Colds, training and race plans

My last post was about running in the cold; this one concerns running with a cold. I'm at the end of a week long battle with a winter bug that, while never terrible, has been inconvenient. So I've been wondering: If you're sick, is it better to allow the body to rest or to try and "sweat it out"?

A quick Google search directed to me Marc Bloom's Runner's World article "Should You Run When You're Sick?" which had some good advice and tips.

With the Phoenix Marathon just a few weeks away, I decided to sweat it out because my training has been going really well and I didn't want to lose any momentum. It wasn't easy to get going (the couch, my comfies and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina were calling), but I managed to make it through all but one of my workouts, which was a punishing 5k time trial that I decided to skip because I knew it wouldn't go well the way I was feeling.

I didn't feel any worse during or after my runs than I did before I started so I figured I wasn't doing any harm. (Obviously, if I started feeling worse, I would have stopped. I hate missing a run, but I'm not an idiot!)

Now I'm feeling healthy again and ready for a good, hard week of training before I start tapering for the marathon. With how my runs have been going lately, I am cautiously optimistic that my sub-3 hour goal is doable - even if the per km pace for that duration still freaks me out a bit.

In other news, my race plans for the year are falling into place. Here's what I've come up with so far...

• March 2: Phoenix Marathon - road
• March 23: The Elevator Race (support for Dave) - multi sport
• March 24: The North Face Dirty Feet Kamloops Half Marathon - trail
• April 6: Diez Vista 50k - trail
• April 20: The Rattler Half Marathon - trail
• May 5: The North Face Dirty Feet Vernon 50k - trail
• May 12: ? Blossom 10-Miler - road
• May 19: Sun Mountain 50k - trail
• June 2: ? The North Face Dirty Feet Kelowna Half Marathon - trail
• June 29: ? Scorched Sole 50k - trail
• July: World Trail Championships (Wales)
• August 13-18: TransRockies 6-day stage race (Colorado)

And that's as far as I've got. A nice mix of short and long races, mainly trail and just enough road to keep me on my toes...literally...it's how I run. I'm excited - it's going to be a great year!