Running...nose

Started a half-marathon clinic on Sunday, or at least, I was supposed to start a half-marathon clinic on Sunday. Saturday morning, January 1, I woke up with a sore throat. The kind that feels like your tonsils are made of cotton wool. I took Cold-FX and drank tea and tried to get enough sleep, but nothin' doin'. By the next morning it had turned into a full-fledged head cold, complete with runny nose, headache, and basic lethargy. Bummer. I missed the first training clinic. This is not a good way to start a major exercise regimen.

I did go for a 45 minute run on Sunday and a 20 min run on Monday, but by Tuesday I felt pretty gross and developed a chesty cough and so have decided to hold off on all the aerobics till Sunday. That's when the next scheduled meet is for the clinic. I'm supposed to have run something like 25 km all told, by then, but it's just not worth getting pneumonia for, I figure. Hopefully I won't be too far behind everyone else in training.

I did learn something interesting about exercising, however. The rule of thumb about whether or not to run when you have a cold is this: if symptoms are below the neck (cough, wheezing, laboured breathing, body aches) don't go, but if it's above the neck (stuffy/runny nose, sneezing, sore throat, headache) it's okay. You get the green light if it's a cold "above the neck." Unless, of course, you have a sinus infection, which you'll know about because it's incredibly painful and running around outside will be the last thing on your mind anyway.

So tonight, instead of a run, I will read more of the generations of Adam in the book of Genesis and drink some herbal tea by the fire.