I didn’t ride my bike last week.
That sucks.
So why the weekly review?
Well, I want to cover what has happened last week. It might be interesting to you. It might not be. Let’s see how it goes.
Illness During a Global Pandemic?
After last Saturday’s race I got off the bike and felt pain in my chest. Nothing too concerning. I thought I might have pulled a muscle maybe, or got the startings of a cold. Honestly, I didn’t think much of it.
On Sunday I took part in the Tour of Watopia 2020 Stage 4 – the longer group ride. I struggled with this ride, though during the ride itself I wasn’t entirely sure why I was finding it quite so difficult. When I got off the bike I almost immediately went down hill. Normally I’d grab a shower, grab a cup of tea, and then do my post-ride blog.
But that didn’t happen.
It took me until much later in the evening to sit and write the post as I was suffering a bunch of symptoms:
- Intermittent sharp and dull chest pains;
- Shortness of breath;
- Dizziness;
- Headache;
- Total body fatigue
There were likely more symptoms. I can’t remember them all. I’d just done 45km and so feeling fatigue wasn’t that concerning. The dull chest pains were probably more concerning than the sharp chest pains, which I’ll get onto in a moment.
The dizziness had me in bed, and fortunately the headaches were fended off fairly well with two paracetamol every few hours.
By the end of Sunday I was sure I was ill, and worried I had picked up corona virus.
Monday
It’s very rare that I have a day off work. Partly this is because I am paid by the day, so sick days hit me in the pocket. But also partly, thankfully, because I am rarely poorly.
When I woke up on Monday I was sure I wasn’t going to be working.
Chest pains when taking a deep or even fairly shallow breath. The room was spinning. My body felt weak. The light, and sounds from my kids were grating my head.
What a way to start the day.
Yep, Monday was a crappy day.
Most of Monday was spent in bed. It was hard to sleep with the kids in the house, but I did manage to rest fairly well. At this point I thought I’d be shaking this illness off hopefully by Thursday or Friday – plenty of time to get back on the bike and finish the Tour.
Tuesday / Wednesday
Unusually I woke on Tuesday feeling quite a bit better. I decided I was well enough to work. Heck, all I do is sit at my desk and type / move the mouse. It’s hardly physically taxing.
But by mid afternoon the constant dizziness and swirling / sea sick feeling whenever I moved my head meant I had to cut my work day short. Going up and down the stairs was still a chore. But the paracetamols were doing a good job of keeping the headaches in check.
Wednesday again started well, but by mid afternoon the pattern seemed to repeat. Dizziness. Tiredness. Lung pain.
Then started the conjunctivitis.
What a winner. My eyes were itching, but touching them only made everything worse. I’d developed a persistent, nagging cough – which only irritated my lungs further.
Thursday
Thursday however, I started to feel much better.
Quite bizarre. When I woke up on Thursday I was confident if I wasn’t going to be on the bike that afternoon, I’d certainly be well enough to do a lap or two of the flat route by Friday night.
The conjunctivitis remained, but was easing. In hindsight, getting sweat in my eyes would likely have done me zero favours.
By the end of the day on Thursday I was feeling like I was on the mend.
Friday
I woke on Friday morning, for once, to very little chest pain when taking a deep breath. I should say that at this point, the very first thing I was doing each morning upon waking was to take a few deep breaths, through both the nostrils and the mouth. The pain was always worse through the nostrils. No idea why.
Friday morning started with a headache, and the room swirling. But aside from that I was hoping I was continuing to recover.
And then by Friday lunch time I was suffering again. If anything, I felt like I’d regressed to how I’d felt around Tuesday morning. About the only bonus was the conjunctivitis seemed to have buggered off. Easy come, easy go.
I realised there was no way I would be on the bike that day, nor likely for the foreseeable.
Weekend
Saturday, Sunday, and even today have been more of the same.
Every day I seem to wake up feeling fairly fine. And by dinner time I’m knackered. By late afternoon – typically around 16:30-16:45 – I have a swirling headache, lack of visual focus, and my lungs hurt. Mainly around the center of my chest, but also at the lower extremities, more on my left side than the right.
It really doesn’t help having the kids around the house all the time.
Is It Covid 19?
This is a good question.
I’m unable to get tested.
My wife has had similar symptoms to me – except conjunctivitis – yet all of her symptoms have been milder than mine.
My eldest has had a cough, though this now seems to have worn off except when led on her tummy in the evenings reading a book before bed.
My youngest… thankfully seems to have been unaffected.
My wife’s sister and her fiance have both had exactly the same symptoms, though they now report all clear.
As mentioned in this ride report I had a guest over for tea on Thursday last week. This same guest also visited my wife’s sister. This person seems to be the common link. And indeed, this person now also has started with the symptoms I’ve been describing.
