by Richard Taylor : 2025-09-02
Eight months on from Part 3 and I feel like I'm almost back to square one. There have been some positives but I made a big mistake in the spring that has knocked me for six.
Continuing with the cold showers appears to have prevented me from getting as many colds as I used to. I still feel colds coming on, but instead of developing into the runny nose and sneezing phases they just fizzle out. Since last October I have only had one "proper cold" which is a record year for me by a long way.
I also made some changes to my diet in August - after revisiting this exchange on BlueSky - which have had some positive effects; but it's early days. After a tough summer I just wanted to try something else that might help.
The brain fog situation has not been so clear cut. I lost my job at the end of January and decided to go into semi-retirement. In the first couple of months since then I noticed that some days felt like the fog had returned while most days were fine - I wondered if the change of pace may have been the cause?
Anyway, that all became a moot point when spring came...
After gradually getting my fitness back towards the 2023 level I was feeling good physically. My weekly group cycle rides of 60-80km seemed to be going well and I was even feeling strong on the hills (where I often struggle).
So at the end of January, with more free time, I decided to try and build up towards a 200km Audax at the end of May. It was a course I had already ridden in 2020 so I kind of knew what I was doing. Throughout March and April I increased my weekend ride lengths up to 90-100km, with a couple of 120km rides, and a bit of mid-week conditioning.
It all seemed to be going very well. I did a 120km ride on the Sunday a week before the event, planning to rest after that until the event. The 120km ride felt hard, but not excessively so. The problem was that I didn't recover!
The day after I was very tired. The day after that I was very tired. The next day I was just as tired. By the Thursday I realised that the 200km ride was not going to be possible. In fact I didn't manage to ride outdoors again for 6 weeks!
Was it that last 120km ride that did it or the accumulation of longer rides over 3 months? I think it was the latter, because I did harder rides before that one and managed to recover normally. But who knows.
With the physical fatigue came the usual worsening of brain fog.
Since the end of May I have been slowly building my energy levels back. It's been hard though. Most weeks, even 3 months later, if I have a 60km ride on a Sunday, then I don't feel like I have the energy for any other exercise (beyond walking the dog) until the following Sunday.
It seems like 200km rides are a thing of the past for me. I was comfortable doing 60-80km with the odd 100km ride last year - I should try and be content with that - so getting back to that level is my goal now.
When I am physically tired it is hard to assess the degree of brain fog that I'm suffering. Is it the same as it was the first time I had COVID, or better? I don't know. It's such an inconsistent and ill defined thing.
OK, the previous article in this series should have been the last one. I've pushed myself too hard and gone backwards. My mistake. I'll probably do another update when I'm "back to normal" to let you know how long it took.