Why Am I So Tired? Girl on the River is Looking for Answers

In many ways, life has returned to normal since I resumed my regular rowing practice. The laundry basket is reassuringly full of lycra. My hands are once more attractively covered in callouses. You can’t get through the back door without tripping over wellies. And I’ve even got muscles where my normal, non-rowing friends don’t.

But there’s one thing that is different this time: I’ve been finding it tiring – really, really tiring. Not the usual, achey tiredness that I used to experience at the end of an outing… but a deep, engulfing exhaustion that has me falling asleep over my soup and even – and this really is a first for me – going to bed way before 10 on training days.

I’m not really sure why this is. Our outings aren’t longer than before. I’m back to pretty normal levels of fitness. And I haven’t aged that much in the intervening period.

Could it be that I’m trying harder? Or that my technique’s improving and I’m achieving more out of each stroke? Is it merely the passing of another year? Or have I got selective amnesia that has made me forget how knackering it always was?

Anyway, I’m too tired to figure it out right now. I’m off for another snooze, so wake me up if you have any answers. Zzzzzz…..