So, I’ve been absent for quite a while it seems. Longer than I thought to be honest. Long story short, at the beginning of 2018 I was struck down with a thyroid condition which threw pretty much everything into chaos. I quickly went from running 120km per week to little and eventually nothing. Tired, moody, lacking energy and generally feeling awful I was told by the doctors not to run because of the risk of heart conditions or stroke. Bummer!
It took most of 2018 to get the thyroid back into seemingly normal operation but even then the effects lasted well into 2019. The doctor had warned me that the hormone-based condition would take a long time to truly recover from and particularly that I would find I lacked strength; this proved to be true! I’ve never been a strong kind of guy but any strength I did have had left me entirely which proved frustrating. Even lifting my 7 and 9 year olds was much more difficult than I would have liked.
To further frustrate things, as 2018 drifted into 2019 it became apparent that I was suffering from depression and anxiety. Dealing with the hormonal effects of the thyroid, the blow of losing running, which over the years has become my key source of exercise & social time and the general toll of a long term illness had played havoc with my body and mind. Of course we often realise these things later than is ideal but with the help of the my wife & family, the doctor, a bit of medication and lots of time, things have settled down and improved a lot. As we move into the second half of 2019 I finally feel pretty much myself again and am even running enough to have regained some fitness and be enjoying it.
That’s not to say it’s all easy or sunshine/roses. After putting in perhaps my best week of training in the recent block last week, this one has been a complete throwaway as I have been flat, tired and seemingly on the verge of sickness. I have a lot more perspective these days however and am not too worried about one lost week as I have been able to stack many weeks up and I’m confident I’ll be able to continue to do so.
I’ll be back to write more I think, expending some of my newfound energy reserves in more varied ways!
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