A&H

Training - Interrupted

After straining my Achilles last Monday I took Wednesday and Friday's sessions off to give it time to recover.

I had another reason for that as I was working on the first of the 2011-12 season's Basic Courses for New Referees over Saturday and Sunday. 18 candidates turned up, most under the age of 16 and that brought some challenges but we overcame them. The outdoor sessions worked well, even though we had reduced the number of tutors from 4 to 3. Indoors, matters were even more straight forward. The only problem was the heat. It was the hottest and sunniest day of the year.

I've suffered from sunstroke and heatstroke before but combining symptoms with a bad reaction to what I ate on Saturday evening (spicy platter from ASDA consisting of olives, salami slices and sun dried tomatoes followed up by a cornetto) generated a most unpleasant reaction. I fell asleep in front of the tv around 9pm, woke up long enough to put on the radio commentary of the Haye vs Klitchko fight, fell asleep again before a single punch was thrown and woke up around 1:30am on Sunday morning.

I had a feverish temperature, felt a little unsteady on my feet and stomach cramps. Now if I'd spent the evening swigging pints of beer, then that might have explained my symptoms but I had hadn't had a beer since Thursday! I made my way to bed and with a churning sensation in my stomach I woke around 3:45am. I took some Rennies and hoped to settle back to sleep but suddenly my mouth was rapidly watering ... there was no mistaking what would happen next! I made it to the bathroom before the torrent of vomit spewed out of me and I spent what felt like an eternity retching and dry heaving until I felt like my very stomach lining had disappeared down the toilet.

Feeling a little better I went back to bed where my wife uttered some words of comfort (must have sounded bad for that to happen) and slumped back into a deep sleep. I woke 2 hours later and felt the same uncomfortable sensation so with a leap out of bed and the speed of Usain Bolt, made it to the bathroom just in time for a second bout of vomiting. My temperature was still raging and I had developed a headache (probably from dehydration). I collapsed into bed for another 2 hours of deep sleep but woke with the thought that I had to do day 2 of the course.

I readied myself, headed out and reported in only to be told to go home again! I declined and worked through the day, restricting my intake to water and orange Lucozade. The course finished with all 18 candidates passing the course which was the desired result when we started at 9:30 on Saturday. We tidied up, went home and I went upstairs for a lie down, having started with the feverish temperature again.

I woke up after around 11 hours of deep sleep and this morning feeling a lot better, apart from the cramping stomach muscles (from all the retching and heaving), the headache (which is easing after more water) and the general listlessness associated with being ill. So work beckons, but tonight's training is also out of the question, so hopefully the schedule will be back on course on Wednesday. Not eaten for 36 hours and don't feel like it now though ...
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