Illness

Illness

I haven’t been ill for a long time… so long in fact, I I had forgotten what it was like.

We all feel aches and pains from exercise… I actually like to feel fatigued and sore. You know you have done a good workout and reaping benefits as a result.

Aches & pains as a result of illness is just depressing. Knowing that your body is wasting precious energy and time trying to fix something that shouldn’t be there in the first place.

I knew I was going to be at risk of picking something up… after just finishing the Tour of Sufferlandria my Training Stress Balance (TSB) was at an all-time low of -37.6. If that wasn’t enough on its own, eating round at the in laws with a table full of colds just before the last stage was going to guarantee it.

Monday night was rough. I was a little bit late going to sleep anyway but woke at 1am with a feeling of D&V. It was hard to tell if it was related to my Crohn’s Disease though as I can’t remember the last time my bowels felt ‘normal’. Falling behind on my medication recently hasn’t helped that either.

I was on/off then throughout the rest of the night… I’m not one to shy away from taking medication to relieve symptoms… heartburn relief, anti-sickness & Paracetamol meant I managed to get a few additional hours sleep before the alarm went off at 3:45am. I turned it off, set it for 5:30 and went back to sleep. This morning is no day for a workout. The Mrs was all too kind to allow me to take her car to work as well so I could take a full day off the bike.

Reading up on ‘managing illness’ there is an informative blog on Training Peaks:

If your symptoms are above the neck – revert to Zone 1/recovery rides until symptoms have disappeared for longer than 1 day.

If your symptoms are below the neck, stop all exercise until symptoms disappear + 1 additional day off. Return to training at Zone 1/recovery until above the neck symptoms have gone.

If your symptoms last 3 days or less, return to training after your off day and recovery day(s).

If you symptoms last 4 days or more, return to training after you off day + 2 recovery days. Gradually return to plan, building duration instead of intensity over the course of 4-7 days.

Given that I have no above the neck symptoms but was suffering with the feeling of D&V with body aches, I’m going to take today off completely.

As I am sat here typing this… 18 hours after the symptoms began… I seem to be suffering with little more than a headache and some muscle/joint ache. Are the symptoms masked by the Paracetamol? Are the aches & pains a result of the recent tour? I’m not entirely sure.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a good night’s sleep tonight, no further symptoms tomorrow and I can jump into my Zone 1/recovery commutes for a couple of days. I will then be able to return to plan on Thursday/Friday without missing much.

I’ve got a 60+ mile ride planned on Sunday (weather permitting) with the lads. I want to make sure I’m both fully recovered and in good shape so I can put in a solid effort in on the three 15-20 min climbs.

I was kind of anticipating a short period of rest following the tour anyway to raise my TSB from -37.7 to approx. -10 to -20. Although this time off will take it to zero instead, I can’t help wonder if that is true. I would have thought an illness would add a daily TSS due to the body recovering… might do some more research…