Lois Rosindale recovers from glandular fever

I decided to write my blog about getting glandular fever, recovering from it, and my first race since being diagnosed with it, as it is a common virus, that can affect anybody; athlete or not. Before i was diagnosed, i didn’t really know anything about it, i had heard of it, but did not know the symptoms or how it affected you. Training had been going really well at the end of the season, i had a few good races to end it off, however during my 2week end of season break, i got a bad cold which just wouldn’t budge, this had happened the year before so i didn’t really think much of it. Then once i began training again i just started feeling really tired every session, and felt like i had no energy. My times were slow compared to how i had been training before my break, and after each session was a struggle. This lasted a couple of weeks, i just thought it may be my body getting started again after a break, however i started with a really inflamed throat and tonsils. I went to the doctors and received antibiotics, hoping all the problems would go away. Unfortunately i did not feel any better, so i again went to the doctors, and had my blood taken for glandular fever. The doctor said she did not think it would be, as i was still training (although not very well), and still attending 6th form colllege.However the results were positive, but because i am an active person, it hadn’t affected me as badly as some people get it. When i found out i had it, i was quite upset, as i knew that it would mean total rest from training for an unknown period of time, depending on how quickly i recovered from it. In some cases it can take up to 12months. I had a meeting with my coach Jack Maitland, to discuss the best way to go about recovering fully from it, and he was really helpful and made me feel alot better about the situation. I firstly had a period of total rest which didn’t bother me at first because i was exhausted. I started with just 2 1hr sessions of strength and conditioning a week. By January i was ready for light training again, slowly trying to build up the sessions gradually and guage it upon how i was feeling. At first it did take a bit of time, as i would move forward one week, and then backwards a bit the next. It was quite fustrating for me, because as soon as i would feel better one day, i would want to start training hard, but it was a process i knew had to be taken steady, in order to fully recover. My first sessions were definitely a shock to say the least. Now at the beginning of May, i can say that i am well on the way to recovery, i am really pleased to be back training well and racing.

My first race since glandular fever, was Skipton triathlon. I entered it as a start of the season warm up race to see how my fitness levels were, before more of my big races. It was a course familiar to me, and i was eager to see how my stamina would hold up in a full triathlon. The conditions were awful, very cold and windy. My swim felt good, and my time slightly better than expected. Out onto the bike i pushed hard, but the wind was strong on the return, when i reached 2nd transition, my fingers were numb and i had difficulty putting on my race trainers. I felt really strong on the run, and was able to maintain a good pace. At the end of the race, the results showed i was 1st female by over 5mins, and 22nd overall. I was really pleased and now look foward to my first big race, which is the corus sprint race in Reading.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply