Welcome to the Knackered Hack. If you enjoy the following article you might also like my interview with Black Swan author Nassim Taleb. Then feel free to sign up to the RSS feed or for regular email updates. You can follow me on Twitter by clicking here. Thanks for visiting!

I’ve tended to make light of colds in recent years, mocking myself with the comedic idea of “man-flu”. I have an elaborate evolutionary biology-inspired theory of man-flu that I’ll relate at some point in another post. But, after four days of ever-intensifying head cold, I started to wonder whether I did have flu. Some symptoms of muscle ache indicated flu perhaps, but most of the symptoms were confined to above the shoulders.

The last time I felt viral, I resolved that the next time, rather than not exercise at all, I might try a light session (say, 20 minutes on the bike) to see if it would have a positive effect. It is said that such a small amount of exercise is not detrimental, and could have positive benefits. This time there was no way. A week on, even though the symptoms have for the first day today been on balance lighter than the day before, I feel no better than a week ago.

Following the “feed a cold, starve a fever adage”, for which there seems to be some scientific basis, I’ve eaten a lot this week, and experienced some weight gain as a result.

Resting heart rate 51

Weight 73 kg

Mood
Sick with virus (seventh day)

(un)related posts

• ancestral fitness (4)
• reasons to cheer the underdog (2)
• the robustness-fragility trade-off, or why you need hopscotch (2)
• war and pizza (0)
• apples: 249 varieties (2)