Recovery from illness

In (Help a Dame out - #3 by Sir_Brian_M), I mentioned how I typically recover from a stay in Sicklandria.

I didn’t want to divert that thread, so I’m creating a new one. And I’m happy to report that all of my SLO cells were eradicated yesterday evening!

I’d be interested in hearing more strategies about repatriation in the nation after an extended stay abroad. What works for you?

For myself, I find it difficult to muster up the courage to retest. I don’t want to know how weak I’ve gotten. And I’d suspect that I might not have the fitness to retest, weird as that might sound, I couldn’t imagine completing HM or FF right now.

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That’s great, Sir Brian!

Yeah, sorry for the rest though. After my run-in with a truck this summer, was forced to take an extended leave. I get the feeling of not wanting to know how far you’ve fallen.

Best of luck and continued improved health.

4thofjuly-independenceday-838437191

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After some googling to make sure your point about eradicating SLO cells was not some Sufferlandrian wordplay…
I’m really happy for you sir Brian. Sounds like you have had it really, really rough.
A lot of times when I knew there was no way I was healthy enough to match my four year old FF results I knocked the intensity down 10, 20%. Just to give the workouts a go.
I agree about FF. Sure, accurate numbers are great, but FF takes everything out of you and I personally take a few days minimum to recover from that. It’s too much.
The other thing that helped was Zwift. Because I could cruise around no matter the outside weather and find joy as nothing was target based at the time.
My two cents. Whatever gets you enjoying being on the bike, but not overdoing it.

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@Sir_Brian_M Cyclists think of FTP as some sort of superhero score but really it is just an estimate of the threshold from which you should base your training.

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@Sir_Brian_M Several months ago, after a long hiatus from the Nation and the bike, I used the >From the Ground Up< series to “get back at it” and find my way back. Once I completed that series, I did the No Place Like Home workout. It did help me to find my way back but it’s also been a journey of ups and downs for me.

As FF is concerned, well, my FF days, as it stands right now, are over but, one never knows what the future may hold. Good luck to you sir and you may want to give the From the Ground Up series a go in finding your way back. I know it helped me.

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Not a sales pitch, but TrainerRoad started using an “AI” (not AI, but I digress) based FTP assessment that continually evaluates your workouts to assign FTP w/o ramp-type testing (though they DO offer one). Over my first year of use, I found it tracked with my FF metrics really well, so haven’t done a ramp test since.

So. Happy. :face_holding_back_tears::face_holding_back_tears::face_holding_back_tears:

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Thanks to @Sir_Brian_M ‘s post, I am happy to report that no SLO cells were found this morning.

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I would start out by doing some easy workouts you like in level mode and use RPE to guy the workout. That will get you back on the bike and back into the habit of working out. From there you can see where you are and estimate some numbers if you want to do erg mode. However, focus on where you are now and not where you used to be. You will get back into shape but it takes time.

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From No Place Like Home.

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Was the truck okay? Not everyday a truck hits a KoS and lives to tell about it.

Seriously though, I hope you’re doing okay with no lasting injuries.

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Thanks for that. No, generally all good. Just like everyone else - lost a lot of fitness. Long, slow recovery starting in September. Just this past month starting to feel like I can hit the accelerator again.

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This past summer I got hit by car.

It was not serious (no real damage to me, one bike brake needed to be repaired) because I saw it out of the corner of my eye, and managed to start avoidance maneuvers.

I did take out his side view mirror though.

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Haha! I probably should have stayed off the internet this morning. Google gave me this:

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I’m the one with the SLO cells today. Hahaha. I’ll get them out this month :grin:

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Glad you’re okay, but sorry you didn’t inflict more damage to his vehicle.

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I knew I was OK because even though I had some symptoms of shock(which wore off quickly), one of the first things I did was to make sure i stopped recording the ride on my Garmin.

