Too sick to ride

About ten days ago I started getting a sore throat but thought it would pass. It didn't and after my ride on Saturday it got worse and after going through all the symptoms of the Flu I am finally starting to feel better today although I still have a leaky nostril. I did some research over the last few days on weather I should have HTFU and did some rides, here are some of the responses from a forum that might be of interest.

as my doctor advised, apart from seriously unfit people, the next most likely group of people to have a serious heart attack is fit to very fit males aged 25 to 40. Why, because they are too tuff to have a rest when they are sick.
my GP (an avid cyclist) and a specialist cardiologist I have been referred to both recommended at least 2 weeks rest from "flu" and one month for a virus once you are fully over being ill.

a mate who is a intensive care doctor and moderator over on MTBDirt said similar, except that a virus like the common cold or flu can actually bring on a heart attack if it hit the heart muscle during exercise. his advice was to rest and not do anything strenuous. having just taken two weeks off because of a chest infection and cold I amazed myself first commute back yesterday beating any previous times and I was not pushing. the 2 week rest obviously did me well. I'm glad I did it.

Hey there, I had bronchitis one year and raced in a track carnival because it was the last one of the season. I pulled out of the monger races and only raced the 500m dash. I did a heat and got through to the final and then came second in the final.

One month later I was still suffering bronchial pneumonia - not pretty. I say stay off the bike until mostly clear. One week will recover your body anyway.


Hi Guys,

I would tend to agree with the above posts suggesting you take it easy and recover from your cold before getting back out on the pushy. From experience....riding with a cold, even a head cold will put undue stress on your immune system while it is trying to fight off the bugs...best idea is to go for a light walk each day if you feel up to that, dose up on vitamin c (ascorbic acid powder with calcium) until you get the runs then back off, centrum, beroccas, fruit, veges and plenty of water. When you feel ready to get back on the bike, wait one more day...start with a couple of light 1-2 hrs rides keeping your heart rate low...then gradually building up over the week. This is what works for me

Hope you have a speedy recovery

Joel Friel also suggests that if it is only above the neck you might go for a easy ride but if at any stage during the ride you start to feel worse you should stop immediately. He goes on to say that if it is below the neck then you should not train under any circumstances. Once all the symptoms have gone only then may you get back on the bike but do 2 easy days riding for everyday you were off the bike and slowly increase the intensity back to where you were before getting ill.


It seems that there is definitely nothing to gain by getting back on the bike while sick (although you might feel better for a short time) and that the fitness lost will only be minimal but even that will be negated by the other systems eg. nervous and muscular systems having a chance to fully recover from the rest. It also seems true then that waiting an extra couple of days to start riding again will probably avoid the cold or flu hanging around for an extra 2 or 3 weeks.

So if you are sick then do yourself a favour and rest, hopefully I will be able to get out for a ride on Saturday.

Have Fun Don't Fall

You gotta love it

CLICK ON PICTURE TO ENLARGE TEXT.

What an inspiring story, next time you feel too lazy to get off the couch think of Mr Green and as always remember to Have Fun Don't Fall.

Rest day guilt?

Went for a good solid ride into the city Yesterday after taking a couple days off from the 160ks on Sunday. Today woke up with a bit of flu so gave it a skip and feel oh so guilty. We always want to train and then feel bad when we take a break. Rest is important so try and put the guilt away and carry on when you can.

The above photo was taken on the centenial bikepath just outside Brisbane, I have decided to use the mobile camera more and document the Sights and sounds.

Training Logs & Motivation

Living in a world of where we want (and are often able to get it at a price) instant gratification it is easy to sometimes lose motivation when we seem to be stagnating. The difference between whether we move forward from this point or not is how quickly we can get motivated again. There are a number of ways to get yourself focused again to start training but I find that going back and looking at how much I have improved in various areas of my cycling helps me to get back training again with a new spring in my step so to speak. To illustrate this point here are some of my stats from the first ride I took on the 26/06/2008 when I thought I would give cycling a go, compared to my last ride this weekend.

• Date 26/06/2008 Distance 26.50km Time 1hr34min
• Date 14/06/2009 Distance 161.60km Time 5h 33min

That is a huge improvement in my opinion (something like 400% improvement in distance) and if you asked me a year ago whether I would be able to ride over 160km on a bicycle I would have told you to stop teasing me, and let's just say go away.

If you don't use a log then start and if you do then just take a bit of time every now and then and reflect at your good work and give yourself a pat on the back.

I use http://mycyclinglog.com it is free and pretty user friendly with all sorts of graphs etc.

Have a good one and remember to Have Fun Don't Fall.....

Quote For The Day

The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They're there to stop the other people." - Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

In the begining

I am going to start the first post by thanking the person who coined the name of the blog; not sure who you are but I saw it somewhere not too long ago and it seems to encompass cycling in a nutshell for me: Have fun don't fall. Thank You.

It sounds so simple when you say H.F.D.F and brings back memories of riding down the road on my BMX after school with a gang of friends with no helmets or shirts, all with a double tape deck tucked under an arm joking and laughing with no hands on the handlebars.

I am convinced that it is because of this feeling of freedom that we love to cycle however because it is in our DNA to always want to adapt and progress (good or bad that's another blog) we are no longer happy with that old bike with back pedal brakes, now it's 10 speed carbon bling and anything else that can make us that little bit better (or sometimes just feel better).

I love riding my bike and hopefully we can all learn and grow as cyclists and human beings through this blog...