Finally, after a week of recovery before, and a week of recovery after Half Vineman, it was time to get back to some training. The only hitch in the plan was a trip to Vegas with my buddies to celebrate the end of my fellowship. Monday and Tuesday were pretty much business as usual with office hours all day Monday and Surgery all day Tuesday. On days like these I typically do a short workout before and a short workout after work. For instance, on Monday I did a 45 minute recovery run in the morning and strength trained in the evening. Tuesday I just did a swim workout in the morning. I had a bit more time to train on Wednesday morning, so a friend and I did an up tempo semi-hilly ride for 2.5 hours followed by a 10 minute run just to stretch the legs. The issue this day was that I was starting to feel a bit of that dreaded tingle in the back of my throat.

Since Las Vegas is not exactly the ideal place to train, I had to improvise a bit. As I mentioned earlier, I did a bigger workout before my flight on Wednesday and made sure there was a treadmill in my hotel. A treadmill can be a great change up to a typical speed workout on a track. The advantages are that you can do a hill workout or a speed workout by changing settings. The disadvantage is the boredom. However, if you can save these treadmill workouts for travel days, you should be able to make it through, especially if you have an iPod!

Friday was my planned day off, and it was a good thing as the tingle in my throat had turned into a full-fledged cold. As a physician, athletes often ask me how to train when they have a cold. The answer to that question needs to be individualized a bit, however, there have been some studies on the subject. In 1998, Weidner et al out of Ball State in Muncie, IN, studies the effect of exercise training on the severity and duration of a viral upper respiratory illness (URI). They studied two matched groups. One group did 40 minutes of aerobic exercise at 70% maximum heart rate once a day, while the others did no exercise. The results showed that there was no difference in severity or duration of URI. That being said, there have been reports of severe illness, and even death in previously well trained athletes undergoing vigorous exercise during the acute phase of a URI. Further evidence of vigorous exercise possibly being detrimental to the athlete with a cold was provided by Spence et al in Brisbane Australia this year. These researchers compared elite athletes to recreational athletes as well as to sedentary individuals. What they found was that the elite athletes were more prone to prolonged symptoms than the recreational athletes, but that the sedentary individuals also did worse that the recreational athlete. What this suggests, is that presuming the recreational athlete trains at a less vigorous level than the elite athlete, is that less vigorous exercise may help with cold symptoms.

So, my position is that if the athlete feels they must do something to maintain their level of fitness (be it physical or mental) while they are sick, they should listen to their body. I would never suggest that someone do a hard track workout or hill repeats while sick, but an easy aerobic workout, if it does not make you feel worse, may be beneficial. As for what I did, I opted for a long slow bike ride on Saturday followed by some rest and plenty of fluids and calories.