Personal Note

@jrenaut 77201 wrote:

Very glad you seem to be through the worst, and hope you’re back to 100% very soon.

Indeed. Your Kona must be missing you terribly by now. Rest up and get well.

Glad you’re starting on the mend! You should have a few more snowy days to relax by the fire.

If you want, I’ll lend you the Walgoose so you can go out and ride in the snow RIGHT NOW!!!!

Good to hear you’re doing better. Being forced off the bike is no fun – I know – but rest up and look forward to plenty of miles ahead.

@DismalScientist 77216 wrote:

And they say that bleeding is quack medicine… Get well soon.

Restoring the proper balance of humors. They say mono? I say too much of the red stuff relative to the black bile and phlegm. They knew what they were doing drawing all that blood.

Sounds good, but take care not to overdo it. That’s a big jump from the previous week. You don’t want to crash and burn. That will set you back quite a bit.

I should know. I seem to have gotten myself sick last week by doing too many long workouts or stacked medium workouts (back-to-back or back-to-back-to-back) without adequate fueling in recent weeks. I ran myself ragged until I finally had to pay the price. I posted about it on another thread. I ran into serious extended glycogen depletion, which knocks your hormones out of whack. Cortisol skyrockets and the immune system plummets. My resting heart rate shot up by 20 bpm (more than a day after my last workout) and my hip flexors were killing me. (The lack of glycogen probably meant that my body tried using muscle protein for fuel during a hard workout. It’s not quite as serious as someone wasting away in a desert for three weeks, but it’s still no fun.)

After a few days of no training or strenuous activity at all, I’m mostly better, but I’m still getting over a sore throat and cough. I need to do a better job of fueling during and immediately after longer workouts or in between back-to-back workouts. (I also do a fair amount of swimming and running, and some strength training, along with the mostly indoor bike workouts this winter.) It’s not good to push against your absolute limits on a regular basis. A common recommendation is for those who train for races to only have a couple key goal races a year. That’s when you go above and beyond (assuming you are well-prepared for that race). Even if you don’t train for races, it’s good to keep in mind the caution not to dig too deep a hole too often.

I’ve already done this twice this winter. I have to readjust my approach to avoid another occurrence. One tough workout or even a few days of tough workouts don’t make up for the fitness I lose from all the forced time off. Plus it’s pretty aggravating when I can’t even go for a casual walk, run or CaBi ride because of exhaustion or a cold. Even with the snow, if I were feeling better, I could still walk around, maybe at the Crystal City Shops or a mall.