, I was exaggerating just a bit. But there is still something I haven’t figured out after more than three decades of cycling.
Here’s the dilemma: Yesterday I rode for less than an hour, on flat roads. Yet I felt more tired than I did after my ride to and from Connecticut last week. In fact, I was so tired that I didn’t write last night.
I don’t think I’ve lost any of my conditioning (such as it is) during the past week. And, I don’t think the fact that I rode my fixed gear yesterday rather than my geared road bike (which I rode to Connecticut) should’ve made a difference. If anything, my fixie is lighter, simply from having fewer components on it. Otherwise, they are similarly built Mercians: the geometry is slightly tighter on the fixie, but they are both built of Reynolds 631 tubing.
And I undertook both rides about an hour after eating breakfast/brunch. Yesterday I ate a mushroom-and-onion omlette with corn tostadas and salsa. If I recall correctly, I ate the same thing, or something very close to it, last week.
So why did I have enough energy after last week’s ride to make dinner but, after yesterday’s ride, I had some Chinese takeout and fell asleep shortly afterward?
