Tuesday, January 22, 2013

If at first you don't succeed... Try the opposite!

If you haven't seen the race report - or at least scrolled through the vast array of pictures - for the Goofy Challenge, check out Part I HERE and Part II HERE

Part II of that report ended with getting to work about 2pm not yesterday Monday, but Monday the week before.  I walked in full of pride, showing off my medals, chatting up the weekend's story with members...  all until I started feeling my throat get sore around 5pm. 

Gosh darn it!!

I had a cold.  It makes sense.  A good portion of my team had mentioned having flu or cold-like symptoms prior to heading to Florida and a few of them were obviously sick during the weekend.  So while I ran over 40 miles, I also ran my body into the ground and let a cold take over. 

Looking ahead, I knew I had over a month until my next race.  There was no rush to get straight back to training.  I figured I'd take it easy, stay warm, and let the cold run it's course and my body fight it.  Seems logical right?  I packed up on apple juice, Aireborne, chicken noodle soup and saltines, and such.  After 4-5 days, I started feeling better.  The sore throat was lessening and I could go through the day with less and less juice and Halls cough drops (always Lemon Honey).  But over the weekend, I expected it to magically disappear.  As you can guess...

...that didn't happen!

I eventually decided "Screw it.  I'm going to train anyways."  I put the bike in the trainer and did 30 minute ride on Saturday.  I felt ok afterwards; no worse, no better.  Sunday I went further and did a 1:17 ride and again felt the same.  Monday I decided I couldn't take another day without running.  I had already gone a full 7 days run-free.  I decided on a 4 mile run, headed out, and hoped for the best.  When I got back, my sore throat was gone and to be honest, has not come back since.

WHAT?!  Did that really just happen?

The lesson I take from this is that the cold air actually helped to kill some of the virus in my throat whereas the warmer climate of my apartment wrapped all in blankets had allowed it to fester.  ...or that running cures all!  I may be biased, but I prefer the latter version of this tale.

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Questions
1.  Do you exercise when you're sick?

2.  Do you take anything specific during training to help avoid catching an illness?
I take Aireborne before most races to help boost my immune system.


Dream.  Believe.  Achieve. 

2 comments:

Fat for a Triathlete said...

1. No. Because I am a retard and I always go all or nothing. I don't understand why I can't do my full load and then make myself worse. I've actually had to knock off training for the last six months to get over an illness and am JUST getting back into it... 20 weeks before my first Ironman!

2. I just eat a little more garlic, but that's it. I have a friend who takes multivitamins all the time, and then when she feels wrong echinacea (is that how it's spelled??) but the minute she forgets a multi she feels horrible...

Big Daddy Diesel said...

My rule of thumb is above the neck = its ok to train, below the neck = get some rest

Feel better soon