arrgh, body, cooperate....

I used to brag about how much running has boosted my immune system and how I never, ever, ever get sick.

So WHY am I now fighting the second cold I've had in a month???

I know I work with kids and I'm in and out of schools and I've been face-to-face with numerous sick people this week. Still. And once again, it's popping up too-soon-for-comfort before a race that I'm on my way to PRing IF I CAN STAY HEALTHY.

I'm almost wondering if I'm overtraining. But I've been happy with my training volume, last week was a low volume week, and I skip planned workouts if I'm tired. But this one seems to be oddly exercise related - I noticed a sore throat Tuesday while I was swimming. I forgot about it because it went away when I stopped swimming. Yesterday, I woke up fine. Went to yoga class fine. Did a round of speedwork and felt WAY more tired than usual. Soon after, a sore throat reared its ugly head and a few short hours later, it hurt like crazy to swallow and I was passed out on the couch before 9 pm.

For the record, I get lots of sleep. I do NOT let my workouts get in the way of 8-9 hours of sleep because I don't function well on less. I blame 8 years of college, when I routinely had to function on less than 8 hours. Sometimes much less. I'm doomed to spend the rest of my life making up for it.

I can't afford to take a sick day (since I'm still responsible for meeting all my hours even if I'm sick), but I'm going to minimize the cardio (still going to pilates this morning skipping pilates because I just realized I'd have to leave in 7 minutes and I'm still in my pajamas and I haven't had breakfast, and clearing out the rest of my workouts - swim, run, circuit) until I'm feeling better. I bought sambucol, which is pricey but I hear good things, and I've done black elderberry in the past to make sickies go away. I've got a week until thanksgiving so hopefully I can have this crap out of my system until then.

After that, maybe I will try to cut down my training load a little bit and ease back into it.