Update

I haven't said much over the last 2 months so it's about time for an update in the life of Mont.
I'd updated my Facebook page to say what the problem was, but I didn't want to say too much before I knew all the facts.

The short: I was diagnosed with Glandular Fever in early May; I was in a pretty big hole. Far from ideal with such big opportunities this season.

Hard enough to write this without sounding like I'm searching for sympathy or a sob story, but really I'm not, just laying the facts down and keeping anyone interested up to date!

The longer: Well really I'd been feeling & performing pretty sub par for a long time, but never having any health issues before, and doing a few more bigger races than before, I thought it's just fatigue and I'll work my way out of it. I wouldn't be the type to be chasing a doctor with every little niggle and ailment, and most experiences I have with them are a case of 'here's some anti-inflammatories, come back in a few weeks if it's still causing you problems'. Unfortunately the fatigue fighting went on and on, and I was still racing and trying my bestest, but it was only getting worse. It got to the point where a 1h bike ride would leave me feeling like I'd been through 5h race, and with proper muscle soreness the next day. This was along with light headedness, general fuzzy mindedness & blurred vision, headaches, aching muscles, a throat of thorns, real sore glands and struggling to eat anything without pain. I'd say my immune system is pretty solid in general; I haven't had as much as a cold or cough in a long time, but I picked up a pretty bad fever shortly after Tour of Flanders Nations Cup and knew I better get it seen to.

I'm normally extremely motivated, happy to get the training done, chasing goals and striving to improve, but when every time I went out on my bike I felt crap, and then even worse afterwards, it was pretty tough going both physically and mentally; the light at the end of the tunnel was fading  rapidly! When the bike riding's not going well and that's pretty much all your focus is on, then life falls by the wayside and nothing gets done. Not a pleasant place to be! Say no more about that.

Went to the doctor and after a while got the blood test results back, indicating Glandular Fever, so he said best to get home and get to a local doctor to get it confirmed and registered. Got to say finally having an understanding of what was wrong and why I'd been feeling so useless was a pretty big relief at that point!

Got home ASAP and the doctor here gave me the low down on what I was in for. The worst bit is I've no idea how long I'd been dealing with it for. Really, I'd been fighting some major fatigue since January and had some of the tell tale symptoms the whole time, but who knows.

Having it for a while and pushing on through it had put me in a pretty big hole, and it was gonna take a while to recover.

The main issue is that there's no antibiotics to be taken to get it out of the system, just a case of waiting for the immune system to deal with it; however long that takes. Even when seemingly recovered, it lingers in the blood stream, ready to reignite at any moment the stress balance is tipped, so got to be super careful about training again and trying to build up fitness.

It's been class to be home and such a massive thanks to my parents for their care and understanding. Thanks also to the team at An Post- Chain Reaction who've been understanding of the problems and allowed me the time to recover. 

It's taken a solid 6 weeks off the bike to get close to any feeling of normality back. After another check up with the doctor this week I've been told that the virus is no longer showing up positive, but my white blood cells are still elevated, so I'm not fully in the clear yet. The advice is that I'm able to ride again, but nothing long or intense for at least another 2 weeks, and then have to build up very gradually after that to stay on top of it. As the immune system basically needs to be rebuilt, I'll be much more susceptible to little illnesses than normal, so rushing things will only prolong them!

Given that 6 weeks off the bike and another very minimal 2 weeks is longer than most people's off season, I'll be far from able to go straight back into UCI races, so it's going to take a brave bit of training to get back to that level.

That said, after battling with the illness for so long, when I'm finally rid of it, training should be a lot 'easier' and more productive, so it shouldn't take a lifetime to get back to reasonable fitness.

It's going to be pretty tight to get back to Belgium and racing with the team before the end of the season, but I'm confident I'm in good hands with the doctor and there's still a chance. With all the time away from the bike and watching from the sidelines I'm super keen to get back at it! I really am capable of a whole lot more than I'd shown early this season, so I'm determined to prove that and get things on track again!!

There's a nice photo for the sake of a photo.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely hope your lives are more straight-forward at present :)

Monty

#dontcallitacomeback #believe