Christmas Presents | Heart attack waiting to happen

Last Saturday Louise and I were invited to a Christmas Dinner Dance by one of my clients. It’s an event we’ve enjoyed for the past few years, and has become a highlight of our Social Calendar. I’d like to say our “busy Social Calendar”, but as the saying goes, we really don’t get out much!

This year the event was a little bit different. A “Work” Christmas Party without any alcohol was a new experience for me. Usually I would expect the night to follow a predictable course, with me reaching a comfortable state of inebriation and spending the evening “in the middle of things” (or that’s how it felt!). It isn’t unheard of for us to be the last to leave the Residents Bar of the hotel following the “after party”… whether we were staying or not!

This time was a bit different. I drove and stuck to water. I was going to have an Appletiser as a treat, but the moment never arrived (what a waste of a free bar!). I spent the evening on the periphery, looking on at all the shenanigans.

Despite not drinking, and slightly to my surprise, I had a good time! Louise even got me on the dance floor a couple of times! Another strange experience for me… for some reason my “Dad Dancing” was a bit more sedate and under control than normal, my natural “fluidity” deserted me, but I felt like I fitted in OK.

We even rounded off the evening by leaving at a sensible time… before we were asked to!

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Annoyingly, I woke up on Sunday morning feeling rubbish. I had a stonking headache, and felt generally pooped. Depressingly, I felt like a had a good old-fashioned hang over. I initially put this down to having had a late night, but as Sunday rolled on I deteriorated.

Since then I have experienced many of the symptoms of flu.

A runny nose Check!
A sore throat Check!
Headache Check!
A fever Check!
A cough Check!
Muscle aches and pain Not so much actually,

I had a flu jab a few weeks ago, another first for me. It’s also another reason why it’s frustrating to get ill.

Despite my illness, I have valiantly battled on all week. Each day I woke up feeling rubbish, improved a little during the day and then collapsed in the evening.

As a result of feeling rough I didn’t even attempt to exercise last week – the longest time I’ve “rested” since I was in hospital. I just didn’t feel up to it, and knew it really wasn’t worth pushing myself.

I’m sure there are plenty of exercises and activities that I could have been doing to strengthen my core, or my legs, or other targeted areas, however my focus is primarily on building the strength and endurance of my “engine”. Without it I’m nothing, and I started from a fairly low starting point. So, I recognised that I needed to rest, get better, get strong and then get back to it.

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After a week without exercise and a nagging cold my insides needed a good clean-out!

As the week went on, I slowly progressed through the various stages of the bug, headache, sore throat, cough, runny nose… and after a full day of relaxation yesterday I felt strong enough to get back in the saddle this morning. I’m still not ready for anything serious, just a few miles on the bike to blow the cobwebs away and ease myself back into it.

About 45 minutes and 15 miles later I was done. Hot and sweaty, but alive and feeling strong(ish). An easy session to start a new week in the right way.

I’ve hopefully left enough gas in the tank for the major challenge of the day… some serious Christmas Present shopping. Wish me luck!

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