Here are some of the mild changes I’ve noticed since the race:
SORENESS
I have been happily surprised with how well my old body has dealt with the ride. The only pain I’ve experienced is this weird soreness in the area just below my left shin. Apparently this was a result of having my Schlumpf seat about 1 cm too high.
WEIGHT
I noticed that I was feeling a bit thinner – for example, I had to pull my belt a notch tighter. The scale confirmed this: I lost 5 pounds, tho it’s probable that I lost 7 pounds of fat and gained 2 pounds of muscle, for all I know. And it wasn’t for lack of eating: I had full breakfasts and dinners, and during the ride I ate a LOT of trail mix, bananas, GU, and so on.
METABOLISM
…so when I got home, I could NOT stop eating. I guess I’m going to put on those 5 pounds again. I’ve also noticed that I’m incredibly thirsty.
EXHAUSTION
I haven’t been tired from the race, but I had a really tough drive back, and it has completely knocked me out. Well, the racing probably added a bit to that.
ANTSINESS
I’ve been dying to go for a ride, but as noted, my shinjury is keeping me off the wheel. I may try to go for a short ride tom’w.
Since RTL, I’m really exhausted. My eyes are hurting. I’m not thinking clearly. I didn’t compete, but I stayed up all week reading about it online. Does that count?
David - I know that exact shin/joint pain you are experiencing and posted a thread a bit earlier about it. Lowering my seat a little bit made it go away for sure, I do not get the pain anymore. It took about a week for the pain to subside for me when I had the same injury, so I am sure in due time you will be up and riding again!
My right knee is having problems. It blew out the end of the Monday (relating to a previous injury, and I was afraid it might act up), I didn’t ride much on Tuesday, but started doing alright in the cold rain (which was like an ice bath for my knee) and with a lot of anti inflammatories. Now that I have stopped taking the anti-inflammatories, my knee is feeling the effects of the race.
Other than that, I wasn’t too sore after the race. My skin is still peeling from the sunburn I got in Annapolis Royal on last Saturday, and I am still scratching at some of the millions of bug bites I got.
As far as the food thing goes…I also can’t stop eating! I find myself hungry all the time still because my body still thinks it is in race mode.
I don’t really have any pain left. There was a bit after the final day, but it went away over the course of the drive home.
I was really tired driving home. Luckly I didn’t do too much of the driving and I slept for most of it.
The biggest and most important after effect: I want to ride more. I’m far more excited about unicycling than I’ve ever been before! I’m trying to go out muning tomorow
I guess I got off easy with the bugs, they’re much worse here in the capital region!
My sore quads are feeling almost all better. I’ve a bit of clicking in my right knee and a slightly stiff lower back in the morning. I’m tired (I went to sleep at 9:30 last night), and I’m also eating non-stop.
I’ve had a bit of pain in my ankle from spinning close to 30k/hr for 5k stretches. Luckily it’s feeling much better today.
the worst of it has been my body’s total confusion though. I don’t know if I’m hungry or sick, though that’s starting to subside as well. It’s really difficult when you’re having a lot of stomach pain tot know whether you need to eat now or lay off it for a while to make it all go away
Oh yeah, the sun burn. My nose got a mild one, and I’m a bit tanner than before, but happily I put on lots of lotion on Monday of the race but forgot on Friday (by which point I already had a little color).
Of course, semach the monkey has a different story to tell! He’s got quite an interesting Mohawk burn on his scalp.
As for the mozzies and other insects: they’re not a big fan of me. I have three or four little bites, and they itched a bit for a few days, but they no longer bother me.
I’ve realized the Lobster we were riding was alive!
It came to life initially at the welcome ceremony in Annapolis Royal and grew and evolved till the end of the awards in Baddeck. It had a life of it’s own and we were all part of it, and it was part of us.
The Lobster challenged us, we all persisted and met it’s challenges as we could individually, as teams, and as a group.
Do you remember the end of the awards when it was all over but everyone just sat there, not knowing what to do now. Someone had to come back to the mike to point out that was the end and we can go now.
The Lobster was dead, but we didn’t want it to be.
I miss RTL.
It was such an amazing thing. It was competitive and compassionate. It was unforgiving and kind.
Everyone wants to do it again, even though it may have been one of the most grueling events many of us have ever attempted.
Physically I’ve totally recovered, but I’ll always be a changed person having been part of the entity known as RTL 2008.
My metabolism is high to begin with but I’ve been enhailing food non-stop since I got back, and I’ve just been sitting on my arss! It’s a bit tiring eating so much. I’m not sore except for my knee.
Surprisingly enough I dont feel any pain at all! Monday and Tuesday I was definitally feeling it! My legs were burning! But I think wednesday was a good break, Although I complained ALL Tuesday night about not wanting to do it, I think I would have been worse off if I let my legs have the day off! I felt fine Thursday and Friday! And am still feeling fine! And weighing myself last night I gained 7 pounds on the trip! Whether I just ate too much, or built some muscle I need all the poundage I can get still !
Hm… well, I felt and still do feel fine after the race… But I’ve noticed today and today that I am now having some sort of allergic skin reaction to some of the clothes I wore. The cotton RTL tshirt and the polyester jersey (both clean and washed) have made my skin go red, bumpy and itchy on my abdomin and arms. It clears away a while after I take my shirt off. I have no idea what is causing this because as far as I have known until now, I have never been allergic to anything.
My worst side effect is the new ease with which I can pedal my geared uni. I don’t even really think about going fast, and I’m cruising around town at 17-19 mph between stoplights! Riding that hard all week really made us better riders over all, I think. Plus, my appetite is AWESOME, and I’m finally starting to wake up a bit and not be so sleepy!
That said, RTL will forever be etched into all of our memories. It was truly a blast. w00t!
I have another side effect - I really want a geared hub. I keep evaluating how much the things in my house that I don’t need are worth. This is probably not a good sign. I won’t be able to post on the forums anymore, but I’ll be able to cruise around at 18mph
A cold/fever. Probably brought on by insufficient sleep starting last Sunday and not being sufficient all week. Legs are fine though! I used enough sunscreen when appropriate, as well as Deep Woods Off, but still have some bug bites or things I haven’t experienced before, on my arms & legs.
So I drove home after RTL. 2.5 days on my ass should have been therapeutic - but it wasn’t.
On Sunday (basically day 1 of the drive), I took a 1 hour roll through rural Maine (it’s all kind of rural) and felt good. Yesterday (Monday), I set out for an intended hour of riding in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore area near Gary Indiana. Within a hundred meters I cramped badly in my quads and painfully limped back to the van.
Because of the circumstances, I think that I’ve finally figured out this problem which I’ve been having for several years. During the race, I was loading on electrolyte beverages (G2 and reg. Gatorade), water but taking little coffee. On my drive home, especially over the latter half of the drive, this ratio of ‘good’ to ‘bad’ fluids was almost exactly reversed - I swilled coffee and drank little else. When I arrived in the Dunes I was eager, impatient, wacked-out and DEHYDRATED with probably poor electrolyte balance. Besides these things, I didn’t stretch. I’m afraid I was dumb.
So now I’m suffering the after effects of a bad cramping episode. For the next couple days my thighs will burn until the lactate is flushed. I’m drinking alot now trying to speed this along.
It was a wonderful week - bliss and pain and all of that. It doesn’t get much greater that RTL was . . . with the ‘immortal’ words of Max still in my mem. banks - “. . . lets do it again sometime.”
