I woke up yesterday morning and the room was spinning. Fast. Although not an entirely new experience for me I’d only experienced this before after drinking quite a lot of alcohol, and when going to bed, not waking up. Oh dear.
The spinning subsided a little after swapping sides, but I wasn’t about to get up and out on my bike early. A slow start to the day, a little wobbly work on the laptop, and I started to feel a little better. I thought I’d try out the bike, and once I got going I didn’t feel too bad. I felt pretty good in fact. I was a bit sore from yesterday’s long ride, and it was a chilly morning, but the wind had died down and from the Crofty salt marsh flats I could see flocks of starlings coming together and growing into huge swarms of birds swaying over the Loughor estuary and Pembrey. I also saw a grey heron and (I think) a little egret or maybe a great white egret. I did some force reps on the hill and rode home, feeling fine.
The rest of the day was ok. A bit wobbly, and bending over was a no-no. I got ready for a run later in the day and lay on the floor to stretch out those gluteal muscles that had been causing discomfort on the bike. The spinning came back, hard. I did the stretches, stood up, and sat down again. The world was very, very wobbly, and I was getting seasick in my living room. No run today then. Oh great, I’ve got an all day swim camp on Sunday too.
The rest of the evening was pretty unpleasant, but it all eased up enough to let me go to sleep. I slept in this morning as the world was all a bit Mr Soft when I first woke up. I scrubbed the gym and the swim from today’s training, and rearranged work plans to take a sick day. I don’t fancy getting in the pool feeling like this.
I sorted out the cleats on my winter cycling boots as it’s now December and has been very chilly for a couple of days. Testing these out on the bike felt ok. Not so wobbly. Off the bike the world was swaying again. Maybe cycling is good for the vestibular system in this case. Your head stays nice and level and mostly forward.
I hope this doesn’t last too long. I’ve built up a nice training load over the last 3 weeks though and have a fair bit of fatigue to shift (especially as I did this week’s long ride on Wednesday) so next week is an easy week anyway. It’s just starting a little early. If I keep a level head (ha!) I should be able to cycle, and maybe run. It’s the swimming that may be troublesome.
