Hilly.

9°C, calm, grey and damp.

R Douglas, brim full.

Climbed Bannister Lane hill, twice. Once the north route and then the Parbold lane route. From the start, I could tell this would be a good ride. I’ve started from a low base since having Covid-19; now I’m building fitness rather than just recovering from that persistent virus.

Rats

Arrow, 4°C, light W, bright and distant clouds

Quick breather on the Arrow.

Getting better each day despite starting from a very low base. In effect, I’ve had a month off thanks to Covid-19. Now muscles are all fizzing like they’ve bounced back from that time off being ill. The year ahead is looking quite uncertain again with the possibility that foreign travel will be difficult this summer. It’s all to do with new coronavirus variations, I’m hoping I have some immunity to the main ones for the foreseeable.

As for cycling, most of the flooding has receded, there are no closed roads now. Croston usually floods so I approached it gingerly. All was clear. There was another noticeable effect I hadn’t anticipated. The last half-hour was hard, I blew up. Perhaps dehydration, but certainly poor form dues to the time off. Nonetheless, my muscles feel tight and it makes me feel stronger. During that illness, I felt terrible after even a gentle ride – all empty inside. that’s a markedly different feeling to normal post ride fatigue.

Each season has its own roadkill. Flooding appears to have brought rats out of their burrows, or sewers or where ever they live. I saw dead rats in 3 different places, big fat rats in the road. They were almost the size of a small cat.

Riding on thin ice

4°C, full sun but ice patches remain light NE breeze

Cheshire Lines.

This is Cheshire lines which runs up the side of Lancashire. It looks icy but there were no problems with grip. It was a fine day and I was so glad to be out.The muddiest part is by a sewage works and though the puddles look large, the best line is straight through the middle of them. Around there should stink but now it doesn’t. That is a Covid problem – I can’t smell bad things. You’d think that was good, but actualy it’s a nuisance. How can I tell if food is off, or whether a shirt needs a wash?

Sars-Cov2

I caught it.

Covid-19, a corona virus – it’s bigger than you’d think.

Two weeks of mild, almost asymptomatic illness in the coldest leadup bro Christmas. For me, it’s not much worse than a heavy cold with a sore cough at the top of my chest. That bit only lasted about 3 days. The general fatigue held on for longer. Some days, were clear, like Christmas day.

12th December, I went back to bed feeling rather sleepy. The next day, a Sunday, I skipped a bike ride feeling rather empty.

14th December, phoned in sick at work and then later – booked a Covid test. I still felt okay, a slight cough when going upstairs and no fever or temperature. The thermometer went no higher than 36.4°C. To get a test, I lied on the form and put New continuous cough. It’s a good job I did because the result came back Positive the next day.

I booked the test for a time only in the next hour and drove into town to park. The test centre is a walk-in to I had to trot half a mile to get there. Even that felt okay. If I was seriously ill, that would have left me faint and gasping. Generally, I was in an elevated mood because I know how serious Covid can be and I was getting off lightly – I have dodged a bullet.

12th December: the test result finally came back at 17.30. Positive and I must Self Isolate for 10 days from the day after symptoms started. The next few days are a blur

21st December: book another test. The result from this one shocked me – positive! What do I do now?
The result returns as a text on my phone telling me to self isolate for 10 days from the day after 1st symptoms arise. Well, that means I can go out tomorrow, er..doesn’t it? To clarify, I rang the number provided and they were quite clear, I don’t nbeed to add another 10 days (which would have run ’till 4th January.

In response, I ventured out on the bike but was quite exhausted for a few days after.