The Virus Diary

The Virus Day 116 – Restrictions lifted slowly

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Primary schools and kindergartens opened up again this week here in Finland. In a way it’s an end to a certain era of the fight against Covid-19. I doubt we will need to have this drastic measures again, but you never know. It has helped a little with the concentration now that there is less hassle at the house during the day. I suppose next week I will finally know the real effect of working home alone. I don’t really remember how it felt even because it feels it’s been such a long time with full house.

They will also start opening up other places slowly in the beginning of June like restaurants and the group size restrictions is increased from 10 to 50 people. Still for example many offices will stay closed, ours included, and restaurants are definitely not going to be fully operational yet, nor any other venues or shops.

Closures and empty space

After a few months I visited a shopping centre a few days ago and it was a bit eerie feeling with so many shops either closed temporarily or permanently. Quite a few had closing down sales which makes you wonder what there will be left after a few weeks? Even if there is something left, will anyone have money to spend anymore? How vulnerable our society is and how dependent on everyone spending money. We have built it around materialism maintaining the standard of living . Now that we are home we don’t buy anything ”on the way somewhere” or ”passing by”. I am actually hoping that this will be the end of the materialism in the world in a way and have noticed that I am thinking more consciously about what I put my money into, do I really need it and have found a lot of things you can actually do without!

I am worried, like everyone is, about the future. How all this will affect us and how long will it take before we recover from this. Then again good things may happen. We travel less overseas and even to work so it must have a positive impact on the air quality and climate. Maybe more people will continue working from home and travel less in general and pollution will go down. Then again is that enough to make a real impact on the climate crisis? I for one have changed my thinking. I have no desire to travel overseas currently and even when it is possible it may take a while before I would consider doing it.

I don’t think people will stay put and never travel again, but I do think that they will travel less far and travel more domestic and shorter distances. People will continue playing it safe for a while and the further to the unknown you go, the less sure you can be that you won’t get or spread ”The virus” so it makes sense not to rush around the world.

Home sweet home

Just being home has become more and more attractive. I do still miss certain things like the salad in restaurant Teatteri in Helsinki city centre where I used to go on my lunch break. I also notice thinking more and more about ”if I ever get to do that again”, so something has changed. This current ”normal” is so stuck in your head already that you start remembering what it used to be like and reminiscing the past and ”nice” things. Even petty things that you can definitely do without.

You find yourself thinking ”that actually it’s quite vain”… Really just going to a concert or restaurant to eat out. I mean you can do without those. Then again, you can do without a lot of things, but all these ”nice things”, consuming and seek of pleasure and ”good feeling/atmosphere” is what we live for. We humans just do that naturally and I don’t think we will ever stop seeking pleasing experiences and stop doing things that make us feel good.

But for now I have learned to like just being home and when we do get to go to a restaurant or a small concert again after all this time I will embrace those moments and support the people who do them. They do make life so much more pleasurable and fun!

What I will though continue doing is evaluating everything material that I buy with the following criteria;

  • Do I really need this?
  • Can I live without this?
  • Is this a good quality product that won’t break in first use?
  • Is there a more sustainable alternative?
  • Do I really need this :)?

So at least my mind set has changed . How has yours changed?

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Training

Training – W16-19/2020 Absolute stand still

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I haven’t been able to train at all for the past weeks. I was sure that ”listen to your body and let it heal” would work, but it dd not seem to do the trick. I took it really easy for a few weeks and then went for a short walk with my daughter to the forest after which my left leg was in pain again. So went to the doctor to get a diagnosis and surprise, surprise it was ”Runner’s knee” so exactly that inflammation of the IT band as I thought in my last training post from W15/2020. I was prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs (Again!! Got them in Jan 2020 too, not my favourite pills) to get rid of the inflammation and if that does not help then come back.

So ate the pills as prescribed. These also had side effects such as higher heart rate, higher blood pressure and really weird general feeling so took them only that minimum 7 days and now have not been taking them for four days. Not sure though if they helped, as out of the blue suddenly three days ago I got the same strange numb feeling on my left leg without ANY walking even, so I am puzzled.

On a 5 k slow picnic hike with my daughter
to test if I can walk / jog a few weeks ago

The doctor also mentioned there could be some other underlying issues like nerve entrapment, but the pain seemed to be exactly where it would be for the Runner’s knee issue. So have been doing loads of foam rolling and stretching as suggested and noticed that my glute muscles are actually pretty sore and not just my calves. Maybe it’s just a general ”whole leg nerve entrapment” and I am paying the price for not having stretched enough after training.

So again. My own fault probably.

But what can you do but try your best and hope that soon I will be able to go to the gym and hopefully start running slowly again. I could really use some advise if anyone has suffered of the IT band inflammation how long it took to get better and how slowly should you start training again and what gym exercises would be good?

Good news is that it seems to help. Foam rolling that is. I did go for a 9 k bike ride with my daughter yesterday and my leg did not hurt after it, but I did feel that I had done something so hoping that this was the first step to recovery finally.

BTW thanks to Covid-19 I have not been walking even to the metro and to office so my steps on average have been pathetic, not to speak of my amount of training. I was actually shocked to see how few steps I have been taking lately without the every day normal routines. I know that for some this situation has been the trigger for them to exercise and walk even more here in Finland ( we have been able to go out all the time). It is easy to notice this trend on the path next our front door, it’s more like highway nowadays! I am not one of them though and it’s getting on my nerves I can tell.

