Being sick can really mess with your training plan. Yesterday an upset stomach kept me in bed or in front of the TV for most of the day. Yesterday was my run day, which I really can’t skip. When you’re only running once a week, skipping that one run means skipping 100% of work-outs. Lucky for me, I was only sick for one day, and I managed to make up yesterday’s run this afternoon. I had some stitches at the very beginning, but they went away. Overall I felt tired, but didn’t have any real muscle/joint pain. Better yet, I was no slower than usual.
My wife was kind of sick for about a month during her half-marathon training. That meant not too sick to stay home from work, but too sick to do any running. She didn’t have much of a base before starting that program, so she ended up doing the 5k fun run instead of the half marathon. For a while she considered walking the 13 miles, but eventually decided that’s not what she really wanted to do.
If you’ve set yourself a goal that isn’t challenging, being sick for a week or two won’t matter much. But if you’re pushing yourself, missing out on that much training might make the difference between succeeding and failing. Since we’re all pushing ourselves to greater heights, staying healthy is just as important as keeping up with our training. To make things worth, training for and participating in endurance events weakens your immune system. So be sure to eat right and get enough sleep. There’s more to doing triathlons than being fit.