Pneumonia!

On May 4th, I abruptly got sick with a high fever (103.3) and total body aches.  I had a little bit of a cough.  I thought I had the flu (although I was a little surprised, since I got the vaccines this year and there really isn't much flu around).  I proceeded to spend the next 3 days totally incapacitated in bed.  When I still had a fever last Saturday (5/8), I thought that this probably wasn't the flu and started to wonder if I had pneumonia, so I went to the emergency department, where a chest xray confirmed that I did indeed have a pretty large left lower lobe pneumonia.

I missed a couple more days of work, but by Wednesday I felt moderately better, so managed to get through the rest of the work week.  At present, I'm still feeling more tired than usual, and have a very annoying cough.  I haven't done any exercise since the morning I got ill.  In fact, I feel a little short of breath if I walk at a fast clip, so I probably still have some recuperating to do.  I think I may start with a walk later today.

Looking at the bright side, I had very little appetite for a week, so shed the extra 10 lbs I've been carrying around for some time.

Out of Shape

Just back from a (short) run, and I was really shuffling along.  It was perhaps the first semi-warm day of the spring (78 degrees).  I had done a 41 mile bike ride yesterday with a friend who is a lot fitter than I am, so it was at a quicker pace than comfortable for me (although he did 90% of the work on front).  At the end of the ride, I was pretty beat, and couldn't even stay on his wheel the last few miles.

So, I greet the month of May with a continued lack of fitness.

Knee surgery #4 has been scheduled for Friday, May 28.  I don't expect to lose any significant training time, as the doctor told me it would be maybe a week off running, and I'm guessing I might be able to bike in 24 to 48 hours. I'm very interested to see if my shin pain goes away when the screws come out.