Some positive news in this week’s blog: I now have access to a swimming pool! Due to my line of work and the requirement to keep fit, I have been given access to the swimming pool on site at work. I have to book in advance, and only six people are allowed in the building at one time, including the two lifeguards. But I have a swimming pool!

I went for my first swim on Friday and had to decide what session to do. I went back through my training and chose a recovery swim from a couple of weeks ago. It consisted of a warm-up, a pyramid of freestyle and pull combinations, and a cool-down—about 2 kilometres in total. It was so good to get back in the pool; it broke up the monotony of just biking and running. My swim fitness has suffered, though: I could comfortably sit at 1 minute 50 seconds per 100 meters, but on Friday I swam at an average pace of 2 minutes per 100 meters. I hope this will improve as I work on my technique with drills and rebuild my swim fitness.

My plan for swimming now is to do another week of ‘acclimatisation’, followed by a fitness test, then try to jump back into the sessions currently set out. I will assess the impact this has on me and adjust from there. But it’s exciting that I now have a pool! I still have access to the rowing machines and managed to do a few sessions instead of swimming over the last couple of weeks before the pool became available. The sessions were hard—maybe a little too hard—and I developed some quite big blisters on my hands, which are still uncomfortable. I am glad I don’t have to deal with them anymore.

In my last post, I mentioned that I wanted to get out and explore. So, I decided to do one of my favourite rides from 2019. This is a ride I have only done once before, and I thought it was a good place to start. The route begins with 20 miles of rolling hills and a lot of climbing, followed by a fast 5-mile downhill section, and then a 22-mile flat ride along the coast—a really rewarding ride.

The only problem this time was the wind. Last time, the 22-mile flat section along the coast was fast and really rewarding. This time, it was a hard slog against the wind. On that road, I can usually average 20 mph without trying. This time, with the wind, I averaged 14 mph if I was lucky. I know wind is part and parcel of cycling, but it spoiled what had been a great ride. It was soul-destroying and took all the fun out of it for me.

The session didn’t get any easier after the ride. I had a half-hour run planned, which is usually fine, but on this occasion, after 20 minutes, I got stomach cramps and urgently needed the toilet. With COVID restrictions, no public toilets were available, and I was half an hour away from home. Don’t worry—I didn’t leave a deposit in a bush; I just had a very uncomfortable ride home. I made it back, eventually.

This bout of stomach cramps, however, was the start of a fever that wiped me out for 48 hours. I had aches and pains all over, cold sweats, and a blinding headache. Maybe a bit of flu? Whatever it was, it made me miss my long run on Sunday and, annoyingly, my first swim session. I was just not up to it. I did do a few sessions later in the week that, in hindsight, I maybe should have skipped. But training is training. All is well now, and I am back in the full swing of things.