The Damage

Having finished the race, eaten some noodles and with 6 hours of sleep before being awoken by my children, I woke with a massively swollen face and body, to the extent that I had a fat face, like I was wearing a fat mask (albeit a fat face with a stupid "Panda eyes" sun tan), I couldn't see any of my veins or my bones, such as my ankles.  After bloating-up with fluid, I lost 2kg a night (Sunday and Monday nights), through urination and sweating!

Sunburned shoulders (after breaking rule #7, wearing a cool, sleeveless jersey) and hands, after the gloves gave me sore hands, now peeling skin everywhere!  My shoulders were almost black:

The worst, lasting injury wasn't even caused by riding.  Having dismounted my bike at checkpoint 15, in Avellino, I tripped over (and kicked) the stone step of the café, giving myself a bad stubbed toe, which would lead to a swollen foot, and other numb toes.  Bets are still out as to whether I lose the very loose, squidgy nail...

I'm also suffering from, what I term, "STI hands" - fingers frozen in the position of gripping the gear shift levers ("STIs"), unable to straighten my fingers or close them to cup water in my hands to splash water on myself (instead, it's like hitting myself with a wet hand), unable to do-up buttons. Embarrassingly, I have to ask other people for help with simple tasks which only require a modicum of digit strength.  My wife even had to cut up my steak!  Thanks to Dave at Mitchells Cycles, Swindon, for the helpful suggestion of exercising my hands by squeezing a squeaky dog toy!

I also cut and bruised my knee from hitting my bars whilst crossing the Apennines to Genoa, when I hit a steep ramp and had to stand up, out of the saddle.  The next day, my knee swelled-up painfully but a bit of Nurofen, and the knowledge that it was only bruising, helped to manage the pain to a conclusion before the end of the race.

Due to the three days of torrential rain that we suffered (and having forgotten my waterproof overshoes), on days one, two, and four, my feet turned white, wrinkly, and painful, with the lines becoming 5mm wide.  My feet looked a lot like this:

I recognised the sign (lots of pain!) stopped at a supermarket to buy some talcum powder and crappy (but dry) socks, pouring the talcum into my socks and shoes, and rubbing it into my feet.  Fortunately, my feet dried-up and recovered after 24 hours.

The torrential rain also caused me to get a saddle sore, quite distracting from riding properly, but now I only have a sensitive bottom - I don't have photos for this, be thankful!

Other lingering effects: permanent exhaustion - wanting to go to sleep at 10... in the morning!  Even when I'm asleep, I wake up thinking I need to stop riding and sleep!

As for the bike, simply wear-and-tear - I was fortunate not to get a single puncture, nor break any spokes from hitting the myriad of potholes and cracks in the crappy southern Italian roads.  I bent my wheel, slightly, when I rode into an orange mesh fence at around 7mph whilst climbing back through the Apennines and texting the organiser for the next checkpoint's name, after my paper roadbook was destroyed by the torrential rain.  Doh!  Due to my STI hands, I've had to leave my bike to be cleaned and overhauled at Mitchells Cycles, in readiness for Hard Cro.

I use software program called "Golden Cheetah" to manage my performance.  It calculates my training stress balance ("TSB"), based on power output and duration.  My TSB usually falls to -50 after a hard training block.  However, after the Giro, my TSB was an unsurprising -200!  Altogether, my body well withstood the rigours of the race.  Muscular and cardiovascular health is good (apart from my lower right  back, damaged from being run over near my house in April) and I'm recovering well, hopefully in time for the next race, Hard Cro, on the 20th June.  I still don't feel like riding though...