Flexibility

To say I am a little over this cold that I have had would be an understatement. Entirely and monumentally over it may be more accurate. But no matter how much I am over it, it just can't seem to get over me.

I didn't train this morning. The plan had been to jump on the trainer this morning, but I felt absolutely terrible last night and so I gave myself a morning of rest. I may still jump on the trainer tonight, but I think really the way I was feeling last night was a warning from my body that I haven't been letting it recovery enough. So I think more rest will be the prudent thing to do.

Besides it is my wife's birthday today, so spending the evening at home may be a wise decision anyway.

But yeah, yesterday, whoo boy I felt average. My sinuses have been blocked solid with no relief, coughing and by the evening even a little feverish. I was falling asleep by 8:30. In the end I think I probably over did things yesterday (and perhaps on the weekend) and this was my body's not so subtle way of letting me know.

I am in that phase of a cold when you start to wonder if you will ever feel normal again. Deep down you know that you will, but man that day really can't come soon enough.

After resting this morning I did feel a lot better, but still far from on song. After feeling terrible yesterday I am going to temper back my approach to recovering from this cold. The approach I have taken so far with returning to training has been no different to how I would usually do it. Rest for a day or two and then slowly return. I am nearly always good to go after a week or so (which would have been yesterday). That doesn't seem to have worked this time and so now I want to make sure I am giving myself the time. The cold is definitely improving, but it has kicked me harder than I had thought.

As well as trying to train too soon, it may just be that I haven't given this cold the respect it deserves, it could just be a really nasty one. I got this cold from my son and so I have been able to track its progress through him. I mean track the cold in a caring parent sort of way rather than a human Petri dish sort of way of course. My son had it for about a week before I got it, so I had a good glimpse into my future, and by my count it was 13 days before his symptoms cleared entirely. That would get me to about Sunday the 15th of Jan. So perhaps I just need to give the cold the time it is demanding.

Other than this cold being particularly virulent, I have been wondering if there could perhaps be other reasons why it has smacked me down so hard. I don't usually get this sick. This morning it occurred to me that I did of course do an Ironman about 5 weeks ago. That would mean I got the cold 4 weeks after Ironman. I am not sure how quickly your immune system recovers post Ironman, but I am willing to bet that a race like that must knock it down pretty low.

Certainly people getting sick post race is not uncommon. Prior to racing you are so hypersensitive to illness that you probably become a bit germ phobic. After a race it is easy to relax those habits and as a result you expose yourself to a few more bugs. Combine that with the low immune system and it is perhaps not surprising that people get sick. Having made it 4 weeks clear of the race I had thought I had avoided the classic post race illness scenario. But perhaps I had counted chickens before they had hatched. Either way, no doubting that this cold has got me good and proper now.

It is hard to sit down when you are sick and not obsess about some of the fitness you have built slipping away. That built fitness is important to most athletes after all. However, I am determined not to focus on that too much. Down that way insanity lies. In the end I am sick and stressing about fitness will not make me better quicker. This is very much one of those times where it is important to focus on the present and the future. Being obsessed over what has been, or what you wish could have been is not constructive. I have plenty of time to get fit before my next big race and so fitness is almost irrelevant, the field of play is getting well and that is all I really need to focus on.

So consider me once bitten etc. I will be taking it very carefully over the next couple of days. By all accounts I should be nearly clear of this thing and now I just want to make sure that happens. Everyone knows somebody who had a cold that never seemed to end and hung around for weeks or even months. I am not planning on being that person.