Forums >Racing>Lovely head cold
It is now 13 days before the marathon and of course I caught a cold from the germ factories that live in my house called children.
I felt it coming on Saturday night/Sunday morning but ran a workout Sunday morning anyway. It was okay, but I was definitely off half a step. Now what? Wondering if I should cut the workouts until it clears up or just grunt through them. Fitness level is darn good -- I don't want to lose anything, but also don't want to cause this cold to hang on for extra time, either.
- Joe
We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.
When it's just a head cold, my approach is run, but run easy. Continue to get the mileage in but hard workouts are pointless. You might rethink your taper and not reduce it until the last 4 days or so.
you might also try sprinkling nutritional yeast on your food. It's good for the immune system.
not bad for mile 25
Bummer, that's always one of my big fears coming into a big race. I agree with BoilerTom, keep running, but keep the runs easy. I think lots of juice/water/soup to somewhat overhydrate you helps as well. Good luck! What marathon are you doing?
Lots of fluids, TONS AND TONS of sleep and Zicam.
I wouldn't push the workouts....but as long as there isn't a fever and it isn't in your chest - easy running is likely ok.
Ready, go.
Yeah, no workouts, that's what I know the right answer is, but it helps to have others tell me. :-) Also had a coach tell me that today. BT, good thought about pushing the volume taper to the very end.
LL, I'm going south this time. Route66 Marathon in Tulsa. I've rarely had a good race going south, but I'm stupid enough to keep trying.
Good luck in your race, Joe!
I'll pass along a great motivational sign I saw in my marathon Sunday:
Give 100%! Unless you're giving blood!
Thanks, Tom. I didn't know you were racing this weekend. Sorry it didn't go the way you probably wanted, but glad you were back at "the game." We'll have to catch up soon on post-XC season analysis. I'm actually quite sad, like a weepy woman, to realize that W's HS XC career is now over. It just stuns me how fast that went by.
Yeah, no workouts, that's what I know the right answer is, but it helps to have others tell me. :-) Also had a coach tell me that today. BT, good thought about pushing the volume taper to the very end. LL, I'm going south this time. Route66 Marathon in Tulsa. I've rarely had a good race going south, but I'm stupid enough to keep trying.
Sounds interesting; looking forward to your report. Hope your body and the weather cooperate.
queen of headlamps
Sorry to hear you're feeling poorly! The advice I've heard is that it's okay to run as long as your symptoms are neck up; but I've also read that one really doesn't lose fitness much until a week with no running. So you'd be okay, I think to take a couple of days off to get better, and then continue to run easily.
Trying to take this advice myself as my own little disease factory has managed to give me a head cold and fever. Alas, it is unacceptable to sanitize toddlers in the dishwasher... ;-)
Hey, another running blog.
It is now 13 days before the marathon...
Let it run its course while giving your body the vitamins and nutrients it needs to fight it by way of wholesome foods and/or supplements.
If you can, stay away from over the counter meds which only provide temporary relief while prolonging the symptoms...oh, and run. Running is good, at least for me it gets things flowing when I am under the weather and hastens recovery. But everyone is different in that regard so there is that.