Working Through It

There are two types of sick people in this world. The one who crawls into bed and sleeps for hours at the slightest tickle in his throat and the one that refuses to accept defeat of illness until she is bedridden or coughing up a lung. I am certainly the latter and this week I have refused to accept the truth that I am sick. So far this denial has been working in my favor.

Monday morning I felt really, really exhausted and out of it at work and went home. However, after a long nap and some lounging, I had convinced myself that I actually wasn’t sick. So I went for a run, telling myself I’d turn around if I didn’t feel great. Well I felt great for the first four miles and it wasn’t until I turned around at mile 4.2 that I really started feeling quite bad. So I spent the remaining 4.2 miles trying to stay positive but knowing that an 8.4 mile run probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do when feeling under the weather. Last week I was able to only get one run in and I was trying to make up for lost time.

Tuesday morning I woke up with every intention to go to work and quickly realized that was a bad idea. My throat was protesting and so I decided to work from home.  I always complain when people come to work sick, and I didn’t want to be a hypocrite and come in and infect everyone. After more lounging and a 2 hour nap, I decided I would keep my plans with a friend to do a Dailey Method Class and dinner. Besides the slight sore throat I was actually feeling pretty good!

Wednesday I was back at work and feeling better despite the sore throat not really going away. It doesn’t seem to be moving into my chest or into my sinuses which is always the worst part of a cold. I decided again to go to Dailey Method ( I paid a pretty penny for a month unlimited classes and I want to get my money’s worth!) and had a great workout. This morning I headed back to Dailey Method with my co-worker and friend so we could carpool to work together because we have a work event tonight. So that’s 3 days in a row of TDM while under the weather! However, today I’m feeling pretty good so I’m convinced that I did no damage working out while sick.

I’ve been told that as long as you don’t have a fever and the aches/congestion is above the neck, then you are safe to work out. If it’s below the neck (i.e. in your chest) then you should rest. For the last three days I kind of avoided cardio knowing that I wouldn’t feel as great, but as far as strength training goes, I felt pretty good. I’ve still been getting plenty of sleep, with the exception of last night for my early wake-up call.

I realized yesterday that the Long Beach Half Marathon is just about 5 1/2 weeks away and my sprint triathlon is just over a week away! Besides my short 25 minute spin post TDM this morning, I haven’t gotten any cycling or swimming in this week. I definitely don’t see myself swimming but I do plan to do a ride and run brick on Saturday. This sprint triathlon will definitely be just for fun! As for Long Beach, I really have just 4 weeks to get my ass in gear for that race. I was really hoping to PR there but running hasn’t been my top priority lately so I’m not certain how that will turn out. If it’s another fun run like AFC was, that’s ok too.

Do you work out when you’re sick?