Wednesday 3-4-09 : Sickness

Some of you may be enduring a little bit of the winter cold experience.  I am.  I have a home remedy,  (the moment I feel sick, I drink a half gallon of OJ every day until I feel better), but if that doesn't work should I run? There are lots of opinions about running when you are sick, but the reality is that running temporarily suppresses your immune system.  Especially hard running.   Even worse, the only thing that has been scientifically shown to reduce the duration of a cold is rest.   That's unfortunate news for us because all we all know, rest is a bad word for runners.

For those of us addicts, who refuse to take a week off and need our running fix, here is my  rule of thumb: NEVER run with a fever - but other than that, if the cold is in your head, run - if it is in your chest don't.   How accurate is that...who knows;  but if you have a head cold that lingers around for 2 weeks, there is no need to take 2 weeks off of running.  I probably wouldn't do any intense workouts, or races while I was sick - or at least I wouldn't expect them to go very well...but I would still run.

This week we are going back downtown (Run #5), because:

When you're alone and life is making you lonely You can always go - downtown And

When you've got worries, all the noise and the hurry Seems to help, I know - downtown

So maybe I'll see you there We can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares So go downtown, things'll be great when you're Downtown - don't wait a minute for Downtown - everything's waiting for you

Downtown, downtown, downtown, downtown ...

(Has anyone else actually listened to the words of this song ???)