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22 years ago it was an oversized pickup work truck mirror that didn’t get taken out… It took ME out when the driver cut directly in front of me doing a sudden, unsignaled 90 degree turn. I caught the mirror directly in the chest on top of my heart monitor belt, dead center on the heaviest part of it.

I actually thought I might die on the spot for the first minute or two of the most intense pain ever for me, but then I was concerned with getting my bike and seeing if it was okay, while a medical person was trying to get me to sit down to get checked out. He appeared immediately after the crash along with many others who came pouring out of nearby shops as they heard the chaos occurring.
I was back on the mountain bike 4 days later, and a new road bike on order courtesy of the driver’s insurance company soon after that.
It was 3 weeks later that I learned I had a cracked sternum, after the driver’s insurance company forced the issue for me to get a bone scan done so I would sign off on any further claims. If I hadn’t been wearing the heart monitor belt that absorbed a HUGE amount of the impact force and distributed it across a wide area instead of the sharp edge-line of that big metal mirror, I suspect I wouldn’t be here to tell the story.

Back to the subject of recovery from illness, the bout with pleurisy compounded with pneumonia 2 years ago is the most significant thing I’ve dealt with since I rediscovered biking in my upper 30’s, about 30 years ago. It certainly knocked me down lower than I’d been in all that span of years, and it was difficult to reckon with how much I lost and how fast I lost it.
But I was thankfully able to do some rides even during the time of pleural effusion issues, and also while dealing with pneumonia, which was diagnosed about 10 days after the pleurisy.
My power was VERY limited on some rides, others less so, although no rides were at my previous levels of output.

I think you just have to learn what you can do by trial and error. Pay attention to the big picture, and learn from mistakes. Your body IS going to let you know what is too much too soon, but you have to be a good listener.
(And I would also say that if you do not attempt anything, your body really can NOT tell you very much that is useful. At least until you’ve lost a lot more than you may have needed to allow.)

You also need to be in touch with various aspects of health that signal how things are going. If you have any sleep monitoring that you’ve utilized (My Garmin FENIX 7 keeps me informed, albeit with some obvious misses, but generally is useful info,) pay attention to that data.
Same for HRV data (which I also get from the FENIX 7 sleep monitoring,) give it a glance daily just to allow it to speak to the overall assessment process.
Resting Heart Rate, I also gain from the sleep data…
Stress Scores, another Garmin data piece from the FENIX 7, and it’s yet another useful bit in the overall picture.

All this stuff we can track with these devices CAN BE useful information.
None of these bits is always accurate, and all of them will at times be totally OFF from what we find useful, but when taken as a body of information and monitored regularly, I think they put ME in much better position to respond in productive ways to what is happening in my life.
Whether showing me that I am MORE PRODUCTIVE when I IGNORE Garmin’s “take a rest day” suggestion,
or convincing me that I really DO need to take my sleep habits more seriously,
or helping me recognize that certain kinds of days (i.e. long travel days by car, or yard work chore days, or…) really DO add a meaningful level of stress to my body that I shouldn’t ignore completely.

Ultimately, it is up to ME to make the choices, run the experiments, and respond to the results. My Garmin devices are NOT my masters by any stretch, they are subservient to me, and I often counter their directions, but I’m still very glad about how much they’ve helped me learn about myself, and how I can be more fit.

When I am more fit, I am more happy! Fitness is not the source of it, but it is one less thing trying to rob my happiness.
… Being Sick SUCKS. I pray you all BE WELL!

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I agree with the mechanical assessments. However, YOU are the best judge of what you can and can’t do. I was doing Zwift Baseline assessment today and there was no way I was riding at FTP for 10 minutes. My heart rate wasn’t going up to support it. The motto live to ride another day kicked in.
I’ve been in the RED before and it doesn’t feel good.
Lastly, if it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. You can come back later after recovery.

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Wow! I needed to hear that. Thank you so much for pointing that out. I need to push myself to find out what I am able to do right now.

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