Being Sick

Back into it.

Sort of.

I am back into it in the sense that I have felt a bit more human today and so went to work and did some actual thinking. With my brain. Whilst the capacity to think isn't a huge boast, it is a dramatic improvement over yesterday and so I am considering it to be a win.

Being sick at the moment reminds me how much nicer it is to be sick without training compared to being sick while training. Don't get me wrong, being sick either time is not a bunch of tickles, but it is so much easier being sick now than it was when I was training. Being sick now just meant that I stayed in bed and slept for about 8 hours. As a result of that rest I woke up feeling quite a bit better this morning. My plan is to to the same thing tonight and hopefully I will wake up feeling better again. When I was training, being sick was always a race against time. Just how long would I be sick for? How quickly could I get better so I could go back to proper training? Am I well enough now? How about now? Being sick used to be a bit stressful and usually quite counter productive as I am sure all the worry and wondering kept me from resting and recovering as well as I could have been.

Another different is that, ironically, now that I am less fit my body has so many more resources to fight off a cold, so as a result I don't get sick for as long. When I was training I used to always think my body was so super honed that it could take on anything, but really it was usually so run down that a cold hit me out of the park. Without being so run down I am finding a cold doesn't knock me around quite so much.

All this is great news for me who isn't training so much now but how about you, who is. What advice do I have about recovering from illness quickly?

Well, to be honest, it probably isn't information you haven't heard before.

Firstly, get some sleep. Most of the things I have read say that the only thing that meaningfully impacts recovery from illness is proper rest. Give yourself the time you need to recover properly. If possible take a day off work and training and just do nothing. Sleep late, nap if necessary. Eat well etc, but just try and rest as much as you can. Oh and keep your fluids up. Yep, it turns out the advice you mum gave you is correct.

Next, don't sweat the missed training. With a cold you are probably going to be impacted for a week or so of subpar training and in that you might have to take a few days off training completely. In the bigger picture that amount of downtime won't equal a huge amount of lost performance. Don't focus on the training you are missing, rather focus on resting and getting better.

If you have to train because you are close to a big race, or if you simply aren't that sick, then I have come to realise that your body can actually put up with quite a bit of training when not 100%. When I used to get sick I would stop training straight away in order to maximise my chances of recovery. I had read that you could train while sick without increasing your recovery time but I never wanted to risk it. Since I have stopped racing I am less bothered about being sicker for longer and so I have gone out and exercised when not 100% and to my surprise it didn't effect me much. I felt pretty average, but I was still able to produce a quality session. One of the main points was making allowances for being sick and not expecting as much from my body in terms of intensity or volume.

How do you know you are too sick to train? Well that is a tricky one isn't it. The rule of thumb I was always taught is that if the cold is only effecting your body above your neck (ie a head cold) then you are okay to push through. If the cold is effecting your neck down (ie a chest cold) then it is time to rest up. I also used to track my heart rate and if my resting heart rate was genuinely spiking (5 to 10 beats above normal) then I would take it as a sign that I needed to rest. Finally, when you are really sick, deep down you just know that you aren't going to get yourself out of bed. When you are like that you know it and you also know it is time to stop. The trick is listening to your body when it gets to that stage and letting it have the rest that it needs.

When you think you are getting over your illness, when are you good to train again? Well once again, that is a tricky question. The best advice I ever got was from Coach Daryl which was, wait until you feel well enough to train and then wait one more day. This philosophy was a good way to make sure you didn't' return to early and just make yourself sicker.

Simple.

Now, time for some more rest.