Bread and water

It is hard to climb these stairs without my inhaler......

In the peloton there was a common phrase, “You can’t ride like that on bread and water.”  The meaning had nothing to do with nutrition and everything to do with doping. Having that extra hemoglobin in your blood made all the difference. 

That was made clear to me this past weekend. On our Coffee and Lies ride our band of riders did what we should do in December, we stayed together and kept the pace reasonable.   Even so, I struggled to hang on.  My legs had no power and I ultimately could not hold even the moderate tempo.  El Chefe’ had logged a long one the day before so I thought he would be at least a little fatigued.  I fell off his wheel more than once.

By the way, the images for blood donations are generally pretty graphic.....

Only after the coffee portion of our ride did I remember that I had donated blood a few days earlier.  Yes Evo, that hemoglobin does make all the difference…….