You work out, you eat right, you take your multivitamin. You wash your hands—maybe you even wear a mask in the drugstore.

And then your kid gives you a high-five after school, and your life shuts down for five days.

While we can minimize our chances of getting sick, we can’t eliminate the risk entirely. But even the roughest cold has a bright side or two. Here’s what my week off taught me:

The best way to get over a cold is to get lots of rest; avoid sugar; and drink lots of water. Some salty food might help.

Why:

• Rest is critical because your body is using energy to fight off infection. The immune system ramps up its response while you sleep, producing more white blood cells and antibodies. If you push through with workouts or work stress, you’re diverting resources away from recovery.
• Avoiding sugar reduces inflammation, which eases symptoms like sore throats, stuffy noses, and body aches. Sugar can also suppress immune function for several hours after consumption, which means your body has to work harder to fight the virus.
• Staying hydrated keeps mucus pathways flowing, preventing congestion from turning into a full-blown sinus blockage. It also helps flush out toxins and keeps your throat from becoming too dry or irritated.
• Salty foods, like broth or electrolyte drinks, help maintain electrolyte balance, which is important when you’re sweating or losing fluids through a fever. They also soothe the throat and keep you drinking more water.

How this is a bright spot:

1. We should be doing all of this stuff anyway. Illness forces us to revisit the basic habits that make us healthy. When these habits disappear, our buffer is eroded. While I’m sure I caught the cold by sharing a dish of fettuccine with my son, I was also sleeping poorly, eating too much sugar, and dehydrated from a long ride that same day.
2. To kickstart a new habit. I usually try to cut out sugar for a few months leading up to cycling season anyway. I stopped eating the leftover Valentine’s Day treats and cookies when I started coughing, knowing that sugar worsens my symptoms. Reducing inflammation can’t hurt.
3. But now that I’m five days without sugary treats, it would actually be easier to just stay off sugar NOW than to restart the process in a week. It’s not avoiding sugar that’s hard; it’s going through the 3-5 day period of stopping sugary treats that’s hard.
4. The same could be said for rest. For the last 5 days, I’ve gone to bed at 9:30 and slept in until 6:30 a.m. (that’s 90 minutes later than normal). I’ve still taken a nap after lunch. But why not just do this ALL the time now that I’m in the habit?
5. To take fewer meetings. “I’m too sick—go on without me” is a good excuse. But I don’t actually need an excuse; what I needed was to give myself permission to do less stuff. This means not showing up where I’m not needed. It also meant putting off an angry outburst: “I should probably wait until I feel better to address this.” Well, when I’m angry, I’m not feeling great…why not put off a hard staff conversation until I’ve calmed down, taken a walk, and drank a glass of water?
6. To reset my training.
7. One of the hardest things to do as an athlete is take a real break. It’s easy to fall into the trap of pushing through fatigue or chasing marginal gains at the expense of long-term progress. Being sick forces a true deload—no “active recovery,” no sneaky hard sessions. And guess what? A forced reset often leads to a stronger return. It’s the same principle behind structured rest weeks in training: stop fighting it, and you’ll come back better.
8. This is also a...