What do you do when you have a cold
 

It's almost summer, and yet I've managed to get a cold. I got sick around the 25'th or 26'th, had high fever the night of the 26'th, the first few days were really bad (I was taking 360 mg/day pseudoephedrine and occasional tylenol and I'm not sure if it was helping at all...) Today is June 7, almost two weeks later, the infection seems to have moved down into the throat, I'm still occasionally sneezing and coughing.

Too worried that I'll lose all form, so I'm trying to exercise anyway. Went on a long ride last Saturday. Started bonking after 40 miles, kept it together to make it 50. Had shorter, 1-hour rides yesterday and today. I seem to be doing okay except that my performance numbers are awful (on segments that I rode before I got sick, I seem to be up to 20% slower.)

What do you do when you get a cold? When do you start working out?

I try to power through it. I drink water literally all day, take herbal/vitamin supplements and drink green tea, and get as much sleep as possible. I find though that my body responds faster when supplemented with exercise. I don't do as much as usual, seeing that my breathing is typically impaired, but I do something everyday. For a good tea to knock the cold out, boil garlic, add lemon juice and cayenne pepper to the mix and drink. Worst thing you've tasted, but it beats the pants off a cold. For herbal/vitamin supplements, echinacea, vitamin c (obviously) and zinc will add to a faster recovery. SLEEP. That is the most important part. Take naps if you have to, but your body cannot repair itself without the rest. Hope this helped :)

Go see a Doc.

It's unlikely you have a cold. Very unlikely. So you want to know what it is.

I'd take a couple days off, because of the coughing.
It's unlikely, but you can make things worse exercising when sick.

I usually take it easy when I feel it coming on. In my house, if we feel like staying in bed, that's what we do. But if we don't feel like staying in bed, then we ride, but keep the intensity down. I think we get over it faster because of the exercise.

I agree, the slow, easy exercise seems to remind your body to heal, do something!

Well, unless you have a race coming up, "losing form" for a week or two wont actually kill you. As soon as you get healed and start biking again, you'll be back in your original shape after like two weeks.

Seriously, take it easy and let your body heal and fight off the infection. Ride for fun / as much as you can in the meantime, not to push your already weakened system; if anything you may be shooting yourself in the foot.

I used to think I was going to feel miserable with a cold anyway, so I might as well do something useful while I was miserable. This included work outs.

I've also tried other approaches. Hiding under the covers with a bottle of rum for company worked well, but I don't drink any these days.