What would you do? I rarely get sick but usually one time in January I go down for a few days with some sort of cold. My last race of the season is this Sunday (70.3) and I’ve been working toward a new personal best. I feel a cold coming on (chest congestion, achy etc). Last night I went to bed at 8 and skipped my 7m taper run this morning. Wondering what others would do.
My wife and I load up on the Zinc/Cold prevention products. Like Airborne - Cold ease Etc. Might be all in our minds but they always seem to work for us…
I personally don’t like to take cold remedies. What has worked for me is to take in 3 or 4 Nuun or electrolytes tablets a day with water. They only have 10 calories each and provide a lot of electrolytes. For me at least, the cold symptoms arrivse because of dehydration from hard workouts right before starting taper. hope it works.
My advice would be to get lots of rest, east well (quality, not quantity) and train the minimum that you feel you are comfortable with.
You can’t get fitter in the last 5 days, so just give your body the best chance to arrive at the start line healthy.
Get a Neti pot and use it 2-3x day.
Need to sterilize the water first. http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm316375.htm
Sleep as much as possible including some mid-day/afternoon naps.
I felt a cold coming on about 10 days before a 70.3 this year. I loaded up on Zicam. Was my first time trying zinc therapy. No idea if it actually did anything or my “symptoms” were a false alarm. But after a few days symptoms went away and I never got sick and felt fine on race day.
It couldn’t hurt as well as plenty of sleep, fluids, etc.
Rest a lot, eat fruits, maybe zinc. Gelomyrthol, if it moves to the chest. Try to be active teo days out from the race.
NOT racing when there is fever or signs of bacterial infections (coloured slime).
Worked very well for me leading up to last saturday Ironman.
gargle with thoroughly listerine 5x a day. The virus usually starts in the throat area so kill it before it moves around! Lots of pro cyclists I ride with swear by this and its worked well for me. Sinus rinse with saline is a good method too.
Another vote for Listerine and Zicam
.
I would probably just drop out of the race. Also, probably would increase my workout and stress load. Heard that helps with tricking the system into not being able to get sick.
But seriously, you’re fitness isn’t going to disappear if you take a couple of days to tone it down. On thurs/Friday do something light to keep the body moving. You’ll be fine.
Zinc and Grapefruit Seed Extract.
Are you sure it’s a cold? Sometimes after a big block of stress (either work, or working out) I get cold like symptoms for a couple days, but it doesn’t usually go in to a full blown cold. Rest, hydrate, take care of yourself. Your fitness won’t get any better in the next week, but you can sure run yourself in to the ground in that time.
sleep a lot
.
Stay in bed.
Lots of oranges.
you’ll be recovered by then, you cant get any fitter this week anyway. sleep 10 hours a night and hydrate like crazy - Nuun, chicken soup, water. stay away from drugs & reality television if at all possible.
Completely circumstantial and sample-of-one observation: when I first feel a cold coming on, I go and swim in the most chlorinated pool in the area, and make sure water gets into my sinuses.
That’s how I managed to stop a cold after a day or two or sniffles. Cold would not develop further. I did that several times.
Of course that may not have been a cold, or it would have stopped on its own no matter what I did. It is hard to know for sure. Which is why we have clinical trials. 
I’d take the time available from reduced training to work on the race performance excuses… “i had a cold” is a bit boring…
Rest up, take what ever meds you are comfortable with and fuel your body well… you may well come good afterwards and the enforced rest may provide a surprising race day result… i have had exactly that happen before…
Chicken noodle soup. IIRC, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine (or maybe JAMA) several years back showed it helped with the common cold. Otherwise rest up.