Went for a bicycle ride today from New Farm to Dutton Park. The wind was rather strong, so it was a bit of a fight, not to mention riding a mountain bike that was conspiring to suck out half of the effort I was putting in.
Haven't been for a ride in maybe 20 months or more, and boy did I feel it. Not in the can't walk kind of way, my muscles while not anywhere as strong still work fine. I didn't realise it until I got down to Dutton Park, and realised I don't know the way to the new bridge to UQ. We elected to turn around and head back the way we came, and that's when it hit me.
I had that feeling in my stomach associated with too much lactic acid (at least, that's my understanding of it). I felt the overwhelming urge to let the pistachio and cardamon creme brulee and the gado gado I had for lunch come up. Held it down but never found my second wind until maybe 5 km down the road.
Throughly enjoyed being out and about though, the sun was nice, the weather was beautifully warm, and it got that pent-up-in-the-house frustration out of my system. Also good to confirm my heart was in a good condition.
Had a small fright Wednesday, ended up wandering down to the doctor on campus in a hurry to confirm I wasn't about to keel over with a heart attack. No history of heart attacks in my family, in fact hearts on both sides of my grandparents have all been strong. Everytime I have a medical, my blood pressure is a perfect 120 over 70, my heart rate is solid and inline with my fitness, and never have I had palpations or similar.
My left arm had been tingling with pins and needles for a couple of days, but I'd written it off due to the new tires on my motorcycle. Semi race tires, and Michelin really weren't kidding when they said the comfort factor was low.
Then sitting in the office Wednesday, I was starting to sweat, had nausea, had hot flushes, my arm was starting to hurt mildly, had a bit of a pain in my chest, and an inability to concentrate. I got myself to the doctor quick smart. Doctor wasn't too concerned as I started explaining symptoms but as I got to pain in the chest and so on he really started to take notice.
Poked and prodded with some careful checking of my heart, he declared to my relief that I wasn't about to roll over and meet my maker, but rather it was a combination of a few things that all stemmed from my preference for fresh air and the recent heat. In essence, I had rolled over onto my stomach in my sleep to feel cooler in the heat, and due to a bicycling injury I tend to rest my head on my left elbow as I sleep with my head to the right. That resulted in a pinched nerve through the left elbow.
I hadn't slept properly for whatever reason for about a week and a bit, and the rest of the symptoms were a combination of stress and sleep deprivation. Got back to the office, told my boss that I was taking the Thursday off on the doctors suggestion, and since then I've only been getting better. The pinched nerve will take some weeks to heal apparently, but it's kind of neat to have an arm that works fully yet feels like I've been lying on it for a few hours :)