 Cold viruses can be cute after all. You can get one for yourself at thinkgeek.com. |
It was inevitable really, I've picked up a cold. To add insult it happened right when the weather was unseasonably warm and settled.
In years gone by I tended to try and push through and sweat it out, and this approach tended to work pretty well unless it progressed to the point where I was bedridden. But I didn't have quite such a hard training programme back then.
This time around it's come at a time when I knew I needed some rest anyway. I had wanted a week of rest after the half-marathon but my training programme gave me only a couple of days instead. I followed it anyway as I felt very good but my hamstrings became super tight after a couple of days and it took a couple of weeks for them to come right. My coach doesn't anticipate my tendency to go too hard and I've been learning that a bit of self-discipline in this regard will go a long way to minimising aches and pains.
I'd also been having a bit of trouble with my achilles; it was fine post-race but the training I've been doing since then has had a few reasonably high intensity sessions. One was a fairly disastrous 60km time trial where I had to work really hard to maintain a cruising pace right from the start with very light winds, a pretty good indication that the legs needed recovery.
In addition to the achilles I'd been having trouble with a calf muscle on the opposite leg. It had been getting better but I figured a little break could only do it good.
So when the cold struck I took a rest-is-best approach and stopped training. It's been about a week and a half now and I'm looking at doing my first session today. I've been feeling a bit bored due to the lack of activity - much like I was when resting after the Wanaka Half. The mild weather has made it especially frustrating but there's nothing I can do about that. I have been tempted to get out and train a couple of times but I know it would probably have only made things worse by spending an hour or two sucking in cold air. All I've done is a 30 to 60 minute walk every day with a good stretch afterwards, and that was driven by boredom as much as a desire to get the legs moving.
Colds tend to hit my head quite hard so I have trouble concentrating and get tired very easily. I was bored enough to push through that and get some good work done on this website: mostly under-the-hood stuff to improve things with Google & Facebook. So I have managed to use the time to my advantage. I've also been catching up on a few old IMTalk podcasts after looking through their archive. The interview they did with Macca after Kona in 2010 is gold (his book is a must-read, too).
I'm not quite at 100% yet but I'm feeling good enough and I'm bouncing off the walls with energy. Once it warms up a bit outside I can get out on the bike. I'll probably put a lid on the intensity but the session involves hill reps and there's no such thing as gentle there...
