Let me build to this. I took last week mostly off. As I mentioned I just hadn’t been feeling right. I thought maybe I had over trained maybe (though I’m not sure it’s possible to become over trained on 6-7 hours a week)? Well, I couldn’t take it any more and had to get out for a ride on Saturday. I had an option of a team race simulation or a last minute option that popped up to do an endurance ride with another teammate. While the race simulation sounded like a lot of fun, I thought that race type effort maybe wouldn’t have been the best considering how I’ve been feeling. So I opted for the endurance ride. I have to say it was very enjoyable, but I also have to say that Jay’s endurance pace is a lot faster than mine! Jay could only go for 90 minutes so I added another close to 90 minutes after I dropped him off (which were actually more in my endurance zone). Oh one other tidbit. I didn’t sleep much at all on Friday night and hadn’t been sleeping as well as I usually do for the last week or so. My pulse was high and my morning resting heart rate was in the mid to high 60’s which is very high for me. It should really be around 50. Especially after a rest week. I felt good on the bike but just crashed on Saturday afternoon and felt absolutely horrible. So I will continue with the saga, but first the ride on Saturday.
50.48 miles, 2:51:47, 2292 ft ascent, 190 watts avg power, 151 bpm avg hr, 2114 calories. CTL 63, TSB -2
So, Sunday I felt horrible. Tired, headache, sort of a tickle in my lungs and a bit of a pressure feeling in my chest area. This junk just shouldn’t be happening. Especially after a rest week. Something’s just not right. It’s doctor time. So yesterday I took off about lunch time at work and went to the clinic. I had a slight fever of 99.4. The nice nurse or PA or whatever she was must have been feeding vampires in the back. Can’t imagine what else they would need that much blood for 
! I peed in a cup, had chest x-rays and they even wired me up for an EKG. After spending a couple hours in the clinic the bottom line is the Dr. really doesn’t see anything. No bronchitis or walking pneumonia (those were a couple of my guesses). EKG had a couple abnormalities. One was a possible left ventricular hypertrophy (thickening of the wall of the left ventricle that is the main pump). Nothing to take lightly. But he also said he didn’t see it in the chest x-ray. There was also an indication of something called early repolarization. The way he explained it is the heart tries to charge up early and get ready to beat. He also wasn’t too worried about that. He said it was fairly common in young males and also very fit older folks as the heart is trained to do this to prepare for extra load of strenuous exercise. So the doc didn’t seem too worried right there and said it could just be a virus still working its way out. There are some lab tests that I am waiting for. Blood enzymes related to the heart function, thyroid, and PSA. Hopefully those will all come back fine. Prayers and/or positive thoughts sent this way would be welcome.
So as I was sitting there in the exam room the Doc had left the door cracked open. I heard them in the distance discussing stuff and I heard the Doc say, “He’s an unbelievably conditioned athlete.” That made me smile. While I would argue with that a bit as I feel that I am, at best, a sort of ok conditioned athlete for my age, it made me feel good looking back at the 250 lb couch potato I was at one point in my life. I’ll take 167 lb ok conditioned athlete for my age all things considered 
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