Yes, unfortunately this week saw me go down with a bout of the dreaded Man-Flu. Started to feel a bit ordinary late last weekend and awoke Monday morning deciding the best thing to do was to stay snuggled under the doona. The extra couple of hours snuggled in the warmth I was hoping would help to knock this bit of a bug on the head.
Come Tuesday morning however, it was starting to get serious – Man-Flu is not to be taken lightly, so I was hoping that the girls at work were ready to dole out sympathy and compassion in copious quantities. Walking into work and sniffing dramatically to grab their attention worked a treat…….but unfortunately it had the opposite effect to what I was hoping, as they all scurried over to the other side of the office with shrieks of “Don’t give it to me”!!!! Hmmmm, getting the attention I deserved might be slightly harder than anticipated.
However, not to be put off, I sat at my desk and got started for the day whilst making a show of laying out my various cough lozenges and tissues, and interjecting periodically with the odd low moan. Eventually, Simone asked if I would like a coffee and promptly put the kettle on. Sadly, that was as far as it went and I had to make my own cuppa. So, I limped to kettle muttering under my breath about sore joints and the like.
Feeling somewhat guilty for not having followed my program as set by Ruley, I went home and did the scheduled 6km run, including 18 intervals of 30 seconds on / 30 seconds off (at 17km/hr). This was done on the treadmill to keep out of the cold; however I should have also made a point of turning the heater off!! By the time I realised the heater was still on, the session was just about over and I thought I may as well try and sweat this bastard out.
Wednesday morning was a scheduled ride with Team P&W, however I had woken up feeling even worse, completely blocked up, thumping headache and sore all over. I wasn’t gonna let this friggin’ thing beat me though so the plan was to sit on the wind trainer for a couple of (gentle) hours. After just getting warmed up, said wind trainer gave a little squeal and then became a bit, well ummm, difficult. A nasty burning smell saw me glance back just in time to see the flywheel, with axle still attached, work its way free from the body of the unit and plonk itself on the floor. Clearly I was putting far too many watts through the thing and it just couldn’t cope!!!
So, it was back onto the treadmill for just a walk to keep things ticking over. A nice gentle pace, but a total of 2 hours and 13km covered
A bit of breakfast and off to work, however I was slowly sinking lower and lower and I could feel the Grim Reapers frigid fingers reaching for me. I must have looked ordinary as Deb told me I “looked like Shit” and Fee told me “I sounded very ‘special’”. Death’s door was only inches away and I was sinking fast. It was time to call it a day and I headed home just after lunch for an afternoon of serious snoozing and recovery.
The crew at work assured me they would check in on me to make sure I was ok, and eventually I did receive the odd text or two, but sadly, no one would answer the little bell when I rang it. The text’s were comforting though. Things like “hope you are ok sook” and “stop being a pussy and get to work”. Makes me happy to thing I have the girls in the office looking out for me.
Overnight, it was looking quite grim for a while. It was entirely possible that the Man-Flu was starting to get the upper hand and I could actually expire here. Eventually I fought my way through to see the sun rise over the horizon once more. Whilst I was more than happy to head into work and earn my keep, a string of text messages to my ever compassionate workmates revealed that they preferred for me to stay at home and recover completely, or at the very least “stay the f@#k away from us”……….or something.
So Thursday was spent having a little sleep-in (or was it more like a coma???). I was so man-flued it was hard to tell really. After quite a few hours on the edge of the abyss, I was determined to kick this thing in the arse once and for all, so I slowly edged my way back from the light, and returned to the land of the living. Sadly, it was not in time to make it into work……….but nonetheless, I was on the path to recovery.
Still not feeling 100% Friday morning, the Team P&W ride was once more abandoned. I have survived Man-Flu before (just barely) and I knew that you must respect this fearsome beast. One more day to recover fully was required. Disrespect it at your peril!
Given I had been on the verge of death all week; I’d not had the opportunity to see the kids, so it was arranged to catch up with them on Saturday. After picking them up, it was decided we would go out for lunch and quickly decided on the pub, where meals were ordered. Surely, a chicken parmi, chips and veg would finally kill of this bug once and for all?? Couldn’t hurt to try anyway.
