On Monday this week I met with my Esperanto group as usual, and went with Jackie to her x-ray, post-surgical consult, and physical therapy appointments on Tuesday, also as usual. I’d felt fine in the morning, and we’d made a plan to go out to lunch, but by the end of the physical therapy appointment I was starting to feel crappy, and said I wasn’t up to lunch out.

That night I spiked a fever of 100.2℉, and had the usual body aches that go with a fever.

I didn’t start coughing, so I figured it probably wasn’t Covid, but out of courtesy to my fellow Esperanto group members, I sent email the next morning letting them know about my fever.

I felt some better most of the day on Wednesday, but then felt much worse Wednesday evening.

That night my fever spiked up to 102.9℉. Still no cough though. In fact, no other symptoms—no sore throat, no stuffy nose, no nausea. Just a fever.

With that high of a fever, I figured I should probably get a Covid test, so I did that Thursday morning, and otherwise just rested.

My Covid test came back negative, which was reassuring, but still left me wondering what the heck it was.

I woke up Friday morning feeling almost entirely well. My Oura ring reported that I still had a upward overnight temperature deviation, but my implied fever was just 99.8℉.

I’d planned a day trip with friends on Friday, but figured I had to cancel that. I spent another day just resting, although I basically felt fine.

Today I again feel fine. My overnight temperature is back down to baseline.

I have to say that I’m pretty pleased to have this temperature data from my Oura ring. It has been very handy. Looking back over three years of data, I can see one other temperature spike almost this large, from another day when I was sick, and smaller temperature spikes when I’ve had vaccines of one type or another (two shingles, three flu vaccines, and my two previous Covid shots).

As I say, I’m feeling fine today, but one other metric that I pay attention to is not yet back to baseline: My resting heart rate.

My resting heart rate has done a very good job of indicated whether I’m ready for vigorous activity, and the current level suggests that I’m really not.

So I’ll take it easy again today. Do my morning exercises. Maybe get in a little walk.

I’ve documented all this primarily as a record for myself, so I can look back and remember what happened on which days. I’m still in the dark about what was going on, though. Presumably not Covid, based on the negative test. Maybe the flu? (I got my flu shot in early October, but it’s not nearly as efficacious as the Covid shot, so catching the flu and feeling crappy for a few days is entirely possible.) Maybe some other virus?

Or maybe it’s just an unusually delayed reaction to my Covid booster.

I guess I’ll have to live with the question.

2021-11-12 06:35

Posted on 2021-11-12

Philip Brewer

The view out my window right now. (Actually, now that I’m posting this, the view is a little less purpley and rather more orangey.)

Today’s workout (a medium-ish run, with a bonus hawk)

Posted on 2021-11-07

Philip Brewer

My workout was a medium-length run of 3.97 miles which I ran in 1:06:45, but that was not my only activity. Besides that, I also hiked a similar-length trail at Homer Lake with Jackie.

The walk was especially nice, and we’re very pleased that (with her new bionic hip) Jackie is once again able to walk reasonable distances. We walked about 2.72 miles in 1:24. There were some very nice views of Homer Lake, as well as some deer, some blue jays, and a handsome snek that I failed to get a decent picture of.

I did get a decent picture of Jackie:

Besides the pictures from Homer Lake, I also got a picture of a handsome Red-tailed Hawk while I was out running, taken quite close to home. (See at the top of this post.) He was still there as I returned home.

I should mention that the run was actually quite a bit longer than my exercise-tracking app gave me credit for. (Google Fit estimates the distance at 4.46 miles.)

You can get an idea of just how much my exercise-tracking app shorted me from this map, if you know that I ran around the lake at the north end of of my run (and not as the map suggests, through it), and that I generally followed roads and paths (without cutting nearly as many corners as the map suggests).

I want to reassure people that I will not be posting all of my workouts going forward. I just wanted to post a representative strength training session and run, so that I’d have then here as examples.

Today’s workout (gymnastic rings in the fitness room)

Posted on 2021-11-06

Philip Brewer

Rings on a pull up bar, weights, yoga mat, etc.

I originally got gymnastic rings 18 months ago, when Winfield Village closed its fitness room due to the pandemic.

It’s a great fitness room, and I’d really enjoyed using it for workouts over the previous six years or so, but once I started doing my workouts outdoors with gymnastic rings, I found that I liked that even better, so I carried on with my outdoor workouts even after the fitness room reopened this spring.

These last couple of weeks, the weather is no longer as nice as it has been since early April, so I’ve started experimenting with ways to move my workouts back indoors, without losing the extra fun I’ve been having with gymnastic rings.

Last week I did an indoor workout that was very similar to what I’d been doing a couple of years ago. Today I tried to something more like my outdoor workouts—specifically, by bringing my rings along, and putting them up on the chin-up bar.

I did my usual morning exercises before heading over. Once I was in the fitness room, I put my rings up at the right height for dips or inverted rows, and did just a bit of additional warming up, doing some straight-elbow rows and straight-elbow push ups.

That done, I proceeded into my circuit, which consisted of the following for three rounds:

Skater hops x 35
Dips x 3 full dips + 4 negative dips
Goblet squats 35 lbs x 12
Inverted rows x 12
Hollowbody holds 60″ first two rounds, then 30″ for last round
Prone angels 2.2 lbs x 12

I still had a little energy after three rounds of that, so I did two rounds of a little mini-circuit to hit my deltoids, biceps, triceps, and forearms:

Zottman curls 15 lbs x 12
Dumbbell runners 15 lbs x 12 each side with one foot forward, then x 12 each side with the other foot forward

The whole workout took just over one hour, and left me feeling pleasantly tired, without making me feel so worn out as to imperil the run I have planned for tomorrow.