Getting over getting sick

Image courtesy "The Hurley Bird Catches the Worm"

"Getting sick sucks!" Let me qualify that for those that may not know me personally. As someone who has never been seriously sick and who almost never gets even even a little bit sick I don't really have any first hand experience with how bad something as common as the flu can get, but I hear it can be awful.

Historically if I got a runny nose or a tickle in my throat I would continue to train lightly and in a couple of days I would be back to normal. This sort of mild sickness and rapid recovery has traditionally infuriated my friends and family to no end as they suffer for 5 to 7 days with pockets full of tissues dosed up cold and flu tablets stuck on the couch wrapped up under a blanket. But this last couple of weeks the tables have turned.

I went to bed feeling a little unwell one Sunday night and after a night of rotating fever induced intense cold and sweating my regular alarm went off at 5am so I automatically got up, as I always do. I generally have no trouble motivating myself to get into the gym or hit the road even at 5am, so if I find myself wanting to crawl back into bed I try and take a second to examine what is really going on. My legs, shoulders, biceps and back were all very achy even though the day before had been a rest day. How can this be the case? "Oh, I am sick" I muttered to myself in the dark quiet of a Monday morning.

Image stolen from Facebook

As someone all to familiar with making excuses when it comes to exercise and nutrition I am hyper vigilant of the times I give myself reasons to skip a workout. I often find myself in an internal debate over what is legitimate and what is me just being "weak". Thankfully these debates don't happen very often, but when they do I often lay on the guilt pretty thick even when I know the best thing I can do is rest and recover. I tell myself "I can push through this. I will feel all the better for it" and I am usually right, but sometimes I really need to accept that fact that I am genuinely sick.

I have the same problem at the other end of an illness too, "when should you start training again?". I find myself thinking "I am feeling better, I should get back into it tomorrow morning", but how soon is too soon? I don't think I am capable of waiting until I am completely recovered, I can barely hold off until I am "pretty good with a little cough or runny nose" before I start hitting the road and the weights but this seems to be a very personal decision. I know that if I start training again my body will tell me when it has nothing left to give so I will back off the intensity or just try and coast it home for the rest of the run, but I guess everyone has to find that balance for themselves.

Image courtesy The Stampede Melbourne

I had been nearly 2 weeks without training when I attended my first CrossFit class yesterday morning AND I NEARLY DIED! I went for a reasonably light run this morning and had NO STAMINA! The Stampede Melbourne is 16 days out and I am going to have to put in some hard work to bring my condition back up to what it was before I got sick if I want to hit the top 25%. I really am very glad that I dont get sick very often because being forced to take so many steps backward is no fun at all.