Ouch

[pandora_parrot]

Hmmm...

I've mentioned that I have trouble with this whole body thing, right?

Well, this weekend I decided to go do some climbing/rappelling up at Castle Rock with some friends of mine.

While still getting over a cold and dealing with my broken toe (which is healing nicely, but still painful a bit.)

And while I was out there, I managed to get sunburned, get seriously dehydrated, and start to suffer from heat exhaustion.

I tried climbing a measly 5.4 route and couldn't make it up past 10 feet. My body simply gave out on me. Even the hike back from the rock was grueling for me. I could barely breathe. My head was swimming, and I felt nauseous and dizzy like whoah. I could barely even drive us home, I was so out of it.

Once I got back to my friend's house and drank some gatorade, I perked right back up.

However, I'm wondering if, perhaps, I might be overdoing it a bit. I really don't have a good sense of what my limits are with regards to how I should behave while sick. Should I avoid climbing until my toe is more healed and my cold is more gone? (It came back today with a bit of a vengeance and congestion.) What about bicycling? Hiking? How active can I be given my condition? How do I tell what's too much and what isn't?

This development is troubling. I'm realizing that I probably should avoid climbing on Wednesday and any other strenuous activity for the next few days.

Any advice you might have would also be helpful! :)

Comments

Heal first.

[ddotevolver.livejournal.com]

Doing stuff at 100% > Doing it at 60%. Trust me on this.

[moonspark.livejournal.com]

Oh lord, dehydration sucks SO MUCH. I have barfed due to dehydration in the past.

[paradox-puree.livejournal.com]

I got close in a few spots there.

[worthyadvisor.livejournal.com]

Well, I've heard it called "bonking", sometimes I refer to it as "hitting the wall". Basically, the point where you don't have enough hydration/food to keep you going. This will happen to me if I go swimming after work and don't have some sort of food before hand: there's a point where I get cranky and my body just stops.

I've done a lot of reading on this, and basically it's making sure that if you're doing physical stuff that you have plenty of fluids (water and electrolytes) and some sort of snack/food that you can have either before or during, depending on how long you are being physical for.

For example, right before my swim last year, I made sure I had some breakfast before we got in the car, then I had a half liter or electrolyte drink before going in on the boat. I had one of those gel food packs on the boat, and I stuffed another gel food pack in my suit, which I had (most of) about halfway through.

It makes me wonder, in general, if people think that they can just eat the same as they had before doing a lot of physical activity. I tried to explain to someone once that I needed more carbs when I was swimming more than when I'm not swimming. She kinda looked at me funny (or maybe it was because of the fat thing? I don't know....)

[salia-chan.livejournal.com]

I recomend not doing a lot of exertion till you get over your actual cold. The toe thing, depends on how it's healing up. I went to work with a broken little toe for the entire time it was healing nearly, Just had to wait about three days before the swelling went down enough to get a shoe on comfortably.

As long as it's not rebreaking the bone or stressing the healing area, I personally think you're fine doing a fair amount of physical stuff, providing it doesn't hurt overly much while doing so. It's nice to be able to ignore pain, but it is the way your body signals damage too, so.

It does seem though, that if you have a cold and overdo it, the cold gets worse, based off a sampling of about 30-ish people who I have known to overdo it with colds.

[alisonpv.livejournal.com]

Don't do strenuous activity while sick, it'll take you longer to get better...

The toe thing is a "feel as you go" thing I think... but the COLD - take it easy.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

I think it was the dehydration more than anything that really zapped you. If it were the cold you would have felt your energy level dropping when we were hiking out to there. I assume you were standing in the sun holding the end of the rope the entire time I was stuck on the wall due to that group's wonky anchor. That you recovered quickly is another good indication it was heat/dehydration. That stuff can really sneak up on you and then hit you hard.