When to run if not feeling well?

[5xdisneyfans]

How do you decide when not to push through and run? I did an outside run on Friday but woke up Saturday with a headache and painful legs. It wasn’t a distance that was longer than usual. I have woke up each day with a headache and my legs are so painful even to walk. I was up with hip and leg pain all night. I am suppose to do a short run this morning but thinking I should skip it but struggling with that decision mentally. How do you know when to skip or push through? I have never felt like this before. It’s usually a cold or flu which is easier to decide. At the beginning of my SS training.

 

[The Expert]

Sorry you're not feeling well @5xdisneyfans -- a lot of folks are fighting off illness during the holidays. The standard rule of thumb for running is whether you have symptoms above or below the neck (or both). Generally speaking, above the neck (runny nose, headache) symptoms are okay to run through. Below the neck symptoms (which you're clearly having), it's better to let your body rest and heal.

 

[fatmanatee]

Skip it. I might run through sinus issues or a light cough but absolutely not running on a headache or moderate to severe pain. If it's a weekday run I just chalk it up as a lost day and move on, if it's a weekend long run I'll try to find a way to get that in early the following week.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

While not running if I do something during my exercise either overdo it unintentionally or try a new component and the next day I'm sore or feel like I strained or tweaked a muscle I don't exercise that day sometimes even the day after. It took a while after I started exercising a several years ago to get in that mentality, it's easy to feel like you should just do it but bodies need rest to recover and I needed to make myself understand that.

Also I have allergies and temperature changes affect me. It's been a heck of "aches and pain" time period not just me getting sinus pressure but also my one knee can act up. Don't know where you live but pressure changes in the air can bring on certain symptoms too, not really the leg pain but the headache.