Fatigue. Fuck.

Batteries are dead.

9,462 miles out of 10,000 miles done.   And my biometrics are showing I'm fatiguing.   Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

EDIT/UPDATE:

As Mrs Stav is out for the day, kids are painting boxes while listening to the UP soundtrack and I have a crappy, knacked Netbook to update my blog with, I'll take the opportunity to write something.

I don't want my blog to be negative, just realistic, so this is my current state of play with a month to go to Christmas.

This week I got within spitting distance of 9.5k miles.  I'd like to close out 10k miles before 31st December if I can as 11 months of cycling and getting to this point, I want to finish at 100%, not 96%.   But.........

As I mentioned in a previous post, through late September/October I had been trying to raise my mileage to hit my annual target.   Most weeks I was hitting over 300 km per week and feeling good.   The change in weather did bite but physically I was well and fit.   As temperatures dropped and more and more hours were being done in the dark, it was just part of the sport.  I still love riding in the cold and dark for some masochistic reason and hearing the owls in the woods near Ledsham on the L'boro-6 Hills-Newark-Notts loop is still cool.  When it got to the point of riding at -4C on a remote country lane and the thought of "oh shit, what happens if I puncture???" and my frozen fingers would have a hard time fixing it, the garage became more appealing!

But one of the downsides of not being a millionaire is that I have to work.   And air conditioned offices are notorious for spreading germs as everyone tries to hit end of year targets, brings colds into the building and re-breath everyone elses lung juices.  Last few weeks I've struggled with some health issues - even being off work for two days due to congestion and infection in my sinuses and breathing difficulties.

In most cases, I should have been able to shake off an infection like this quickly.  But.....

Recently I noticed my RPE increasing on set routes (such as the short climb on the way to work), my resting heart rate has been elevated (mid 50's BPM) and my commuting time has increased slightly (~5 - 10%) which makes me think with my inability to throw off a minor infection, fatigue is kicking me.   Last Wednesdays nights long ride was tough (conditions were head winds and rain for over 2/3rds of it!) but in hindsight some of that also appears to have been just physical fatigue too.  I think I'd been aware of it for around a week, but trying to deny it.   Last couple of days has pretty much confirmed it.  To the Man with the Hammer, in the politest way, a massive fuck you.

FisherScientific charity challenge

FisherScientific currently have a charity challenge going and looking to raise over £80,000 and as a work team our aim had been to ride the 2,000 miles from Loughborough to Athens on static bikes (the challenge I mentioned in the previous post).   My personal (stupid) mentality was "hell yeah!  I did 450 miles for Ed-London, if I can beat that I'd be happy!  Getting into the 500 mile club or even the 1000km club, even on a static would be mental!   This'll even work as a good test bed for 2017!"   So to be hit with feeling crap, doesn't make me feel good.   The last time I lost form and hit the fatigue buffers was back in June when I maxed out at around 225 miles and limped home from the Bingham area and that pretty much crushed me for around 2 weeks.

Part of me wants to be stupid and do the charity challenge.  However I know that with how much damage Ed-Lon did to me and the training the last time I over trained.   I really don't want to let the team or charity down by crapping out at 200 miles when everyone is pinning on me making up for any missed miles from the rest of the team.

I still have 540 miles to do this year to hit my personal target and commute - I still have to get to work and back for the last 25 or so working days with a lung infection.

On the positive stuff.

No matter how pissed off I am with myself for feeling crap and feeling like I'm letting others down, I've ridden around 9,500 miles,   That's pretty good.  VV is showing I'm at around the 98th percentile for the year!  My lungs may feel like tea bags, but for a very strong year, I'm physically good - no tendon damage, my fingers are starting to feel better (relatively!) and generally still in shape.

Time on the turbo is pretty exciting in a way - a mix of Zwift as my avatar and Sufferfests to give me a structure with a sound track giving a mini-6 Day feel.   It still one of the few times I get the opportunity to play music LOUD and my God I saviour that chance.