Right, the assault on the second half of the season begins….

  Very nearly back to full health….

  ….seems like I’ve been ill for ages.  Getting on for a month really – not good.  Pleased to say all the virus symptoms have now gone and the resting pulse back down to something slightly less scary!  Just had a bit of a dodgy belly the last couple of days – don’t know if it’s related.

  I came close to going to the docs (or rather, it got very close to Sue ORDERING ME to the docs) because of the sharp pain under my ribs.  Thing is, I’ve spent so much time in and out of the docs / hospital this last year or two that they’re probably sick of the sight of me by now!  My liver (or something in that area) was definitely inflamed because I could clearly feel it – with the strange coloured poo, it sort of suggests bile / gall bladder / liver.  Dunno, but I know some viruses do cause temporary ‘hepatomegaly’.  All okay now though. 

  I had one of those dead steady ‘taking-your-bike-for-a-walk’ type rides on Friday, followed by two easy 90 min stints on the turbo over the rainy weekend just gone.  All seemed fine.

  Got out for a slightly stiffer ride on the MTB this afto for three hours, Av HR 134 which is about my usual winter base pace.  Felt surprisingly good actually, turning some big gears and my temperamental bowels even behaved themselves!  More of the same tomorrow perhaps, weather permitting.  Nice to get out and incinerate a few calories too!!

Woolly & Greebo taking me for a walk...

  What really surprised me was a dog walk with my heart monitor on the other week.  I’ve got two Siberian Huskies who have spent the last 7 years dragging me around on my snowboard or scooter, but they’re sort of in ‘semi-retirement’ this year as they’ve almost reached the doggy equivalent of being pensioners.  They still love a good long, brisk walk though.

  We don’t really ‘walk’ to be honest, we do what soldiers call ‘yomping’ – a really fast march.  It gets the dogs up into that husky ‘power trot’ and gives me a good workout too.  What amazed me was my HR – 120 bpm, give or take.  Really surprising.

  Humans evolved to walk long distances, not run or sprint.  In fact, running on two legs is nowhere near as efficient (or fast!) as four legs, but walking on two legs is more efficient than on four legs.  I think the jury is still out on exactly why we began walking upright millions of years ago but this must have been one of the selection pressures surely.  There are other theories about making wading through water easier and even one about temperature regulation (being upright in midday sun exposes less surface area to the light) too.  And why did we lose our hair?  Why are our brains so big?  Why is Jimmy Carr such a tw*t?

  While we’re on the subject of human anatomy (??), I always reckon that the human knee is proof that God didn’t design us, or if he did he is a crap engineer.  What a disastrous piece of engineering they are, especially mine….