Yet it seems odd that if this person was the “carrier” that they would suffer after infecting us?
I don’t blame anyone for this. I just want it over with.
From what I’ve read online, I believe this is a mild form of Covid 19. I’m no doctor. Far from it. In fact, I’ve been burying my head somewhat as reading about it whilst suffering from a bunch of the symptoms has not helped my anxiety any.
I can tell you this much:
I’ve not had a fever. None of us have – this includes my wife’s sister and fiance, nor the person who we think infected us originally. However, my wife’s sister had an ambulance round and they weren’t even wearing face masks or protective gear of any kind. So either they didn’t think it was corona, or they took a very big risk.
What Now?
Well… I don’t know.
Not getting to ride my bike is driving my nuts.
On the plus side the weather looks great at the moment, or has done over the last few days. I hope it holds out, as I really want to get outdoors. For the first time.
With that in mind I’m going to treat myself to some new kit. A bike computer. And a power meter. I’ve been looking at the Garmin 1030 and that seems to turn the outdoors into a bit of a real world Zwift, with all its KOMs and real time routes and stuff. It looks super cool.
My bike fit has been cancelled, unsurprisingly.
The way I’m feeling, I’m not expecting to be back on the bike until – hopefully – later in the week, but most likely maybe early next week?
It’s soooo frustrating as I really feel my performance will have suffered, not to mention not getting to finish the Tour of Watopia 2020.
But I have to be sensible. I’m in no shape to be riding right now.
Hopefully this time next week I am back on the bike. Fingers crossed.
For now, I just want this lung pain and murky head to eff off.
Hey Chris,
Sorry to hear you’re feeling poorly. If not covid it could be Influenza A with the conjunctivitis, I had that in 2018 and sounds similar. Probably best to stay off the bike, you don’t want to end up with pneumonia cause that’s really no fun!
I can sympathise with not being able to get on the bike and probably you’ll feel like you’ve lost some ground when you do get back on. From my own experience coming back after flu and pneumonia, listen to your body when it protests and take the recovery as needed plus lots of sleep.
Definitely go nuts on all the toys when you’re feeling better, I did and it really helps!
Personally I’d go for the Garmin 530 over the 1030. Once lockdown here finishes I’ll be selling my Wahoo Bolt and getting me a 530, a few mates have them and they look goooood. What were you thinking in terms of power meter? I reckon a dual sided Stages or 4iiii would be pretty sweet. I run Stages on both my bikes and never had issues, I know Stages does ANT+ and Bluetooth, not sure about 4iiii.
Over on my side of the world, we’re in full lockdown for the next four weeks minimum. All shops except for supermarkets, petrol stations and pharmacy’s are closed. We’re only allowed outside for personal exercise. Just my luck the bearings on my Wahoo Kickr died and my warranty replacement is lost at sea somewhere. Lucky a good mate who is a tad lazy was kind enough to loan me his! On my quest to get my Tron bike now, I see you got yours, congrats on that!
Cheers,
Phil
Cheers Phil, yeah still not definitively sure on what I have. I just want rid. Told my mrs about it being influenza A so she’s off researching that at the moment 😀 Message heard loud and clear on the bike front. Tbh, I’m too dizzy later in the day to ride even a stationary bike.
Thinking when I finally do get back on the bike I’m going to start slowly – short ride, keep it blue, slowly ease back into it. Likely need ERG mode on to keep me in check.
I’ll be completely honest, I thought the 1030 would be the best of the bunch, but had done next to no research on that side of things. This review definitely confirms your p.o.v, so a massive thanks for the heads up there. And money saved to boot. Excellent.
Based on my admission of having done next to no research re: the bike computer, you will likely not be overly surprised to find my power meter research has been equally lacking. Originally I was looking at the combined package of the 1030 and the vector pedals. However, after watching a video by GP Llama on YouTube I’d changed my mind to the Assioma Duo (probably a typo). Amusingly at £600+ they are more expensive than my bike, so … yeah. Priorities. Why pedals, you might wonder? Well I figured they would be the easiest thing for me to put on without cocking up my bike.
I wouldn’t say the UK is in full lockdown. We’re in a sort of British lockdown where the govt expect the populace to do the right thing and behave sensibly. But this is a nation that overwhelmingly voted for Brexit, so I’m sure you can imagine that some people have a very loose interpretation of lock down. We are allowed out for personal exercise too, and Boris said we can either go for a walk, or a bike ride. That’s a large part of what prompted me to want the bike stuff honestly. I figured it would be very quiet out on the roads. But as I’ve been ill, and given that I am a bit of a hermit at the best of times, I haven’t been out of the house in over 2 weeks at this point, so who knows?
