When do you decide to rest up or ride with illness

[flanagaj]

Rather gutted today.  Been fighting a chest infection all week and I thought I was on the mend, but I got up early to go on my 3 day 240 mile trip today and whilst having breakfast thought 'resting heart rate is high and I feel hot', so I thought long and hard and decided to not go.   What I want to know is whether other's do the same or just get off and go.

Maybe reading the article on the net about exercising with a below the neck illness was not advisable  

[scooteremu]

In your head, you can roll with it but once in the lungs, it's time to rest

[Area54]

I'll still commute to work through pretty much most things, except high fever, but common sense still gets applied. I guess I like to see how the body reacts (and the mind as well) in case I'm stricken with some ailment in the middle of a big ride, to learn the loose boundaries in a controlled environment.

[wahday]

I’m not very good about this and tend to push it when I shouldn’t. Once I went out on a fairly long ride with a friend with a chest cold. I was dragging and feeling spent and collapsed when I got back home for a few hours. Later that day I went to urgent care and learned I had pneumonia. So, don’t do that!

If I am just coming down with something, a run or moderate ride can actually knock it back for me (on top of lots of fluids and Vitamin C). But if I am already sick (especially something respiratory related) its generally not a good idea and just makes me feel worse.

[bncrshr77]

I started the CTR with some kind of minor chest issue this year and by the end of day the I had to drop.  Found out it had advanced to bronchitis and my doc said if I would have pushed it much more I might have ended up with permanent chest issue. 

[dgjessee]

The night before I started the Highland Trail Race, I got a chest cold or something. I was hacking all the way to Fort Augustus. I'd planned to crash on the side of the trail every night, but I ended up getting two hotel rooms during the race simply to try and hold off the advancing plague. It worked! So I guess my advice is push it when you have the ability to improve your situation through gear or infrastructure to protect yourself, or back off if "extreme" depravation is the only way to accomplish your ride.

[JRA]

I don't mind riding when I've got a little bug.  But it always seems to make it worse in the long run and drags on the recovery.  For me, it's best to lay low for a while until the bug has passed, otherwise it just seems I never get better.