It's 8:10 pm eastern time, and I leave tomorrow at 4 pm for our regional meet this weekend in Clarion, PA. If anyone can respond to this question before I leave, I'd be truly grateful.
The basic question is this: I have really worked hard this season, and got into the best shape of my peri-geriatric years (I'm 49), but 2 1/2 weeks ago I caught some kind of cold/virus from my 9 year old son, and I feel like I am still at best 65%--still have sore throat, sore body, fatigue, plus cough and congestion.
I'm going to swim in the meet anyhow, but my emergency request for advice is this:
How do you optimize your performance when you're sort of sick? I am more worried about the 1000 and 500 than the shorter stuff (the rest is all 50s and 100s and 1 25.)
Any words of wisdom? Please don't tell me to scratch the meet--if I was feverish, I would probably do so. I'm just looking for ways to make the best of a less than ideal situation, and the swimmers on this forum have provided superlative advice in the past. Thanks in advance.
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Former Member
Jim, Two things come to mind, initially. First, lots of water to keep hydrated, which will help with the congestion/cough and with the fatigue. Secondly, stretch to get the joints as loose as you can and maintain as much range of motion in all your joints. You'll feel better by doing so. The sore throat will feel better if you gargle with very warm and heavily salted water. This is an old folk remedy that really does work.
Good luck.
Jim, Two things come to mind, initially. First, lots of water to keep hydrated, which will help with the congestion/cough and with the fatigue. Secondly, stretch to get the joints as loose as you can and maintain as much range of motion in all your joints. You'll feel better by doing so. The sore throat will feel better if you gargle with very warm and heavily salted water. This is an old folk remedy that really does work.
Good luck.
