if you don't make dust you eat dust

jenn and i cruised to a new-to-us chinese place on saturday, it got good reviews, tasty stuff. as usual, we were presented with a couple fortune cookies at the end of the meal. i'd been talking about the interval work planned for sunday during the meal and my fortune read, "if you don't make dust you eat dust." i didn't realize kicking ass was a chinese proverb, but hey, whatever works. i was inspired to have a good session.

sunday was cloudy, winds around 15mph from the wnw, temps right above freezing, occasional light snowflakes floating down. legs felt great right off the get-go and i found myself pushing into the 170's on the HRM. kept the tempo high until reaching concord (about 60mins into the ride), then began some short pyramid interval work - 100% efforts. after the first one i felt sick, but no worries, just the hammer heed mixing with some sugar in the guts? on the 3rd effort my body just broke-down, back suddenly felt strained and i had to shut 'er down. max heart rate was mid 180's, so something just wasn't working right. opted instread to keep the heart rate up as high as possible for the rest of the ride for a "simulated race." ended-up crawling home 40mins earlier than expected with only 60-65miles laid-down. the day just didn't go as planned. i tried to make dust, but ended-up eating some.

now, the question is, why did i break-down yesterday? too much training? not enough rest? i'd tapered-back over the past couple days... i'm thoroughly frightened of rest weeks and haven't taken one in months. i've taken it easy for a day or two, but not for a week. can i rest this week and still expect to be ready for Sea Otter on April 9th and then have a small peak for Cohutta 100miler on April 22nd as planned? it looks like if i don't i may burn-out, so i guess the decision is being made for me... i hate rest.

temps barely at 20 this morning, can hear the wind pushing on the house in gusts. winter is fighting to hold-on.