| Distance | 101.20 kms | 62.76 miles |
|---|---|---|
| Climbed | 1,447 meters | 4,747 feet |
| Ride time (hours) | 6.24 | - |
| Avg speed | 15.8 kph | - |
| Avg climb | 4% | - |
| Max grade | 13% | - |
| Distance | 15,588.84 kms | 9,686.55 miles |
|---|---|---|
| Climbed | 190,606 meters | 625,348 feet |
| Ride time (hours) | 1,220.89 | - |
Tuesday, October 8th, 2013
I fell getting onto the bicycle this morning. The front wheel caught my shin and left a nice gash.
At one of my bloodletting sessions in Berlin my doctor came out with another head-turning assertion:
"You know", he said, "men don't menstruate anymore."
"Oh really?" I offered, knowing that this was going to be a good one.
"Yes," he continued, "men used to go to war and bleed, or they would go to the pub on Saturday night and get into a fight. Then they would go home and cry on their wives' or mothers' shoulders and be done with it. But it served a purpose. It released pent-up energy and emotion, and iron."
I was trying to wrap my head around this while I watched my blood flow out of my arm into the bag.
He had more: "Evolution has not caught up with modern life. Most people work in offices and live civilized lives, but most of us aren't built for that. Like you. You don't have the biochemistry of an office worker. You need to bleed."
I'll give my doctor this: of all the times I went to see him, not a single appointment was boring. Every visit was ended with him cracking my neck and sticking acupuncture needles in various places, usually my ears.
I've come to understand that what he said about me is true. I'm skeptical about the generalizations about evolution and society but I have come to believe that I do need to "bleed", perhaps not in the literal sense, rather I need to physically and psychologically lay it all out there until I am completely exhausted. When I do this I feel great, if not I feel sick. Quite simple really, the proof is in the result even if it has been hard to accept at times.
Today was a hot roller coaster. Lot's of climbing and descending with a two hour interlude of rain. At the end of the day I came out of the mountains into a town called San Alberto and got a hotel. Pizza for dinner accompanied by lots of liquids. I had a pitcher of guanábana frappe and it was delicious. I looked up the translation for guanábana: soursop in English. I had never heard the word soursop before.
