Ruined Guts... How Long?

[Zippy]

Rich, I suffered very similar symptons to you after the TCW double. Off work for a week and wiped out for 4 days with bad guts. I put it down to a bug picked up, and running my immune system right down to the wire.

Hmm, now you talk about it - not quite as bad, but I had something similar when I did BB200 - 2017, but was coughing my lungs up before I started and wasn't 100% sure if I'd make it to the start, and then rode straight through anyway... I had more signs of pneumonia actually, but ruined guts did star for a few days.

[Richard G]

On the antibiotics now. Hopefully better soon.

[Mariner]

Do you know specifically what it was, how it was caught and how to avoid in the future?

How much weight have you lost?

[Richard G]

My weight is back up now thanks to eating absolute garbage for the last week. I was down about 10% at one point, put me back near my race weight...

...and the particular bug is campylobacter. Zero way to know for sure what caused it, but pretty likely to be farm land given my other risk factors were near zero. Short of antibac gel before I ate anything (and cycling with my mouth closed), I can't really reduce the chance of it happening going forward. I guess at least I don't use bottles, so lower risk automatically that way (less likely to get sh*t on my camelbak mouthpiece).

Interestingly I had a call from environmental health today working out all of that, and making sure I wasn't being a plague bearer to other people.

[Richard G]

Antibiotics seem to have helped fix me. I'm a little concerned about getting back to training though.

I tried an easy session on the trainer last night and it went badly. =/

[Moder-dye]

Well at least you've fixed your leak

I'm sure you'll pick up the training in no time, whatever you've got less to regain than me

I managed a record breaking 45mins on the turbo the other day with a jaw dropping ave of 160w. Still 15 weeks a go I couldn't even turn the pedal over after my knee replacement.

[Trail-rat]

"tried an easy session on the trainer last night and it went badly. =/"

Try a couple of weeks just riding and enjoy it before getting back to training.

[Richard G]

The problem at the moment is, I simply don't have time to get out on the bike. It's into the garage for an hour or nothing at all.

Tried again tonight and hit 1bpm off my max heart rate, at a power level that wouldn't normally even have me breathing heavily.

[slarge]

It's going to take a few weeks Rich before you are getting nearer normal. Although I rode my bike within a couple of weeks of my bout (which wasn't as bad as yours), It took a month to get back somewhere near form. Muscle wastage was a problem.....

[Richard G]

Funnily enough, I tried to move around some boxes in the house a couple of days ago and was astonished at how heavy they were.

[Moder-dye]

Sounds like you really need to recover more first of that's the case with high hr and no energy? Can't expect to build fitness if you're still not really well. Get you health back first.

[Trail-rat]

ride in the garage then

trying to do any kind of interval training straight off the bat is counter productive.

[Richard G]

It wasn't intervals, it was a full on recovery ride at about 60% ftp. That's what's got me so concerned.

[sean_iow]

I'm still not fully recovered after the ride, even my easy comutte seems harder than it did before the BB300. Add in diarrhoea for 2+ weeks and it's no wonder you're finding it hard. Give it time and you'll be back up to strength.

[Trail-rat]

Of what FTP ..

Unlikely to be a current one. So your riding harder than you think.

[Richard G]

The one I had three weeks ago. Actually, I'd just finished a training block, and hadn't retested, so I'd say probably technically less than what it should have been three weeks ago.

[MarkW]

I had a similar problem after last years winter event. It lasted about 7 days. Doc also said not to take any diarrhea relief medicine, and take buscopan for the stomach pain. I ate very little during, can't recall if that was involuntary or based on advice.

What I did afterwards was buy a water bottle with a lid!

[Mariner]

General explanation and comparison of filters/purifiers here

https://gearjunkie.com/best-water-filte ... a-22883741

Nothing new but as a short guide might be useful.

[Trail-rat]

Yep so a completely arbitrary set of numbers compared to the you who has been puking and shiting from every oriface for 3 weeks.

Just try riding sans numbers to get your body used to it again without getting your self paniced that you have gone backwards (which if you have been puking ,shittinf and not eating you will have due to muscle wastage)