So I am a week and a half out from a meet I have been preparing for since September. This Friday I am going to start a small one week taper leading into the meet next Sat Dec 8. However I am starting to get sick, I feel it in my throat, my nose is starting to run, etc. Do any of those things like Emergen-C work or am I better off with a multi vitamin and some nyquil?
Parents
Former Member
I remember being told that if it's above the neck, you can still exercise but if it's below the neck, you shouldn't. I found that my recollection was confirmed by the Mayo Clinic: www.mayoclinic.com/.../AN01097
I don't really agree with that... I suppose its anecdotal, but in the 20 years I've been in the swimming world I've never once felt worse after a workout than before, in fact I have a hard time remembering any time I didn't feel way better while working out sick. I've worked out sick, I've raced sick, I've tapered and raced my taper meet sick and each time I've gotten out of the water feeling much better than before I got in.
The ONLY thing that has ever gotten in the way is if you got a real bad chest congestion thing going, sometimes you get the cross between cotton mouth and coughing up the junk in your chest. Can make breathing a little hard during a race, but I don't breathe in my main race so it doesn't matter as much to me, lol.
My advice to OP:
Get your sleep. Its hard to sleep during a taper anyway... but do what you can. Nyquil always worked for me...
Keep your fluids up.
Taper as you would, your performance will be there.
^^get this thought in your head and you will do fine.
I remember being told that if it's above the neck, you can still exercise but if it's below the neck, you shouldn't. I found that my recollection was confirmed by the Mayo Clinic: www.mayoclinic.com/.../AN01097
I don't really agree with that... I suppose its anecdotal, but in the 20 years I've been in the swimming world I've never once felt worse after a workout than before, in fact I have a hard time remembering any time I didn't feel way better while working out sick. I've worked out sick, I've raced sick, I've tapered and raced my taper meet sick and each time I've gotten out of the water feeling much better than before I got in.
The ONLY thing that has ever gotten in the way is if you got a real bad chest congestion thing going, sometimes you get the cross between cotton mouth and coughing up the junk in your chest. Can make breathing a little hard during a race, but I don't breathe in my main race so it doesn't matter as much to me, lol.
My advice to OP:
Get your sleep. Its hard to sleep during a taper anyway... but do what you can. Nyquil always worked for me...
Keep your fluids up.
Taper as you would, your performance will be there.
^^get this thought in your head and you will do fine.
