Went on a longish ride with Eric yesterday, about 55 miles or so, and it almost killed me. I was trying to figure out why.

First, I've been sick for the better part of a week. Last weekend I could hardly stop coughing and was so tired I didn't ride for three days. I'm still coughing. Prob will be for a couple more weeks. Colds do that to me.

Second, I slept like shit the night before. Eric was to arrive at our house sometime after midnight, and I kept waking up thinking he was here (he didn't arrive until about 9 am because he slept in a rest stop).

Third, he rides fast. He was pushing me the second half running over 20 a lot of the time. Our average for the whole ride was about 17mph, which is a pretty high average for me over that much distance.

I'm not putting too much stock in this ride one way or another as far as my current state of fitness is concerned. The one big thing that I AM taking away from this is what Eric said to me: train hard, travel easy. Basically, pay all your dues up front and be at ease when it really counts.

I have a lot of training to do...