When it hit harder, I felt flat, had a ripping headache & no appetite for about a week before it really turned to poo. Still not thinking much of it, I fronted up for a three-hour MTB race. Halfway around the first lap I knew I was in a bad way - barely able to keep the bike moving uphill, sky-high heart rate, and despite the heat of the day (35 degrees or so), shivering uncontrollably. I finished the lap & had a rest for 1.5 hr, before tackling another one. After the race I went home & into bed, where I slept until late the next day! When I did eventually wake up, I began to do some research, and things pointed to glandular fever. The next day (Monday) I rang work to advise of my suspicion, then took myself off to the doctor. Sure enough, blood & liver tests confirmed it. By this stage my throat was so sore I was on a diet of nothing more solid than poached eggs, which lasted about five days.
While things were pretty bad at that point, I got through a lot better than some of the horror stories I've heard. I was only completely off work for a couple of days. Part of that was because I also have a history of depression, and I needed some resemblance of my normal routine to stop my brain going to bad places. My boss was fully accepting of my situation, and after that couple of days off I just worked half days for the next three weeks or so, nicking off when I began to hit the wall.
I was completely off the bike for a month, and as my fitness returned I resumed commuting (flat 15km round trip, so nice & easy), first just one day a week, then two, etc.
I made a tentative return to MTB racing in late March, two months after getting crook. My basic strength hadn't suffered all that much, but my endurance had, as had my recovery time, and races hit me harder and took longer to recover from if I pushed too far. By four months I was pretty much back to normal fitness levels for the daily routine.
I had a mild relapse early this year, virtually a year to the day since really getting hit by it. Not as severe as the major bout, it was very similar to what I had originally, pretty much two years prior to the time of writing; just a few days of profound fatigue, reduced appetite and headache reminiscent of dehydration, which soon passed.
18 months on from the major bout I still know when I've gone hard, the tiredness & recovery are more pronounced than before illness, but I've got the fitness back to do 6-hour & muti-stage 2- or 3-day MTB races comfortably.
