Everyone gets sick in a training block. What matters is what happens to the plan when you do.
Why fixed rules get it wrong
Most plans answer with a rule: rest until the symptoms are gone, never train with a temperature, above the neck you can train. A rule can’t tell a head cold from the start of flu, or know that you’ve been off the bike for 3 weeks and need a push out of the door.
What your ownathlete coach reads
- Your mornings. Resting heart rate climbing and HRV falling can show it early, sometimes before you feel it.
- Your nights. Broken sleep, or a long night that still leaves your numbers low.
- Your words. “Sore throat”, “fever last night”, “just tired, legs fine”.
- Your history. What your colds usually look like, and how quickly you came back last time.
The week is rebuilt at once
Tell your coach you’re ill and the plan changes straight away. Today’s intervals come off, and the days ahead are rewritten around how you’re doing, not crammed with what you missed. The workout you were asked for stays on the day, struck through, so you can see what changed.
Each morning after, your coach reads your numbers again. As resting heart rate settles and HRV comes back toward your normal, easy sessions return first, then the harder ones.
A race in a few days
Then it’s a go or no-go call. Your coach tells you what has to be true on race morning and what to do if it isn’t: start easy, or let it go. One race isn’t worth weeks lost.
When to see someone
If something worries your coach, a fever that won’t drop, chest symptoms, a heart rate that stays high for days, you’ll be told plainly to see a doctor.
Try ownathlete free for 14 days. Your coach reads your first morning tomorrow.