Creeping tide

There is something inevitable about watching everyone get sick around you during Winter. It is like watching the tide come in. You might build walls around yourself, but you can be fairly sure that the tide will get you in the end. That is me and illness at the moment.

I am fighting a valiant rear guard action if I may say so myself. I must have about the cleanest hands this side of surgery, the amount of times I wash and disinfect them every day. I am trying hard to avoid sick people, but that is getting harder as there seems to be more and more of them. As I sit in the office and hear people hacking away and get home to see my family sniffling, part of me feels it can only be a matter of time until it catches up with me too.

I am pleasantly surprised just how long I have managed to stay well. Usually I am one of the first to fall, but so far I have managed to avoid getting sick (touch wood). This time around I have been making a concerted effort to maintain good hygiene, so perhaps that has helped. I think each Winter I get a little bit better at avoiding illness than the Winter before. Getting a couple of bad colds in a Winter makes you realise just how much time it costs you. When absolutely everyone is sick around you though, I think you can't expect miracles. It is Winter and so of course I will probably get ill eventually, but it has taken longer than I thought this time around which has been nice.

Sitting here, expecting to get sick, but hoping that I don't, has made me appreciate each training session though. Part of me feels like I am getting in the sessions before I am forced to have a couple of days off with a cold. This morning was another one of those sessions.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was back on the Kickr this morning for a repeat of Tuesday's 'Power Ladder' session. As expected it was a little bit tougher this morning, mainly due to fatigue. I still got through okay, but the second time up the ladder hurt a bit. Plus early on in the my second hour on the Kickr I had to stop briefly to stretch my hamstring. Quite unusual that, I don't usually have hamstring issues on the bike, but this morning I felt like I was moving towards a cramp. Just a quick stretch did the trick, but it was strange that it happened at all. I think the Kickr tends to emphasis the pulling phase of the pedal stroke, so perhaps that was loading the hami a bit. Not sure though. I have spent a lot of time on the Kickr recently, so I am not sure why this morning would have suddenly caused a problem. Something to keep an eye on I guess.

Day off tomorrow leading into a 4 day weekend. The only thing I really have on the cards is another swim session. I may also sneak in a cheeky spin on the road too if the weather is good. Making hay while the sun shines or something like that.

Good solid weekend of training coming up. Really looking forward to it. As long as I don't get sick...