I truly hope that there won’t be yet another setback and I would be back to square one with my left leg again! Despite of everything I am feeling slightly more positive than a few days ago. I still think that healing shouldn’t be rushed, so trying to find a little more patience again for the week ahead from somewhere…

For some Covid-19 may have increased the amount of training and steps but not for me!

Training total for the past month

So to the exiciting part… drum rolls…. Training totals for the week… they would be so pathetic and non existent that this time I am adding monthly totals. Let’s call this the Corona month 🙂

  • 1 walk 2,5 kilometers
  • 1 circuit training 43 minutes
  • 1 hike 5 kilometers
  • 2 times cycling, one 3,25 kilometers and another 9 kilometers

Training plan

Now I understand that I need to start easy so my training plan must reflect that. If it looks like my leg is on the mend I will plan something around that thought. Good part is that gyms are open also so I will be able to go there also if needed for specific moves.

Happy training everyone,

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Kilimanjaro Challenge

Kilimanjaro – Day 8/10 – From Kibo to Horombo camp

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Leaving Kibo camp heading towards Mawenzi peak

Finally down hill, yay! I was so happy to go to bed knowing I would be ”getting out of here”. I was already feeling better, but still not good. Anything you did was an effort. Getting up and going to the toilet even! I had hard time falling asleep the night before because I had slept during the day while waiting for the others to return, but did manage to get some sleep. Like always I woke up with the sun and waited for the hot water to arrive so I can get my morning dose of Milo as I was SO hungry.

For the first time during the whole climb up I was actually hungry and it felt good.

The path seemed to last forever! Distances are all skewed on the mountain!

Everyone woke up in their due time. This morning we were leaving a bit later around 10 am so we had more time to get ready than normally. I was keen to leave. Not only because I knew we are heading down hill and it can only get easier from here, but also because I knew there are showers at Horombo. Cold showers, but showers nevertheless. I don’t care how cold it is. I’m going there!

Everlasting path…

We said our goodbyes to the moon-like Horombo camp and the snow capped tip of the volcano and started our ascent. Sun was shining from a cloudless sky and we got some nice shots towards Kibo camp with Ubuntu ”girl power” team! (See feature image above post). It was a bit chilly so I did not have my sun hat on, but just a normal hat and sunglasses. Big mistake I learned later!

The path was wide and very long across the saddle between Mawenzi (second highest peak in Kilimanjaro National Park ) and Kibo (highest peak). You could see the moon-like scenery lasting as far as your eyes can see. Then finally the vegetation begins to change and we can see a few bushes.There was clearly more traffic on this side of the mountain than the one we climbed up.

Finally some vegetation also! The path was more like highway! So many people coming and going.

Ubuntu and Ashanti

It didn’t feel like 9,5 kilometers and I had even a bit too much energy. We reached the camp by lunchtime and had the last of our greeting dance with the team. Now everyone was joining the dance again, but the feeling was sad. The time on this magical mountain was coming to an end.

On our team everyone was needed and we could not have done it without them. The cooks, porters, guides. It was a well organized and seamlessly working community and team. I have very high respect to these people who made it possible for us. It makes me sad that now their livelihood is gone with Kilimanjaro National park closed due to Covid-19. Then we did not know yet how bad it will get. Later we heard that we were among the last groups to go up. Team Ubuntu was indeed very lucky!

Whole Team Ubuntu crew. We could not have done it without any of them! Thank you Ashanti tours <3

S-h-o-w-e-r and SMS messages

And then… the long awaited shower! Ice cold, but who cares. Me and Kirsty were brave and went there and it was so good! I cannot overrate how great and refreshing it felt. Funny how little things make you so happy… And a flushing toilet. No more finding suitable bushes or rocks!

Mobile coverage also worked on and off as we were camped on this ridge so I managed to send and receive a few SMS messages. Getting messages from home made me realize how much I missed my children, husband and even the cat! Just normal life felt like luxury now and I could not wait to get home.

Before that we still had one very long day and 18 kilometers ahead of us (well that’s what the guide said), to get to Marangu gate out of Kilimanjaro National Park. After nice shower and hot meal we were all again pretty tired as the day had been again long with 9,5 kilometers down hill. Took a nap, read a book. Somehow the afternoon passed by and it was dinner time again. After dinner I finally watched a movie I had downloaded on my mobile. Until now I had not felt like watching anything, but now I felt better and didn’t think I could anyway fall asleep anytime soon, so watching a movie would be a good pass of time.

View from ”space”

When we got to camp (3733 meters altitude) there was quite a few clouds so you could not really see where you were at, but at night when I woke up to go to the toilet the sky was clear and you could see the lights of all the roads, cities and towns below. We were still so high that it felt like you were watching the earth from space. It was so breathtakingly beautiful that I could not go back to sleep, but had to just sit there and keep staring at it for a while with tears flowing thinking about all the lives of the people there how they do not know that I am here staring down at their city from above wondering what they are doing. Thinking how there is so much life on Earth, how these little specs of light indicate where humans wander.

I think it was a bit of unburdening the stress of the journey both physically and mentally as well as missing home. In a way the mountain was both frightening and mesmerizing at the same time. You respect it, wonder it and admire it’s beauty, but still feel like we are here just to visit, this is not our place, we are just passing through.

Finally went back to my tent to sleep being grateful that I had seen that view all alone in the middle of the night. In the morning the clouds were back and we could not see downhill clearly anymore.

Unfortunately I could not sleep too well due to strange feeling on my lower lip which just seemed to get worse and worse… To be continued 😀

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