Cold

For several days I either had bad allergies or I had a cold. Both are possible because we went from cold and rainy, and cold and snowy to spring like so three or four trees at once dumped their loads of pollen into the sky at once.

Since so many people are coughing and spluttering at the moment, it’s likely that some generous individuals onpassed the virus to me. The result is that for several days I didn’t run or cycle. I even had one or two short walks, rather than long ones. My short walks are still long for many.

Yesterday I woke up feeling tired and both Garmin and Apple said that I neded to rest. What I thought were allergies turned out to be a one day cold, I hope. According to the Apple Watch my HRV crashed down and in the evening I definitely had a cold/flu dream.

My dream, paradoxically, was sorting through a list of photos via checksum or some other technology. What I spent my waking hours doing made it into my dreams.

Yesterday for the first time in a week and a half I went for a bike ride. I was thinking that I would ride with the lazy group. That is to say “group 3” as it is commonly called. Due to the lower turnout for this weekend there was no differentiation between groups. I felt fine, for the first part. It’s when we start to climb, and descend, and climb again, and descend that I began to feel exhausted.

This weekend I could have cycled on Saturday and Sunday but I chose not to because I am finally feeling recovered from my cold. I did not want to overdo it by cycling, and getting cold. With hiking I can dress warmly and go at a more relaxed pace.

I noticed that the pace at the Arboretum, and up to La Dôle, were the same. We walked at about 3.9km/h, which, by my standards is slow. So slow, that, if I was feeling healthy, might have felt too slow. Since I wanted to rest and recover I accepted this speed.

Some people would have skipped this morning’s ride because it was cold. The temperature was forecast to be minus two degrees celsius and with the wind chill factor, and regional differences it could have felt like minus 5°c or cooler.

I skipped because the cold that has been annoying me for days is still around. Yesterday I was feeling much better and I had a big appetite,I thought it would be good to have another day of recovery.

During yesterday’s bike ride, at dawn, I noticed that grass near Grens was coated in a thin layer of frost. I also noticed that when we cycled in some places it felt much cooler than in others. I also felt the paradox of thicker gloves, and colder fingers. It seems that the thin gloves are more effective.

I noticed the frost because of a conversation people ahead of me were having. They were speaking about the temperature readings on their GPS devices, so that’s when I was primed to notice frost.

Yesterday morning I felt a little under the weather so I considered skipping the 07:00 ride. I didn’t because I thought that I would regret not going, if I did not go. In the process I got to ride with the autumn/winter tyres and this time they felt less laggy than before.

Two days ago, when I was ready to go for a ride I noticed that the tyre was flat. I replaced the inner tube and yesterday the bike felt much, much better than it has in a while. I did have a small, slow puncture in the rear tyre.

Routine is extremely important. With routine the question is not “whether you can be bothered” but “I will do this.” You go from asking “if” to automatically assuming that on Wednesday morning you will ride, and sunday morning you will ride. If a ride is cancelled for A or B then you’re asking “if”, but you’re also making other plans.

This weekend, for example, I saw that it would rain today. I assumed that the ride would be cancelled so psychologically I shifted my plans. I went for a group raclette and when the meal was over I stayed for a digestif, and then another, and then we went out. In the end I got home at 3:56 or so, and I went to sleep at 5 in the morning. That’s both really late, and really early. If I had got up for the bike ride I would have had two hours of sleep.

Bike rides have been cancelled because of rain, rather than wind or other factors. When it rains cyclists don’t want to ride because it gets their bike dirty and they have to clean it, lubricate it and more. With hikers rain is also an excuse to be lazy, within some groups. With other groups rain is just rain and the walks and hikes go ahead.

Yesterday morning we had stormy weather. It was raining very hard, and so windy that rain was aerosolised rather than falling as raindrops. As gusts blew, so you saw a cloud of rain move with the wind. You could see gutters overflowing as the wind blew water out over the lip of the edge. It was strong enough to change the direction of water flowing with gravity.

When I was scuba diving every weekend I would often feel tired in the afternoon, after I got home. It’s due to the huge change in pressure, from 40m down in the lake to 300+m above sea level around the Léman. Yesterday I went for a ride, and today I went for a ride again. I feel fatigue. I feel tired and in need of time to recover.

I believe that it’s due to the Autumn conditions. The mornings are darker, we’re wearing more layers to keep warm, and the environment is cooler. I believe that all of these contribute to the body needing to make more effort to warm up, and then to keep warm. The irony is that we go for morning rides, when an afternoon ride could make more sense. In the afternoon the air has had time to warm up, as have the roads. Just as importantly humidity has had time to decrease.