New year, new you?
So, how are you all? Raring to go and feeling tip top and well rested after Christmas? Hmmmm.
I can’t say my new year has got off to the spiffing, sparkling start I’d have liked it to. Still coughing from a cold that began five weeks ago, I’ve managed to revive an old rib injury (sustained, improbably, at a village ceilidh some years ago – seriously, folk dancing is dangerous in the wrong hands). All this, coupled with a handful of other festive ailments and an exhaustion that won’t go away, is telling me one thing. I’m massively run down and I need to rest.
But what is this “rest”? Is there an exercise that will cure it? Sadly, it seems, there isn’t. All I can do is be boringly, tiresomely, wearyingly sensible. It involves alien concepts such as early nights, eating healthily, going easy on the caffeine, going easy on the alcohol (say what?), and building up my strength with a really novel concept called Moderate Exercise. Brisk walking. A little gentle cycling. In due course perhaps a spot of jogging.
No sprints. No intervals. No long sessions on the river or the erg (OK, I can’t deny I’m not sorry about the erg bit). I’ve even counted myself out of the Women’s Head (wail). The grand plan, such as it is, is to be back on song by April, and certainly in time for regatta season.
In the meantime, though, I won’t be abandoning the river altogether. The good thing about being small and shouty is that I’m always welcome in the cox’s seat, so will finally get my coxing debut at one of the local head races. After a few weeks of this “rest”, my rib may even permit me a little light rowing.
So there’s plenty to look forward to. But if you do see me dozing off with the boredom, promise to wake me up, won’t you?