Sick & It's Race Weekend!

Sounds like you are not so sick you can't do both races, so enjoy the experience of your first tri and do your best at the HM. Short of a cure for the common cold, not much more you can do than that.

Edited by Oysterboy 2014-04-23 6:25 AM

Get lots of rest, drink lots of water, avoid extra stress or being around sick people so you don't catch anything else, and either take off from training or just do easy stuff. I also take extra Vitamin C and zinc (just in case it works and to feel like I'm doing something), and try to decongest myself with lots of garlic and chili. You might also check with a doctor, on the chance it's bacterial and antibiotics might help. If viral, not much you can do but the above.

I have a long history of getting sick during taper (but strangely, very rarely at any other time) and according to my recent calculations have done about a third of my races when sick, usually with colds/sinus infections. Especially if it's all above the chest, you won't die. Might not feel the greatest, but you should be able to race reasonably well. Just be prepared for the illness to get worse or last longer than normal afterwards. In about 50% of the cases with me, it does. In the other 50%, I usually get well shortly after the race--no idea why!

I had the sinus crud a couple of weeks ago, and the steam sauna at the gym felt great!!

Also, I used Afrin (generic from Wal-Mart) to relieve the congestion, and it works beautifully. BUT you really need to limit your use of that stuff to a couple of days, because you WILL become dependent on it to breathe in short order! Trust me on this. I used it for 3 days, and on the fourth was very tempting not to keep using it. Don't say you weren't warned.

I recently raced Texas 70.3 back on April 6 with only 2 days of antibiotics for Strep Throat in me. Doctor said if I was feeling better than I could give it a go and take myself out of the race if I wasn't feeling well (the Dr has a son who has raced Kona so I took his advise seriously).

Long story short - I was out 2 weeks from training post-race. I had a high fever for 3 days following the race not to mention I threw up on the bike twice.

Get the rest! My short-sightedness could have been much worse. No need to crush your body while it's already fighting a losing battle against an infection. I am just now getting back into training and I lost so much fitness gains I worked for a long time for.

PS - I was only 7 minutes off my PR for 70.3 even though I vomited twice on the bike, 1 moving and 1 stopped. NOT recommended.

Edited by Fmode11 2014-04-23 4:06 PM