Delirium

In a rampant case of entirely un-ideal recovery, I managed to catch a stomach bug on Monday night in Lisbon.  Few guesses as to what it’s from, but nevertheless it wasn’t welcome.  My body was already depleted from 9 days of hard(est) race I’ve done, and now I went on pure empty for a grand total of 4 days.  It’s all a blur, but for the most part it was pure delirium and sleep.  I think I ate about 400 calories a day, and only fluids.  Of those 96 hours, I’m sure I was awake less than 10 in total.  I’ve never slept that much before.  What really concerned me is that from the dinner then airports with friends, to home 1 day, to home the second day, is it just kept getting worse with me being more incapable and uncomfortable each day.  I’m not sure how much was real sleep and how much was just “out” so I didn’t have to feel ill.  My luggage is still by the front door, my plants unwatered, and a floor of my house unvisited – just front door to bed.  I mostly just shuffled from bed, to bathroom, to occasionally lying on the floor of my shower and back through the cycle.  I can tell it’s massively stunted recovery as my road rash has healed minimally as all my body’s efforts have gone to whatever bug battle was being waged.  I really haven’t had it that bad/long before.  Turning point seemed to happen (about time!) at midnight last night.

 

Today I have my mind back instead of pure misery, it’s so nice to be able to think again instead of just moan.  It’s weird to do things like stand up, pick up a towel, or focus on a concept without it being insurmountably hard, after a week earlier doing trip mountain pass crossings with 3,800m of vertical in 140k on a bike seemed like it was hard but manageable.