Thank you all, once again for your generous support! It's great to hear your ideas and to bounce my ideas off of all of you!

here's what I've found so far: The usnea tincture is fairly unpleasant to take, but not horrible. I don't know what exactly it's supposed to do, but I don't seem to have any negative response to it.

The ground flax seeds are easy. I've actually started putitng them in my cat's food too (hyperthyroid and mild kidney issues). 2 tablespoons on my cereal in the morning, another tablespoon with whatever later in the day.

the royal jelly is horrible. those vials are most disgusting! but, once it's down and the taste is gone from my mouth, there are no negative problems. It is very expensive. If I can find some alternative to it, I'd be quite happy.

the ginger root tea is curious. I know I've made it correctly (sliced ginger root placed in boiling water and simmered for at least 20 minutes), and it tastes just fine to me. Unfortunately, it burns - from my esophogus through my stomach, it burns for about 1/2 hour or so. It's like heartburn, sort of.

Have any of you drank ginger root tea before? Has anyone else experienced this burning sensation? oh, and that seems to be accompanied by a sort of light-headedness....anyone?

If no others have experienced this, it makes me wonder if my real problem is an allergy to ginger (something I'd thought I'd had a long time ago after a bite into ginger made my tongue go numb). It certainly would explain a lot!! With each onset of each new "cold" or "flu" I've increased my ginger intake: nibbling on crystalized ginger, drinking store bought ginger tea, adding crystalized ginger to my banana bread, making soup with loads of garlic and freshly grated ginger.

What do you think? Any chance of that?

As for overtraining - well, it's been about a month since I've done anything close to training. So, over the next few weeks I'll try to bring myself up to a level where I think starting makes sense (at least 2 rides in a week, plus one other workout), and see how that goes. I"ll keep you posted and thank you all for all the support and ideas!!

Namaste,
~T~