How to chill?

For me it’s been a strange summer. Every spare hour from Christmas until June was either moving house or training, and then simply training. It all paid off and the 24-hour race was a success. Hopefully there will be more.

I could relax but there was no real anti-climax feeling – it was nice to be able to chill out a bit. I’d lost over a stone. I felt skinny. Life was good.

Work was crazy busy but fun. It was a good summer. In August I had a cycle holiday in Scotland and that’s when my body just said ‘stop!’. But I didn’t listen. I didn’t do the black and red routes in the same day at Glentress, but I did cycle back from Glentress to Broadmeadows, nearly 20 miles away by road – but I took the shortcut over the mountain instead. I would rest when I got home – maybe.

I didn’t. Then my body said ‘no more’ and so I rested for nearly a week. I felt a bit better, then went out again. By now I was really starting to feel ill. I took nearly two weeks off. I realized that unless I let myself get better, I would still be fighting this until after Christmas.

Then it was November. I’d missed two weeks of cycling and planned to miss two weeks more. I’ve cancelled January’s 24-hour race (Inverness in January – how mad can you get?).

Hopefully I will be back to full fitness by Christmas and ready to get going in the new year. Hopefully I will have learned to listen to my body and relax and recover a bit.

Debbie