Sick, Cold
2011-03-08 – 2011-03-13
Grade: 3
Woke Tuesday morning with a couple of small sores in the back of my nose. Spread to back of mouth during the day, and Wednesday morning woke with a bit of congestion. Today the congestion is, suprisingly, mostly gone. However, the sores are still there and so is the general feeling of weakness.
Think it is all over...
Yay! I'm sick again! I'm so happy! I was beginning to miss my little virus friends after a little over 5 weeks of separation...
A short reflection on the holistic nature of succumbing to colds...
All of the following factors likely contributed in some way to this cold: training levels over previous weeks; late dinner Sunday with alcohol; training without a hat in 4 deg C on Monday (forgot hat); busy day Monday, incl. big Lidingö Loppet meeting till 21:00 after work; not eating a proper dinner Monday; late night Monday.
Now, what's interesting is that I could have reduced or taken away a few of these factors and given my immune system the strength to cope with the virus. But how to spot the danger before the virus takes hold? How to know when to hold back (not go to dinner party or drink some nice wine, force myself to go to bed early, eat properly, cut back on training - God forbid!).
In the past I only stopped being busy when the cold had fully broken out. Now I know the signs that a cold is coming on, stop being busy and thus reduce its severity. I'm wondering if it is possible to know when I'm particularly at risk and cut back just enough to avoid the cold altogether...
During a period of a couple of years a while back I suffered from 7-8 colds per year. After getting fed up with that I read lots about colds and, from the following year, I suffer from about 4 colds per year (normal for a healthy adult). The main change I made was that I reduced the number of late nights, often involving a drink or two, from about 1-2 per week to about 1-2 per month (Boring, I know...)
The following site helped me back then:
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/biosi/subsites/cold/
These guys are doing something pretty cool, trying to put some science behind a lot of the claims regarding colds