A dizzying ride...

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Rain was in the forecast and the skies had been overcast throughout the day, but it was after five and it was still dry. In my mind, that meant try to ride…so I did.

First…a little history. About twenty years ago, I was playing with Jason in our yard in Willowick when, for no explainable reason, I became extremely dizzy and fell to the ground. It was grass and I managed a soft landing so I didn’t worry about it too much until it happened again a couple of days later and Holly saw me go down. I went to the doc’s, but everything seemed okay and life went on.

About a month ago, I had another spell in the living room and went down slowly and under control. It’s a weird feeling and like nothing I ever experience. My head just feels cloudy and starts to spin…like I’m on an amusement park ride and then I’m turning upside down. It went away quickly and that was that.

I felt fantastic on the ride. I was riding my course through Waite Hill and was heading east on Eddy when I felt my first wave of dizziness. I thought I was imagining it at first and kept riding, but quickly decided to pull to the side of the road. I nearly fell before releasing my feet from the pedals, but managed to stay upright while my head cleared…which it did in 10 seconds. It was the first time I’ve had an incident in a situation where I could actually get hurt, so it had me a little concerned…but I hadn’t ridden in two weeks and I wanted to do the workout…which supersedes all else…so I continued on. I had a couple more incidents, though not as bad, as I rode up Sperry and crossed Chardon Road headed for Mulberry. I was beginning to question the wisdom of my judgment and imagining myself whipping down Wilson Mills at 50mph and having another spell when I pulled to the side of the road and called Holly. She was shopping at Heinen’s and I told her to finish and that I’d ride along Mulberry. “You’re not riding anymore. You wouldn’t have called if you didn’t think it was a bad idea. Stay where you are…I’m on my way,” she said. So I did.

I don’t know what to think. I’ve had a serious head cold for the past two weeks and I’m still congested. I never gave it a chance to clear up…going from kayaking in cold water to camping out in cold night air. I suppose it could be messing with my equilibrium, but I think its time to let Nilesh know what’s going on and see what he thinks. I took a good tongue-lashing from Holly on the ride home…I had it coming…and spent the rest of the night just sitting quietly writing blogs and looking over Facebook. The good news for me at least is that I finally got in a ride of over an hour. Got that goin’ for me.

Bike workout: 75 minutes
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 1,000.