Hope you get the Wahoo situation sorted soon – but glad you have the temporary replacement all the same. Good luck with the tron bike quest 🙂
Chris
Yeah actually the Assioma Duo’s look good and very favorable review by DC Rainmaker. Haha yeah my Stages on my Allez is worth twice what I paid (2nd hand) for the bike.
I have to say, the Allez is a bloody good frameset to build on. I striped mine back to the frame and upgraded everything, it rides just as well as my fully carbon Tarmac now and I’ve set most of my best PRs on the Allez.
I think the main difference between the 1030 you’d notice is the screen size and touch screen. I used to run a Garmin 1000 which is the old version of the 1030. Going from that to the Wahoo Bolt which is considerably smaller, I didn’t notice too much difference. As for the touch screen, I don’t think it’s really needed and rain can mess with it if you get caught out in it.
If touchscreen is a deal breaker I’d look at the 830 which is touchscreen and the screen size is bigger than the 530 but still smaller than the 1030.
You have me convinced on the 530. That’s what I’m opting for, so a big thanks on this as it’s like £300 cheaper, so a huge saving for pretty much the exact feature set. The thing I want, more than anything, is the real time KOM / sprint type stuff so I can turn the real world into a kind of Zwift. It opens up so many more possibilities, and I genuinely cannot wait to start putting down some times on climbs and rides I did as a kid. There’s one hill in particular that I’m really looking forward to attacking.
Regarding the Allez – the only thing I wish I had now that I don’t currently have is disk brakes. It does look like the entry level disk option from Specialized is about £1300, so there’s no way I would have ever gone for that up front. But hey, I’ve not even ridden it outdoors yet with rim brakes, so they might be absolutely fine. I do love my Allez though – honestly the day it arrived I couldn’t believe how light it felt. I have never tried a carbon bike or anything (of course), but this seems more than enough for me at the moment. Just daft when the pedals cost more than the bike. That said, I have a tendency towards buying the best I can afford, but (hopefully) never having to change them for at least 5, ideally 10 years. I do this with everything – laptops, home stuff, my turbo trainer… I’m not rich by any means, just feel like treating myself after these last 10 days.
🙂
Chris,
Sorry to hear you came down with whatever (sure sounds like it could’ve been COVID-19), but glad to hear that it sounds like you’re on the mend. Hope your family is doing OK.
Like Phil said, make sure you’re fully recovered before you get back to riding. And there’s a good argument for just taking it “easy” riding and doing base miles during the pandemic. Exercise is good for the immune system, but going too hard can depress your immune system and make you more vulnerable. That’s why pro/elite bike racers are always on the knife edge of being incredibly fit or really sick.
FWIW, I ride with a Precision 4iiii single-side crank arm power meter. And a Wahoo ELEMNT Roam bike computer. I used to have a Garmin 520 and had two of then go tits up on me (the original plus the second one that Garmin replaced under warranty, but they wouldn’t replace the second one).
Cheers – yeah, hard to be 100% certain honestly, but the symptoms I’ve had sure seem to match up with what other people I now know who have had, or currently have it seem to be reporting. That said, I have not been tested, and maybe / likely never will be. Another un-reported statistic.
Today – day 10 I think – and I’ve finally felt well enough to get back on the bike. Thank God. It felt great to get back on there honestly. What a shocker these last ~2 weeks have been. I may well have over done it on this one though today, will have to see how I feel tomorrow. Hopefully not.
Yeah have been seeing various reports about the Garmins been really flaky. My theory – and it is just this atm – is that the bits inside the Tacx are garmin (or maybe they aren’t, but now garmin owns Tacx, so maybe they are?) and they’ve been rock solid for me. I’ve heard that the garmin stuff is totally hit and miss. Some people are extremely unlucky with it, others it works perfectly. My plan is to buy from Amazon, so worse case if it goes pear shaped they will (or always have) been extremely good to me with warranty / replacements and stuff, even weeks / months later. Heck, I once totally broke a processor for a PC and they replaced it no questions asked, and that was absolutely my mistake.
I find the array of choice absolutely baffling though on this stuff. I’ve read DC Rainmakers buyers guide and honestly, I’m even more confused after that than I was before.
As someone who does reviews, DC Rainmaker’s reviews are as good as they get. The gold standard. But yeah, all the info/data can sometimes be overwhelming.
I don’t think there’s any one best/right choice when it comes to a lot of tech stuff (although there are probably some things that are definitely not good choices). It’s what works for you based on what you want/need. And what fits your budget.
Be well and be safe. Cheers!
I think with the sheer weight of numbers they sell there will always be a certain amount of failed devices. To my knowledge Garmin has a pretty decent warranty program. Biggest issue I’ve had with my Garmin and Wahoo computers is GPS can be a bit flaky, total pain when half your ride is missing because it couldn’t get a lock.
I’ve ordered the 530 so hopefully I get a good one. I’m surely due some good luck currently 😀