Its the little things that make it all better

I suffer from tinnitus or more commonly known as ringing of the ears. It’s not an occasional thing; I have a constant high pitch noise in both ears. It’s kind of like that sound you have immediately after leaving a concert but it never goes away.
I am not sure when it started. I think that the first time I remember it not going away would be in basic training. We were doing a live fire exercise with simulated explosives. The objective was to move under fire and over various objects. We were to stop whenever a flare was shot in the air.


I don’t remember was I was doing but some point throughout the day I lost my ear plugs. It’s not that I wouldn’t have been able to get another pair but I would have been forced to do some push-ups and would have been made fun of for a while. So I just proceeded without them. Just my luck a flare went up, I stopped next to a simulated explosive barrel that went off and I couldn’t hear for about 2 hours.


After that there were several times that I didn’t have hearing protection working on a rifle range, or driving long distances in a truck. Eventually the ringing got louder and it just never went away.


It’s very annoying and it makes it hard to sleep when it is very quiet. I have to have something to drown out the noise at night, normally a fan, or the TV on. I really hate when there is a silence because I just hear that tone endlessly.
I am sure that you are wondering why I would put this on a blog about cycling. Well if you were thinking that then I am getting there.


I noticed 2 weeks ago on a group ride that more than half of the people had ear covers on. It was slightly chilly that morning so I guess that it made sense. Then I started thinking; my ears never bother me when I am riding. I actually enjoy the sound of the wind swooshing past. It is one of very few sounds that drown out the ringing.


It does a better job than anything else that I have tried even headphones. When I ride with headphones there is normally a 3 second transition between songs where the ringing comes back. If it’s a bad song or it pauses accidentally then I have to listen to the ringing because the headphones block the wind.


I guess it’s good to know the little things that you enjoy about a sport. So even when I am dangling off the back of a group of guys way faster than myself I can enjoy the absences of the ringing.