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Getting Sick Isn't Always a Bad Thing...

Friday, 01 July 2016 23:10

By Suzanne (Sooz) Flannigan, PhD (triathlon.competitor.com)

No one likes to get that annual nasty flu or cold that lasts a week or more and comes roaring back just as you think you are getting better. Not a single person I coach or train with likes to miss training, not even a single day. But the reality is, sometimes you get that nasty bug and it takes you down. You miss a day of training, and another and then another, and all the while the voice of worry is ramping up in your head. You worry that it’s you, that you are just not being tough enough. You imagine at least a dozen of your training buddies who would push through the congestion, the headaches, the fatigue. You fret about missing the next run session because you haven’t been running that well lately and you know you need more running to improve. You worry that after three days, you have lost all the fitness you have gained in the last six months of training and that you will never again swim as fast as you did last month.Instead of getting depressed, anxious, frustrated, impatient, or demoralized when that nasty bug hits, consider adjusting your perspective about what is happening. Shift your thinking and intentionally try to make the most of an otherwise unpleasant situation. Redefine what being sick means, search for the silver linings, and find ways to actually benefit from your time away from training. Here are four ways you can alter your perspective....

1. Consider Getting Sick as a Healthy Heads Up
Getting sick is a clear message that you are exceeding your body’s current ability to absorb the training stress. By definition, as an endurance athlete, you push your limits on a daily basis in order to expand your capacity; however, for a variety of reasons, you can end up overreaching.

When you overreach too much or for too long a period of time, your body’s defenses come down and your immune system cannot fight off all of the bugs. The most tenacious bugs will get through and those are the ones that will send you straight to the couch for a week wishing you had shares in a tissue company. When this happens, accept the very valuable message your body is giving you.   READ MORE