As you may or may not know from my facebook stati (my choice pluralization of status) I am fighting off a cold. It's not really all that bad I suppose. I have definitely had worse. But I have learned to baby myself when I am ill. I have missed far too many classes and did poorly where I would have done well had I adopted this philosophy earlier on in life. Pushing yourself to maintain your normalcy when you are sick is just prolonging the problem. So it is with this attitude that I contemplate my running routine.
This cold is not that bad. My throats a bit sore and I sound like a man. My nose is a bit runny, but I can breathe. So I have to decide if it's better to wait it out a day or two (I believe I will feel better by then) or to try to run while I'm still sick.
I've heard different philosophies on this. One is that it's okay to exercise if your illness doesn't affect the neck down. I've done this before and ended up being ill from the neck down later on. Another is that if you can breath you should be okay. I've been told not to exercise at all when I'm sick so that I can recover faster. At this point I think I'm just going to wait and not take any two day breaks between runs like I normally do. I think I'll be able to catch up if I do this.
On another note, being ill has really suppressed my appetite. It's not that I'm not interested in eating, it's just that I'm too tired to try to make anything or get anything. So in the last two days my food intake has been pretty minimal..don't get me wrong I've been trying to make sure I take my vitamins, drink lots of fluid (juice = calories that I don't have to eat), and eat healthy whole foods like chicken soup and toast with peanut butter. The upside of this is that I weighed in at 172 this morning. We'll see if that sticks after I feel better and start eating more again.
This cold is not that bad. My throats a bit sore and I sound like a man. My nose is a bit runny, but I can breathe. So I have to decide if it's better to wait it out a day or two (I believe I will feel better by then) or to try to run while I'm still sick.
I've heard different philosophies on this. One is that it's okay to exercise if your illness doesn't affect the neck down. I've done this before and ended up being ill from the neck down later on. Another is that if you can breath you should be okay. I've been told not to exercise at all when I'm sick so that I can recover faster. At this point I think I'm just going to wait and not take any two day breaks between runs like I normally do. I think I'll be able to catch up if I do this.
On another note, being ill has really suppressed my appetite. It's not that I'm not interested in eating, it's just that I'm too tired to try to make anything or get anything. So in the last two days my food intake has been pretty minimal..don't get me wrong I've been trying to make sure I take my vitamins, drink lots of fluid (juice = calories that I don't have to eat), and eat healthy whole foods like chicken soup and toast with peanut butter. The upside of this is that I weighed in at 172 this morning. We'll see if that sticks after I feel better and start eating more again.
I think you should do whatever works for your body, Beth. I mean, I'm just getting over being sick, and since it was just a head-cold, I felt like I could exercise. But I didn't push myself to do as much as normal, and when I felt it wandering into my chest, I took a day or two off. And the illness only lasted like... three days. Tops. One day of misery (complete with one of the best fevered deleriums I've EVER had).
ReplyDeleteBut something I'm learning is that we all work differently! So do what feels right for you. I hope you feel better, my friend.