Virus Affects Endurance Athletes

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"I have had this conversation with eight of the athletes I coach",  Joe Beer told me.  "It's rife. I've never known anything quite like it".

My local Doctor pretty much confirmed Joe's anecdotal observations.  "We've seen several types of Glandular Fever going around recently", she said, "you might have one of those."

[Edit: I'm delighted to say that as of 13th May I seem to be all clear.  The blood test was negative, my power has returned and the sore throat faded.  Back to training for IM70.3 Staffs and Edinburgh].

Thank goodness for my training diary.  I've been riding less than two hours at a time because of a persistent cough, sore throat and occasional tiredness bordering on lethargy.

I thought had been with me for two weeks.  My diary revealed I'd first commented on it two months ago.  It would go away for a few days, I'd be able to train hard, then it snuck back again.  On-off, in-out, hokey-cokey symptoms.  Add to this some weird joint pains, like incredibly aching thumbs (yes, thumbs!) and I decided to go to our GP.  Bloods were taken and I'll know more next week.

Joe pointed out my symptoms sounded similar to those of Mark Cavendish.  His team doesn't know when he'll be back racing and he might miss this year's Tour de France.

I mention all this, not to bore you with my illness, but because other folk might not realise this is something they can't just 'push through'.

As endurance athletes, we usually manage to put mind over matter.  But if this virus has you in its grip, pushing through might be exactly the worst thing you can try.  With this in mind, I've sought and been granted a deferment for my first race which is scheduled in just two weeks.  That was a 'C' race. The B and A races are looming.