Coach Jay,
I recently caught a cold and have had to sideline my running. I'm curious to know when the time to jump back in is. I can breathe again, but I still wear down easily. How can I return to my training schedule and not lose momentum? 

Christina
 

Thanks for the question Christina.

 
A cold, be it a serious one or just a light cold, is a problem for any runner.  Specifically, you can't race to your potential with a cold and you shouldn't try to work out with a cold.  Oxygen delivery rate to working muscles is the limiting factor in performance for a runner, and if you're not getting as much oxygen in your system, that's a problem.  So the question is, what should you do?  Well, you're probably not going to like the answer, but the reality is that you need to rest.  In the beginning this probably means a day or two off until you feel 85% or better.  Once you're at that percentage then it's safe to go for an easy run and even do some strides at 5k pace (or even a bit faster).  Simply an easy run and then some strides to turn your legs over will give you a good indication of when it's time to get back to training.  You have to be able to accept that you've got a cold and that you're going to miss a bit of training…but it's just a bit of training and it's not going to have a dramatic impact on your season. 

The flip side is you could try to train through the cold and simply make things worse.  I've seen this happen time and again with runners who were stubborn and the end result is that they end up missing more time than if they would have taken a day or two off at the outset, gotten healthy, then resumed training.  I know it's hard to do - take a day off - but that's part of being a runner, knowing that you can't train hard every day.

And in regards to momentum, you should feel good about all of the training you've done up to that point.  You're not going to lose it.  You're fit and you simply got a cold (which, by the way, everyone is going to get at some point in the season).  If you're smart about it, you'll miss very little time and then you'll be back to training and racing.
Sorry to hear you got a cold Christina, but I hope you feel better about that fact that it's not going to significantly impact your running…assuming you're smart about taking some time off.

Jay