I’ve survived the weekend and my half marathon! This cold/croup/congestion thing is still sticking with me; however, I am determined to not let it bring me down! The resting and sleeping more things didn’t seem to get rid of it last week so this weekend I tried to get rid of it by running a half marathon and then drinking like a college student and staying out all hours of the night. I’m pretty sure that method didn’t work either. Drat.
I have so much to talk about but after a busy busy busy weekend I am just going to a write a short(er) post tonight to recap week 8 of bootcamp. I will do a full review of the whole bootcamp in general later this week when I have more time!
Here’s my workouts for the week
- Monday – Off sick
- Tuesday – Off sick
- Wednesday – 1 hr spin class
- Thursday – 3 mile run
- Friday – 1 mile run
- Saturday – Half marathon – race recap coming soon!
- Sunday – recovery walking at the mall and 20 minute yoga for runners
So as you can see I did a total of 0 strength workouts this week. Originally I planned to do one of two near the beginning of the week so any muscle soreness would be completely gone by race day, but the croup foiled my plans and instead I spent the evenings in bed sleeping in a sweaty chilled state. By the time Wednesday rolled around I was feeling a bit better and started adding in a few workouts but kept them at a fairly light intensity. Although I was constantly fighting the urge to try to squeeze in more last minute workouts, I knew that pushing my body that close to a race would not benefit me at all. I knew I was adequately trained for the race and just needed to trust my body to make it through, croup and all.
Swimming was also a no show this week. The idea of putting my head underwater when I could absolutely not breathe air through my nose was downright frightening. So I just stayed away. This coming week I am rededicating myself to half Ironman training! It scares me that I am not sticking to the training plan 100% and sometimes I think that means I won’t be able to finish, but I also realize that training plans are usually built with some leeway. And again, I keep reminding myself that there is nothing I can do about being sick.
My goals this week were
- Get 8 hours of sleep
- Eat a healthy breakfast with protein
Do I get bonus points for sleeping about 12 hours on Tuesday night?
These goals weren’t too hard I was extra tired this week so it wasn’t difficult to convince myself to get into bed each night.
So here is my question for this week. Do you workout when you are sick?
When I posted on facebook earlier this week that I was getting sick and nervous about my upcoming race, my cousin commented on the old rule of thumb that I should do the “neck check”. If your symptoms are above the neck (headache, sinuses, sore throat) you can still work out but anything below the neck (chest/lung congestion, stomach) you should take a break. I’ve heard this before and try to generally follow it. Thankfully most of my problems seemed to be contained above the neck, so once I had the energy again I got back into workouts. Although now the croup is starting to irritate my lungs and I have a nasty, crappy cough.
I actually felt a lot better after my spin class on Wednesday. It felt like my energy levels were coming back a little bit. When I am sick I try not to push myself very hard because I don’t want to wipe myself out. I kept my heart rate low in zone 2 or 3, basically so I never felt like I was huffing and puffing.
I think it is really important to just listen to your body especially when you are sick. You won’t really benefit from a workout if you are trying to go 100% and your body is working at 40%. If you feel like you need a break, you should take it. I think exercise can help you recover faster if done correctly but push it too hard and you can extend your sickness.
What are your thoughts?
