So I’ve got this lingering head cold, took the last 2 days off riding but today I had to get some time on the bike. Today was supposed to be a climbing day but I felt like I should just take it easy. On the bike I felt pretty good so I resorted to doing some climbing and trained as normal without feeling the effects of the cold in my legs.
After the ride I felt sick once again, congested and such. Question is, if I feel good while riding, will I benefit MORE to train through a cold as normal (sans intervals) or take the whole period off? Which is better for the athlete?
I did ironman Florida with a cough and head cold a month ago. Fortunately it didn’t bother me too much on the day since it was going away by the time the race started (I just had the sore abs lingering from coughing so much prior). I am somewhat obsessive compulsive so I train through just about everything and modify my workouts appropriately (no speed workouts and easy training until it goes away) . If the cold becomes congestion in your lungs then you should take time off since it is hard to train. It also depends on what part of the season you are in (ie. I would have been taking it easy on November 8th if I hadn’t already committed so much time and money into racing in Panama City). Rest is important and I find that if I keep doing something then I don’t throw off my system completely and I tend to feel better faster.
Not trying to gloat, just qualify: I’m fairly young (27) and maybe get sick (a cold) once a year maybe every two yrs. And I assume the older you get, the amount of time you need to fight off a cold is longer. So I guess I can kinda, sorta, maybe see why you’d want to train through. But my inclination when sick is to rest as much as possible. Rest, hydrate, pound the vitamin C and echanacia and then when I think its gone – I rest some more and ease back into training. Usually that whole process doesn’t take longer than 5 days. I can handle taking 5-7 days off to make sure a cold is good and gone without seeing much, if any, of a performance loss when I get back to it.
Rest is a critical factor for success in this sport. i think sometimes it’s too easy to get psycho about training and wind up overtraining or hindering progress.
Negative on training through. My college coach used to beat it into our heads that if we swam while we were sick, ‘we were blowing it all out of our system.’ Doesn’t work as well once you hit 30. I was exposed to twin 2 year old snot factories on Thanksgiving day. Was feeling fatigued and stagnant over the weekend from the lack of excercise post turkey day. Went for a 6 mile run Monday and felt super sluggish - couldn’t even hold 8 min/mile. Have been resting since, but still feel like crap.
This has happened before and I always end up feeling like I lost a lot of fitness, but working out only prolongs the symptoms as beating up an already tired body rarely works. I say give it a rest and then compensate for what you missed, don’t try to jump in where you left off, take a step back.