Summer Cold: wko according to the 'neck line' test.
I think I read it in Runner's World or Triathlete. If the symptoms are above the neck line, you should be ok. If it's in the chest or myalgias, then take the day off.....
Been sick since Friday. Thought it was allergies. Then just got worse by the hours. Raging sore throat, HA's, congestion, green slime, you get the picture (sorry
). Got in Friday and Saturday's wko, week 12ish of HIM. But had to go into work ALL weekend after that Saturday wko. Took Sunday off...sick, worked all day n night, and it was my anniversary
. Sunday night/Monday was the worst and I feel like on on the downside now, maybe a 6-7/10 as opposed to a 4 on Sunday/Monday.
After going thru an learning experience at my first race (Oly) with EN training just 2 weeks prior, I've been motivated to stay on course with this HIM plan (Oct 9th), even doing those swimming sets that I wasn't doing before! That's why I've only taken this past Sunday off. But....
Had a VERY hard time staying motivated for yesterday's swim, really dragging, and quickly bailed on the plan and did the session just focussing on form and feel. So, I missed the Speed + Endurance, but I did get some form work in and I didn't feel like death afterwards.
Today's bike session of 3x12's at FTP never happened. That first interval showed me real quick that the power wasn't there. Yet, I wasn't so tired that I wanted to quit. So, I did 4x 12's with big gear/lo cadence. The watts were well off, of course, but I did put the time in, hopefully getting something out of it by switching the usual spinning style up. (BTW, been adding these lo cadence sessions to my plans whenever I get in that 12-6 week out session over the last few years). So, the FTP goal was a fail, and though I was tired, I wasn't baked from trying to hold threshold during this blasted head cold.
The running sets have been pretty short up to this point and I've pulled them off so far. But, tomorrow is a 95' run with 4x .5's at TP that I'm not looking forward to. May have to tweak that, I'll get a feel for it once I'm about 20' into it. 4am.
Same open mind approach for Friday and then will do everything I can hit the targets on Saturday and Sunday.
What's the point here?!?!
Yeah, I don't feel good, but it's that grey area of when to workout and when to sit. I know it's a slippery slope. I'm trying to stay active so that I can give up as little EN fitness as possible for when I'm feeling normal. And it's a head cold (longer) not a 24 hr bug. I'm not interested in giving up a week or whatever just waiting til I feel 'perfect' or 'cleared for take off'.
You guys have any experience here?
The 'if you feel bad, take the day off', is the ez response. I'm not saying it's wrong....
But, I expect, short of fever/chest congestion/chills, I'll be getting the time in WITH this frickin' cold. And until I do feel like I have gotten over it, I'll hit the targets when I can and back off on intensity when needed.
Also, I want to post this to give myself and anybody reading this a timeline. I'll give brief updates to see if I'm causing this bug to drag on. But, I hope to see that I get back on 'intensity' schedule by the weekend.
Thx,
Chris
Comments
As far as working out goes, I went to an every other day gig for the week when this head cold was peaking. There were a couple of days with bad cough and fever, worked around those days. On the other days, went for the lower end of the IF's and did one less interval and only main set stuff. Really felt exhausted alot quicker. Would do the life thing as normal cuz it's not waiting on me. Then take the next day off of working out so that I could muster up some energy for the following day. Swim workouts were just short and sweet with no intensity, tho. Hopefully this kept me from losing too much fitness.
The last couple of days have been better, all symptoms subsiding, and energy picking up. And I almost feel like there's some mojo knocking on the door. Ready to get back to a normal routine, where I'm not juggling 'illness factor' along with all of the other daily factors.