Sorry I skipped the Saturday post this week. My excuse? The eternal winter nuisance: the flu. While my work team is literally at Death’s door in the Emergency Department, I’m popping over-the-counter meds, functioning, and mostly just being exceptionally grumpy. Good luck or good management? Probably a bit of both.
Today is a Saturday/Monday combo deal: a raw progress update, a motivational message, this week’s strategic battle plan and a change to the way things are working around here.
The Metrics: Raw Progress Update
- Sleep (Avg 70/100): Highly erratic. Friday night featured a spectacular crash down to 48.
- HRV (Improving!): Balanced 5 out of 7 nights, proving the system is fighting back despite the flu virus.
- Energy (7/10): Gym sessions fuel my daylight hours but leave me entirely spent by nightfall.
- Motivation (8/10): High. I’ve been getting shit done and going above and beyond.
- Anxiety (2/10): Low, save for the standard Sunday night impending-work dread. (I considered removing this one as it is always pretty low, but have decided to keep it if only to track how social events and stress spikes impacts my routine).
- Irritability (9/10): Dangerously high. I am highly reactive, fuelled partially by viral fatigue.
The Motivation Monday Shift: Being Kind vs. Being Weak
I didn’t train today. Honestly, these are the exact moments I find hardest because my internal critic loves to call me an absolute arsehole for resting.
It is a fine line to tread:
- Will a workout sweat this illness out and make me feel better?
- Or will I cough up a lung, worsen the fatigue, and get sideways looks for spreading the plague?
Last week was about building automated routines so you don’t have to think. This week is about flexible discipline. When you are sick, changing the plan isn’t a failure of motivation—it is a calculated tactical retreat to prevent a total operational shutdown. The problem I encounter is that to do this without sending the Army corporal in a complete psychotic episode requiring medical sedation to stop telling me how fat and lazy I am, is very difficult. And then there all the habit people out there talking about ‘never break the chain’ or ‘never miss more than one day’, so how does that work why you are dying?
Reframing the identity question: Habit formation is driven partly by who we want to be, on our identity. Going to the gym or exercising regularly is the identity I have clung to for a long time. To try and accommodate illness (and broken bones) I need to rework this more towards I am someone who takes care of their body and wellbeing. So when I’m sick what would someone who takes care of themselves do? Rest and recover.
But again we come back to that question, similar to the ‘which tired am I?’ one I posited last week. How sick is too sick to exercise? Forcing yourself through a heavy workout when your body is already compromised delays recovery, spikes your cortisol, and can actively damage your health, but sitting on the couch when you have a runny nose is not going to positively move the bar.
So I’m going to try the Above/Below the Neck rule: If your symptoms are purely above the neck (runny nose, sneezing, mild headache), a light, low-intensity workout is usually fine. If your symptoms are below the neck (fever, chest congestion, body aches, coughing, nausea), do not train. Missing days here is a medical necessity, not a failure of discipline.
Right now I’ve got a chesty cough, but it doesn’t hurt and I’m not struggling to breathe. Other than that it’s a mild headache and runny nose, so I will go tomorrow. Even if it’s a gentle 30 minute bike (because we have all seen that I am very good at moderating my workouts) just to keep the momentum. To be kind to myself though rather than smashing with an early start I will do a lunch time session, leaving work at 11.30am. I’ve got it in my calendar like an important meeting with the boss.
This Week’s Attack Plan
The routine remains the framework, but the execution remains fluid based on whether I survived the night or not.
- Tuesday (11:30 AM): Easy gym session, gentle bike trying to ensure my lungs stay within my body..
- Wednesday: Pre-work workout window.
- Thursday: Straight after morning meetings finish.
- Friday: Early bird pre-work session to close out the working week.
- Saturday: A tentative bush walk with the co-pilot (assuming my lungs remain fully contained and the ankle is up to it – god I’m a walking war zone).
So, the game plan is set. The new bi-weekly posting schedule is locked in. The Army Corporal has been issued new orders: we are pivoting from blind enforcement to tactical maintenance. Tomorrow at 11:30 AM, we ride. If you see someone on a stationary bike looking like a one-person medical emergency, wave hello. Wish me luck—and definitely keep your distance.