By the beginning of this week I was feeling energetic enough to resume most normal activities. On Monday I did a round of the new strength routine, on Tuesday I paddled a loop of the harbor with Joe, and I did another round of strength work Wednesday.
Yesterday I returned to the river and revved the engines for the first time since the Outdoors race back on June 1: in the middle of a 60-minute paddle I did a set of eight 12-stroke sprints at two-minute intervals. I felt reasonably okay after it was over.
And yet, I had a nagging feeling that I was not completely well. Most notably, my bad coughing fits continued. The whole scenario was reminiscent of an awful experience I had back in June of 2001. I'd just gotten out to Colorado and done a downriver race on the Animas River at Durango. Then I came down with a bad cold or flu that forced me to take it easy for several days. Then I started feeling better, and being on vacation, I told myself that times were a-wastin' and I launched back into all the paddling and racing activities. After maybe a week or so of this behavior, I relapsed with a vengeance, coming down with a wicked fever and a severe sore throat. At that time I'd been paddling on the Crystal River and I found a doctor's office in Carbondale that would see me. It turned out I had either bronchitis or strep throat--I'm not entirely sure which--and I was prescribed a course of antibiotics. A kind racing friend who was traveling for a few days let me crash at his apartment in Snowmass Village, and there I lay until I was ready to rejoin the living.
Not wanting a repeat of that miserable episode, I decided to go to the minor medical clinic yesterday afternoon. The nurse practitioner who checked me out thought some bronchial infection was plausible and prescribed me an antibiotic, along with a couple of medications to remedy my coughing.
Today I'm feeling no worse, if not a little better. I'm at least feeling more upbeat for having been proactive and sought some help. I went back to the river today and did another 60-minute paddle, this time doing six 12-stroke sprints at two-minute intervals. Once again I felt fine when it was over. I think I will go ahead and attend the race at Batesville, Arkansas, tomorrow.
One bright side of this week is the glorious weather we have had. It's been mostly sunny and delightfully cool with a nice dry breeze--I doubt any other place on the planet has had nicer weather than the Mid South this week. I've been trying to savor every minute of it because, of course, all good things must come to an end: our customary oppressive heat and humidity is expected to move back in starting tomorrow. There are worse places I could be than on the clear, cold water of the White River.
I mentioned before that I'd planned to spend the first half of June keeping the training moderate while racing on three consecutive weekends, and then build from that foundation into a substantial training block, culminating in the big Gorge Downwind event in the Pacific Northwest next month. My illness forced me to keep things even more moderate than I'd planned, not to mention miss a race. But as long as I can persuade my body to keep getting better, there's still plenty of time to get some good work done.
No comments:
Post a Comment