Long COVID or hypothyroidism or laziness or burnout or whatever it is that I've suffered from over the past 18 months since I had asymptomatic COVID on a plane back from Tenerife is a challenging situation and one which I never really thought I would find myself in.
It has taken me to places that I never thought I would be of sadness and exhaustion and just general fatigue and tiredness, which makes me feel like I'm older than my years and makes it harder to do the routine tasks I did before.
One of the main areas that suffers in a situation like this is cycling.
I cycle mostly for my head, but also to keep my body as fit as I can (I'm not that fit, but I'm trying), but I have a clear understanding of what's possible and when on a bike and a lot of the time over the past 18 months, I've been unable to fulfil those expectations.
I fully understand that that is a first-world problem.
I'm functioning at work and mostly functioning at home. I'm riding my bike at least some of the time with people I really like and in places that I'm lucky to do so, but it's nice to think that there might be a light at the end of this tunnel where I return to some sort of situation, which seems like it did before January 2022.
Last week, I was writing blogs about cycling in Mallorca, and so anyone who read those would think there was nothing wrong with me whatsoever. I have no difficulty at all, and life is grand, and wouldn't it be great to be me.
Before I went to Mallorca, though, I was genuinely concerned about how much cycling I would be able to do, and I spoke to Alex (my mate who organized the whole trip) and suggested that if I could ride for two hours a day and then sit in the sunshine and have a pint with my new SunGod sunglasses on, that would be a successful trip.
On the first day, I rode for about 4 - 5 hours, and on the second day, I rode for about the same, only a little bit longer.
We had 55 miles on day one and maybe 65 miles on day two.
By the time we got to the third day, I was happy to take the bus down and ride almost the length of the island with Alex and Lee.
That is not to say that I felt absolutely on top of my game, but I thought that I would be able to do that without having to lie down by the side of the road.
But the thing was that in the middle of that Wednesday ride, I felt better and better and better.
Alex and I stopped in a beautiful little restaurant in a place called Orient, halfway up the island, and we had spaghetti bolognese and, a bottle of Coke and a meal that will go down as one of the best I've ever had.
Afterwards, we cycled on, heading towards our destination in Pollenca but passing by a climb called Sa Batalla, which I had been able to climb the day before, which is quite famous in cycling circles.
We reached the T junction, where we were turning right to go on the flat road home, and the only other way to go home was the left turn up Sa Batalla and the descent from the petrol station back to Pollenca.
After a brief discussion, I told Alex I wanted to turn left and go up the climb, which was a surprise because at no point in the lead-up to that trip would I ever have thought I would have been able to do that.
The climb up Sa Batalla was magnificent.
Alex even went a bit further on than me (he is way more fit than I will ever be) and took a couple of photographs of me on the road, which will probably go down as some of my favourite pictures.
The point, though, is that I'd reached a junction where, for the last 18 months, I've almost always been turning right and at least at one point last week, I was able to turn left.
I will hang on to that through the dark winter months and try to turn left as much as possible until I'm back to 150%.
I'm not writing this for sympathy.
My life is fine, and I'm doing great, and many people have many worse things to deal with than me.
I just hope that it gives you a little boost or a spur to be able to turn left when you reach your own T junction.
Blog Post Number - 3589
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