Anyone commute while sick? Does having a cold limit your commute or do you tough it out like a mailman?

I ride 50 miles r/t. I simply can't do that unless I am in almost complete good health. Hell, even a bad night sleep can screw me up. So, a head cold, sinus infection, respiratory illness or anything much beyond a minor sore throat takes me off the bike.

For example, this past week--since Thursday--I've been fighting a cold. I rode Friday, but that made it worse. The past two days were especially brutal: sneezing, wheezing, eyes watering, head spinning, the whole nine yards; but I wasn't too sick to work. But...riding was simply not in the cards.

I'm curious to know what others do in this situation.

I ride if the cold stays in my head. If it moves down to my chest, I'll take a day or two off. Of course, my commute is only 12 miles r/t, so that's a good bit easier to get through when ill than yours would be.

When I was commuting regularly, I figured I would just ride right through a cold. 38mi r/t. ...but I would usually find some other excuse not to ride -- too cold, rainy, hangnail...

I've ridden with mild cold symptoms but never flat out sick. This spring I rode 41 miles along the C&O Canal with a hard case of pinkeye. It was still two days from clearing up and I'd already endured for a week but I really wanted to get out there and ride it off.

The first twenty miles were tolerable but vision wasn't ideal. Right eye was 100% infected and the left was just annoyed. Had a big thunderstorm during our break - a super soaker. The twenty mile ride back contained nineteen miles of mud puddle! It was good fun but the moisture and humidity began to compound my eye problem to the point that I felt legally blind for many moments during that ride. It was honestly rough but we had a great time. Our ride ended with us taking a bath in the river and hosing off the bikes with bidons.

Fun as it was, riding with pinkeye not necessarily recommended.

Friday was a scratchy throat day, kind of under the weather day. So, I rode. It was cold and windy. So, about ten minutes into it, I knew it was a bad idea. But...hard head prevailed. So, I pushed on.

On Saturday, I felt a little better. Put a coat of paint on the walls in a room here at the house and then slept all afternoon. Sunday I finished the painting job, but I began feeling lousy by nightfall. Yesterday, I had a full blown sinus type cold. Woke up feeling better today, but find myself coughing.

I figure by Thursday, I'll be back on the bike.

Yesterday my eyes would water up every ten minutes of so. My nose was pretty clogged and head throbbed. It would not have been safe to ride.

Rode to work on Fri and started feeling sick during the day. Miserable Fri night and full blown cold symptoms. Worked from home on Mon and drove today. Will probably ride in tomorrow. I could have ridden the past couple of days but wouldn't have been very effective at work.

Got sick on a flight over to Spain in the spring for a cycling vacation. Cold went into my lungs. Weather was ideal and rode every day, about 22 hrs for the week. Hacked and coughed a fair amount but cold didn't seem to last any longer than normal. It's much easier to deal with when you're not working.

Drive part way with bike loaded in the car. Then hop on the bike.

I'm somewhat the opposite and find that riding seems to improve recovery. Sometimes I wonder if riding in miserable weather while sick is so hard on the body that it makes the germs seek out a more gracious host. But overall, my experience is stress and activity, even though it's difficult works in my favor.

OTOH- don't wear decent clothes when riding with a head cold, especially if it's cool out. It's a messy affair.

Sure, but when I cycle commuted I had no choice. I was in the Navy. You don't get sick days off - at least not the kind where you can call the boss and plead a case of puny. Unless you need an ambulance, you're expected to report as usual and go to sick call - and the docs there have little pity for sick enlisted men, less so for sick Corpsmen. In six years I took one afternoon off, after having my wisdom teeth pulled, and that was in my final year of duty. I was back at work the next morning.

It's not a matter of toughness. It's a matter of avoiding disciplinary action that can cost you a stripe or end you up in the brig. Doesn't mean I didn't get sick. There were some days where my patients would have been better off without me at work.

But my cycle commutes varied from 20-30 miles r/t when I was in my 20s. A 50 mile commute would have made me reconsider. I'd probably move closer, take public transportation or get a car. Or a different job.


Mailmen are overrated nowadays. The USPS work ethic has taken a steep nose dive since the mid-2000s (due in part to the extreme financial burden imposed by the government - but that's a bone for another chew). The past few years we're lucky to get our mail delivered at all even in the best weather. We get mostly under-trained, poorly motivated temps who expect us retrieve our own packages from the back of their trucks. Sometimes they falsify delivery efforts and just leave the mail at the post office and expect us to pick it up. In bad weather they don't show up at all. Postmasters nationwide are aware of the problem but can't do much about it. If the government wanted to undermine the USPS to prove private industry deliverers like UPS and FedEx were "better", mission accomplished. Sad, because my family included several old school postal employees from an era when they had a strong work ethic.