Cycling with a cold :o(

Can you believe it, it’s now June and I’ve got a cold?  In fact it’s been bugging me for a little over a week now.  This is not good news.

It started with my youngest daughter picking some cold virus up at school plus I was talking to someone at work and he was coughing and spluttering all around me.  At first I tried to kid myself it was hay fever, although I never really suffer from that apart from a slight sniff earlier in the year.  It is not helped by working my socks off in the office – take my word for it there are huge reforms taking place in the world of justice.  If anyone thinks public sector workers have an easy ride, please allow me to….. well, another time.

So having a cold; all in all I have to say this is the pits.  I hate it.  I hate it at any time of the year but most of all getting a cold in the summer is almost the worst of all.  What DOES MAKE IT THE WORSE is the Coast to Coast in a Day event is now only 4 weeks away.  Yep 4 weeks.  I think I am going to make it over the course and it will be the hardest thing I have ever done, especially at 52.  Running marathons seems easy.

Yesterday’s gentle training ride and meeting Mike

My Sunday afternoon classic

In the normal course of events I would have cycled for five hours after a church lunch and visit my Mother-in-Law on my way around.  Reality was forcing myself to cycle for a little less: 45 miles in 3 hours 18 minutes.  Occasionally it seemed really hard work, more than it should have done.  And then I met this other cyclist called Mike.  He was on his way back to Peterborough and we rode along with each other for a few miles – it was a pleasure.  Most of the time we were cycling side by side and chatting and this completely distracted me from any effort I was having to put in.  So apart from being such agreeable company (thank you Mike) it also made me realise cycling wasn’t really so hard going after all when you’re with someone else who has a similar pace.

The low-down on cycling with a cold

The normal rule-of-thumb is that if you are unwell and the symptoms are restricted to your neck and above, cycling is fine.  If your symptoms are below your neck, then it’s best to rest and recover.

The thing to remember with cycling and other forms of exercise is that it does improve your health.  This includes natural immunity.  However there is a fine line between moderate exercise and doing too much where your body’s immunity will be tested.  Going to the limit isn’t such a bad thing, in my ‘umble view, but it should be done with eyes wide open and being aware of the effects and risks.

As I said, it’s a “fine line” and through exercise at different levels and intensities you get to know your limits and be more in tune with your body and what it is going through.  This applies to running and cycling but I’m sure the approach is perfectly valid with other forms of exercise or sports.

That is all very well.  I still HATE having a cold, or being unwell in any way, especially in the summer!

Related:

The benefits of cycling with someone else