14/07/2026
Last week was a reminder that even when you feel like you’re winning, recovery still comes first.
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Training had been going really well. I was getting stronger, functioning better at work, and feeling more like myself. So I made the mistake many of us make: I felt good and decided to push a bit harder.
After my strength session, I added four 30 second “sprints” on the air bike. I felt fine afterwards.
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The next day? Still okay.
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Then, a few days later, it caught up with me.
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The headache arrived. The fatigue returned. I felt puffy, nauseous, and run down. My legs turned to lead.
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Looking back, it wasn’t just the sprints. Poor food choices, worse sleep, and hot weather all added to the load. It’s rarely one thing, the total stress on the body that tips the scales.
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This is why pacing matters. For people living with Long COVID, autoimmune conditions, and other fatigue-related illnesses, symptoms can show up well after exertion, which makes it easy to think you’ve “got away with it.”
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Feeling better doesn’t always mean your body has more capacity. Sometimes it just means you’ve found the right balance.
Don’t rush to move the goalposts. Stay there for a while. Build consistency before intensity.
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Recovery isn’t about pushing through exhaustion. It’s about respecting your limits often enough that, over time, those limits can slowly expand.
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It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
