Category Archives: Health

Dual sleep

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Deep sleep

Deep sleep (Photo credit: smerikal)

8°C, light clouds & windy

It’s 02:00 in the morning & my late wake reminds me of a BBC feature on the Myth Of The Eight Hour Sleep. The idea is that in reality, we have phases of sleep- Deep Sleep, Watch & then a second 4 hours sleep.
This does fit my sleep habits that have appeared over the past few years. Tonight it’s early, but that’s work-stress that tore me up. There is a long weekend coming up I reassure myself.
My experience supports the suggestions in the articles. They have posted some good links worth following too. Perhaps sleep is another great British obsession after the weather.

Is it happening again?

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8°C, clear

Jupiter and Venus blaze in the evening skies recently. They’re near to conjunction and are still striking to anyone who looks westwards.

I have a sticky throat. I shall be so annoyed of this develops into another cold. I’ve had a heavy cold followed by ‘flu this term already. Could it be early hay-fever? Beech and hazel trees to release spores at this time of year. So it could be…

Shining Tor

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0 – 6°C, Snow , wind & sun

Drove from Macclesfield to Buxton on the way to Alstonefield for a foodie feast. In the village pub has an excellent range of food including the amazing pudding pictured below. That snow shot was taken in a layby in Deryshire. I pulled the car into a stopping place and I got out with my camera-phone. Just as I was turning the snow yellow- a couple of heavily wrapped cyclists rode by on thin tire, racing bikes. They did look rather nervous at the top of what must be a big big climb, and not because they’d spotted me. The fog was too thick for that.

Here is food that I’d journeyed through snow for. Look at the photo from left to right- there is honeycomb, chocolate mousse and lemon sorbet. All of that was presented on a skid-mark of chocolate sauce on the square plate. The most spectacular part was found inside the mousse. The brown cylinder of rich chocolate was rather rich but once cut inside- it bled from the wound a yellow-orange thick sauce oozed. That alien blood was rich and tangy and countered the rich sticky body of the pud.
Most striking.


Go and try some!

Two weeks on

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9°C, sunny. CR56 miles

After 12 days I am recovered. Today’s ride was far better than I expected, I have lost less form though gained some weight (it seems). Anyway, spring is in the air, flowers out and the sunshine bright enough to show up how much cleaning is required.

Influenza

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9°C, white cloud, some wind

Frustration builds when there is no sign of healing. I relented in the end and went to the local GP. she said it’s true, i have the flu’. This is no heavy cold, it’s flu. So no more stupid jokes about manflu. A big part of me dislikes that variety of sexist putdown anyway. Just because it’s aimed at men, does not make it okay.

New book to read has arrived: Zona by Geoff Dyer.

Precious time

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9°C, NW, light cloud

Half-term holiday is a precious time. It’s a time to re-build energy, recover from a stressful job and fix things that need repairing (the house, the car and me). It’s not a time to be set back with a devastating head-cold, running temperature and bostin’ headache. These things happen- yes. But it’s difficult not to spend time, while laid low, thinking of the good things I could be doing.
So the symptoms add up, heavy-cold + the urge to grumble = manflu.

Have I done that self-depricating joke before? Perhaps leave it then.

If you’re ill below the neck- don’t ride!

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-4 to +1°C
Every year I am troubled by the same decision- when should I start riding again after a cold. Every year I am hit by a two week common cold and left resenting the lost time.

There are a few sites that discuss this dilemma:
.livestrong.com/article/552640

Sportsmedecine

So the conclusion- If you’re ill below the neck- don’t ride!
Does that sound like a good slogan for a tee-shirt?

As ever, that’s not the only criterion, look at the outside temperature; last night -4°C. The air has been extremely dry, so dry that there was barely any frost this morning. There is a 200 yard sheet of black ice on the way to work though. It’s remarkable that no-one has crunched their car on that slope.

Cold in a day

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8°C, strong Westerly

Set off on the drive to Lancashire late morning. Arrive to the certain knowledge that I have a cold. Early morning sticky throats can turn out to be anything, including nothing. This time, it’s not nothing. It’s a funny, curious phenomenon if you look at it in a dispassionate way. I woke with a fizzy energy and even considered a cycle ride before starting the drive.

I still think there is something in this. the surge of energy before a cold comes on happens more often than coincidence I suspect. I accept that there are other factors, and it’s possible to convince yourself of links that don’t exist.

Infamy, infamy, everyone’s got it in for me.

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-1 to 3°C. Clear, CA:43 miles

Three hour ride today. I really needed this one for its de-stress effects. The start was hard though, legs felt empty and riding hills was a disproportionate effort. I don’t really know what caused that so I rode along puzzling over plausible causes. Was that the stress causing the weakening too? I will never know, but it’s possible. It’s also possible that last night’s supper was guilty- too much cheese and not enough of the usual carbos.

Here we are, a new week. This one comes with a dark cloud hanging over it however. Maybe that will clear on Thursday.
Maybe not.