…because I’m sick. After last Saturdays long ride w/Marisol and aztoaster, a cold hit me pretty hard on Saturday night. I took Sunday and Monday as full rest days. I only managed to swim 400m yesterday because I could barely breathe. I think I have a mild chest infection.
Anyway, I’m taking the rest of the week off so I can ride on Saturday and Sunday…I’m taking this time to let my body fully recover…that’s 6 days of no training. So my questions are;
a; When will I be able to taste my beer again?
b: How much fitness is lost after 6 days? Is it anything to worry about?
c: After a six day break, am I okay to jump back into training with something like a 20 hour week, or gradually increase the hours?
I’m bored off my a$$ with nothing to do. Guess I could try and learn to speak french…
I feel your pain brother… As a Canuck who enjoys his pints, i’m having a moment of silence for you.
…
Alright back to the serious stuff. Not being an MD, but having a serious bought with a sinus infection last year (and having a best buddy who’s an ER doc who I bug all the time with questions)… I can speak from experience.
a) you’ll be able to taste your beer when your cold/infection starts clearing up
b) I think the fitness loss (not including the psycological impact) starts to take effect somewhere around the 2 week mark. I believe this is highly individual. HOWEVER, any fitness loss will be minimal compared to if you do what I did and try to train through an infection… I was on the shelf for about 2 months and it nearly cost me my season. (P.S. a tell-tale sign that your coming down with a chest infection is if you start hacking up bright yellow/greenish type stuff… If it’s clearish… you’re likely just suffering from a cold). Get checked out regardless.
c) Start slow and avoid the groups for your first week back. Go at your own pace… I was coming down with a cold earlier in the winter and I painfully had to skip my Wednesday running group because it gets competitive. I was much better by the following week.
Invest in the French lessons… Then you can come visit our national treasure… Montreal! The city which has (i’m not joking) the hottest 10% of all females on the planet!
You will be ok… Most people get sick at some point in their training program… See how your body feels and make sure to drink a ton of water. Now between EVERYONE at work being sick, flying every week-end and you and brian being sick, let me tell you that I am worried that I’ll be sick too! Are you taking vitamins?
First things, first…make sure you’re drinking a Miller product. For full flavor, try an MGD, otherwise, you can never go wrong with Lite.
I am a little biased. However, I did love the bud light commercial during the Superbowl with the skydiving.
I used to work in the insurance industry… Man, I’m never leaving this place. It’s just cool to talk about beer. If anyone is ever interested in Miller products or has general questions about beer, feel free to PM me.(please spare me the carb counting and calorie counting questions… you people are athletes who burn that stuff off in minutes)
Double your vitamin dosage, especially Vit C, and also your glutamine dosage.
Drink plenty of fluids including tea and coffee in order to pee a lot, thus helping the bug out of your system.
Only workout when you feel at 100% and the first 3 days only easy aerobic stuff, one workout a day. Then you can get back to normal training.
Also remember that the reason you got sick could be linked to the training you’ve been doing. When overtraining your immune system is depressed and it’s easier to get sick.
I am a huge fan of the champagne of beers, and was even before the great new ad campaign. Its just much easier to find now. Anyway, I was drinking one the other morning, and a buddy of mine told me that it was like the butter of beers. I know that you stipulated no calorie questions, but it got me to wondering if I was taking in too many calories while shooting the neighborhood kids with my bb gun.
you should be able to start tasting your beer again pretty soon…provided that’s it’s a REAL beer, like Guiness, or Warsteiner Dunkel–something to that effect.
don’t worry about your fitness. clearly you are a maniac, and you won’t loose a thing. in fact the rest is going to be good for you. 6 days is nothing, and I suggest that you don’t go out mad crazy on your rides this weekend…back it down a little so the following weekend you can be your “normal” self again. think long term and don’t freak out.
again, you need to let your body heal, so reduce your training a little the first week you return. help yourself out for the long run and don’t try to come back like the mad-man that you really are. imagine yourself as a rational person (whatever that is, right? lol). when you have illness in your lungs and chest, time off is critical, or you could become sicker for much longer!
you’re bored? come on! this means you need another hobby. go get yourself into something right away and go overboard. this should remedy all boredom.
PS-you need some red wine and chicken soup. as I suggest to everyone in this situation, have your sexiest female friend (or wife if you’re married) come over and make you the soup. this will do wonders for your morale. Also, drink a few ounces of a big red everyday until…well, just keep doing it everyday for the rest of your like, and this too will do wonders for morale.
if you have access to steam room or sauna, go get in it, hydrate like crazy and let the zen like healing begin.
“Cold in the head: Go ahead
Cold in your chest: Get some rest.”
When can you taste your beer? If it’s Miller, never. (sorry, Burns, it was too easy) Actually SABMiller owns some very nice brews (Pilsner Urquell, and Gambrinus come to mind, plus there’s some give & take with Foster’s Brewing Group, I believe) but the NASCAR beer is stricly the money machine.
If you want to talk Global Domination, you want to talk InBev - formerly known as InterBrew (Stella Artois, Brahma, Beck’s, Leffe, Hoegaarden, Bass, Staropramen, and the Labatt family: Labatt Blue, Labatt Blue Light, Labatt Ice, Labatt Canadian Ale, Löwenbräu, Carlsberg, Boddingtons Pub Ale Draught, Dos Equis, Sol, Carta Blanca and Bohemia)
It appears as we will have two groups this weekend. The healthly group consisting of MArisol, Francois and others then the sick group hacking crap up and coughing consisting of you, Brian and myself.
My cold put me under for ten days so far no training. Today I actually feel pretty normal except for the hang over from the codeine and nyquil. I’ll give it until tomorrow before starting any workouts.
Lack of sleep or less than good sleep can be an indicator of over training or too much partying. 3 groups it is, the healthy, the grumpy and the feeble.
Too much partying LOL! I wish that was the problem… no it’s more me getting done riding at 9:15pm and be all wired up afterwards and can’t sleep… all these vday parties this week, i am skipping all of them!
Yeah, I’m taking vitamins. I’m going to follow the advice of smartasscoach and increase the C and the glutamine. I’ll be fine on Saturday…I don’t have a choice…the thought of you riding all alone in the rain while I sit on my recliner drinking beer would be too much for me to bear;-)
I’ve always recovered pretty easily from being sick. In the past, if I had a cold I would miss a day at the most and keep training. However, I’m in the midst of…and will be doing some of the hardest training I have ever done. At the pool yesterday when I had a hard time breathing, I felt that it was time for some real healing time, instead of taking a day or two off. I’m sure I could go out and run today, but I don’t want to risk it. At this point I would rather be undertrained and able to taste my beer, than overtrained and unhealthy. 6 days seems like the right amount of time.
lack of sleep…