After dropping the kids off near dinner time, I headed home and set up the new wind trainer given the old one unceremoniously died a few days earlier, and spent a touch over an hour working up a sweat. Fortunately, this one was able to last the distance……
Sunday’s run session was one I was not looking forward to, so I spent several hours lying in bed with the TV on contemplating how I was going to be able to dodge it, only to realise that there was no way that Ruley would let me get away with it. So I dragged myself out and got organised to head down to the track for a total of 6 x 2km intervals (to be done at 5.30m pace).
It was at approximately at the second lap of the 5th interval when I finally reached the conclusion that Ruley is an evil Mutha F@#ka and I was positive that he was sitting somewhere watching me attempting to do these ridiculous intervals and laughing his skinny little arse off. Yes, I had finally worked out what was going on in that demented little brain of his. His goal was to get a middle aged, balding, fat man to run around and around and around in circles like a farking idiot, all in the vain hope that he might actually get faster at this prick of a sport……….and he had succeeded. So I guess, who is the idiot???
Anyway, like all those tough sessions as soon as they are over they don’t seem all that bad…..until next time anyway. After lunch, it was off to the pool where a lazy 1000m were completed (and only because Ruley was at the pool swimming laps) so I had to at least make an effort. Then it was off to the spa’s for some recovery, swapping between the hot and cold spa’s. The obligatory coffee afterwards that made it all worthwhile.
I was looking forward to the scheduled ride for Monday morning and the day off for the long weekend, however upon rising and sticking my nose outside I realised how cold it actually was. A quick check online told me it was -0.4 degrees, and I could see the frost starting to settle onto the ground. Dragging out practically all of my bike gear I dressed accordingly – 2 x pairs of knicks, 2 x undershirts, 2 x jerseys, 1 x wind-vest, 2 x pairs of socks, 1 x booties, 2 x pairs of arm warmers, 1 x pair of leg warmers, 1 x pair of knee warmers, 2 x pairs of gloves and a partridge in a pear tree.
It was cold. Pulling up to the rally point it was apparent that there are at least 10 other locals as crazy as me, and upon heading around onto Ford Road, another lunatic joined us in Princess Chaddy. However, I can clearly understand why the Princess was out this morning as it was his first ride on his new stealth machine that was a present for having turned geriatric the day before.
Once the sun was up, it really didn’t get much better as patches of fog kept the temperature hovering around the freezing point. Fortunately, my tongue was getting a workout and I was able to generate a bit of body heat from the tongue flapping, which helped to keep my thoughts from my frozen fingers, which I believe had snapped off into my gloves close to an hour before.
Heading back into town and straight to the coffee shop for the regulation telling of tall stories and subsequent sledging. It is a sad state of affairs however, when the same amount of time is spent at the coffee shop as it is actually on the bike! Nonetheless, a solid 60km done in heavy air that felt like treacle.
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| The tall tales are running rampant after this morning's ride....... |
I knew that I had had a good week diet wise, with nominal treats (well, apart from those 2 beers on Friday night for Princess Chaddy’s birthday) and I had pulled my head in a bit further in terms of serving size, however I was still surprised when I jumped on the scales prior to the ride and it screamed back at me 105.1kg. This represented a loss for the week of 2.9kg and a total of 14.9kgs in 13 weeks. Hopefully this trend continues.
So, training for this man-Flu interrupted week was:
Monday Doona Snuggling
Tuesday Run 6.0km, 40mins, including 18 x 30s on/ 30s off @ 17km/hr
Wednesday Walk 2 hrs, 13 km
Thursday A life and death battle
Friday The slow journey back from the light
Saturday Bike (wind trainer) Approx 30km, 60mins
Sunday Run 6 x 2km intervals, 1 hr 5 mins (at 5.25min pace)
10.30, 10.51, 10.51, 10.44, 11.01, 11.10
Swim 1000m, approx. 20 mins
Hopefully, we can get a full week in, sans Man-Flu and start to get a bit more consistent. Would be nice if we could get some nice warm weather to go along with that.
Oh, and it would be nice to get some sympathy from the girls and work too……………
Train safe
Ayto
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