Conundruming (now a word)

I made a couple of rookie mistakes today.

I was sitting at our kitchen table eating toast checking the weather before heading out on the bike. The forecast said it was windy. 'Hmmm', I said, 'doesn't seem that windy'. If it had been a movie the sound track would have played the classic dun, dun, duuuun sound effect.

Needless to say it was windy out on the bike.

My second rookie mistake came while I was riding. I had gone out and met up with some of the guys from Break Your Limits and after riding with them for a while was heading home. I came to a cross roads and could have turned right or left, both would get me there. Going right will get me home too soon I thought, so I went left. I got about 15 minutes down the road when it occurred to me that I had badly miscalculated just how long it was going to take me to get back home. As a result the ride was a bit longer than intended. Not really a problem, just not really to plan.

Still, despite the wind and the extra distance the ride was good. Certainly nice to be out and about on the road. A bit chilly, but nothing compared to the last couple of days, plus it was nice to be out in the dry weather, which is something I think we are not going to see for the next few days.

Away from my ride I am currently a mixed ball of conservatism and pondering. I am currently struggling with a couple of irritations and I am deciding how best to handle them.

Irritation one is that I am not feeling 100%. I started feeling a bit snotty yesterday evening heading to bed. I didn't want to read too much into it so I decided to have a good night's sleep and see how I felt in the morning. This morning I felt reasonable and so I went out on the bike. Now I am feeling a bit less reasonable, although I am not sure that I would say that I am feeling sick. Heart rate seems fairly normal. Somewhere in between. A bit scratchy perhaps. My wife was feeling this way last week, not sick, but not well. She recovered without ever really thinking that she descended into a full blown cold. Given how I am feeling I think I could train, no problem, but I am trying to decide whether I should. My usual approach with this sort of thing is to go into immediate lock down. Start resting, feel better quickly. I guess I am not sure whether that is necessary. Does this warrant missing training or not. Not sure, hence the pondering.

One thing I am at peace with though is the idea of getting sick. Not my preference obviously, but if that is the way this is going then I can live with it. I have had an amazing run of luck with illness this
Winter. I have dodged colds from countless coughing and spluttering co-workers, wife, kids etc. Quite frankly my run couldn't last forever. It is Winter after all. Training has been going very well and so if I need to ease back for a couple of days to get well again then I have no problem with that.

The second irritation that I am currently conundruming is a niggle I have in my right shin. In short my shin pulled up a little sore from my long run on Sunday. This one is a bit more cut and dry for me. I have had shin issues before and I know from experience that this is not one to mess with. As frustrating as it is, this is one of those things that I need to give time until it recovers. The long term repercussions of trying to push through are simply not worth it. The nice thing about this type of niggle though is I know pretty much exactly what to do. Give it a rest so that it can recover is the simple answer. And rest doesn't have to mean no running, I have options like water running etc, which I can use to maintain fitness. I haven't run since Sunday (not on the program) and so the shin is coming up really well. The program has a run tonight, which I am currently talking to Daryl about moving to the weekend and I am fairly hopeful that I should be right by then. This is definitely one which is frustrating but the path forward is clear.

Definitely a time to be listening to my body. I usually find that deep down the body knows what it needs, the trick is making yourself provide it. Particularly if what the body really needs is a bit of rest which is something that a lot of us struggle to do. Trying to listen is my usual approach and I suspect I will be doing it again here.