[Alan T]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

and Alan, well done! Are there 5k races like that every week where you live?

FM

In Massachusetts there are tons and tons of 5k races for charity every week, virtually I could easily find one to sign up for any time I want. The one I did yesterday is just a low key 5k (Costs $5) held by a local running club every week. No prizes or shirts or anything, just a chance to go out and race each week if you want. I enjoy doing the races, but try not to do them too much as I end up running way too hard and it wrecks the rest of my training plan if I am not careful about scheduling it in.

Originally Posted by Icy

I use this site to find routes mainly for mountain bike, but it's also useful for running:

You can search by name, location, short by distance, etc.

Wikiloc - GPS trails and waypoints of the World

For a while, I used RouteLoops: Free, custom route planner for biking and running mapping . You don't even have o search for routes, you just put in your address and how far you want to run and it gives you a loop to run of that length (or as close as it can find). Some of the routes it gives back are a little crazy, so sometimes I would have to have it try over again a few times til I found one that I liked.

Now though, I've pretty much gotten all of the possible combinations within 10 miles of my house figured out so I just plan my daily runs by hand using Garmin Connect. Runkeeper has a route creator that is similar where you just map it out by hand on the road and at the end it comes back with the distance, but I like Garmin Connect's better solely due to how it presents the total elevation of the run so I know how much trouble I am getting myself into with hills.

Originally Posted by Icy

What do you guys do in those situations? just say "f@¢k you body" and keep training? or to take some rest days to recover?

Luckily for me, somehow even with 3 kids and a wife that works in the school system I haven't gotten severely sick since I got back from my back surgery in December. So I don't have a ton of first hand experience on this one. The rule as I understand it that many runners stick to is something like the neck rule:

If its above the neck (such as a head cold), sniffling and runny nose and such, its generally considered ok to go out for your run, but be aware of your body and don't push too hard, just take it easy.

If it is below the neck, such as a chest cold, take the time off. In addition, if you're running a fever of say 97 F (37.2 C) or more, you should probably take it off as the energy you spend in running could probably be better spent fighting whatever it is you have.

The only caveat I've read is just be cautious if deciding to run with a head cold, you don't want to run with a sinus infection or anything, and you definitely don't want to push yourself too hard and make yourself even more sick as that can sideline you for far longer than a few days.

You won't lose your fitness that you have gained from running in taking off 3 days or such. So my personal opinion, unless you have an important race or something that you absolutely don't want to miss, just take the few days and use it as an extended recovery phase which will reset your Training Stress Balance and make you fresher when you're better.