Training when you are ill

Getting ill in the middle of training is annoying. It feels like a week without training will set you far back. In fact you do not need to make up what you missed through illness: TriCoo rebuilds the week by itself. Below are the rules by which the plan changes while you are ill and while you recover. These are planning rules, not treatment. Treatment comes from a doctor.

How to tell TriCoo you are ill#

The day card and the Health section have an I'm not feeling well button. Behind it are six marks for how you are right now. Tick everything that applies. TriCoo then decides what to do with today's plan. It does not diagnose and does not ask about the illness.

The morning check-in is not for this. It covers sleep, fatigue, stress and muscles, and illness is not there. If you tell the AI coach about symptoms, it will offer to drop the session and ask you to record your state with the button.

What happens to the plan#

The outcome depends on what you ticked.

A runny nose, sore throat or mild cough without fever, aches or weakness. Training stays, but only easy. No more than 50% of the planned volume, no intensity and no races. TriCoo rebuilds the rest of the week by itself.

Fever, chills, aching muscles, marked weakness, swollen lymph nodes, vomiting or diarrhoea. No training. The plan stands still until you mark that the symptoms are gone.

Chest pain or pressure, fainting or confusion, shortness of breath out of proportion to effort, palpitations with dizziness. Stop at once and call emergency services. In Russia that is 103 or 112, elsewhere your local number. TriCoo does not call anyone for you.

Why the neck check does not work#

There is a well known neck check. If the symptoms are above the neck, like a runny nose, training is fine. If they are below the neck or there is a fever, it is not. TriCoo does not use this rule. The split is not considered scientifically sound, and a dangerous infection can look like an ordinary cold. That is why even with a runny nose TriCoo keeps only easy work.

A mild cold: one question a day#

A mild illness has no time limit. Every day TriCoo asks on the home screen how it is going. There are three answers: Still there, Gone and Worse. If you do not answer, the restriction stays: silence does not count as recovery. Worse opens the symptom marks.

After Gone, your first session is easy. From the next day the usual plan goes on.

Coming back after a fever, step by step#

The Health section has a Mark that the symptoms are gone button. Press it when you have no symptoms and have had no fever for at least 24 hours without fever reducers. If you marked a fever, the button opens only 24 hours after the last such mark. The screen shows from what time you can press it.

Then the return goes in steps. Each step lasts a day.

1. Rest.
2. Up to 30 minutes, very easy.
3. Up to 45 minutes, easy, no intensity.
4. Normal easy sessions until the end of the return.

There are at least 5 steps, and the whole return is no shorter than the illness itself. Ill for three days means 5 steps. Ill for eight days means eight. Intensity comes back after the last step. The careful mode lasts 14 days from the recovery mark, or until the end of the return if that is longer. In this mode load rises more slowly than usual.

If the symptoms come back, mark them again. The plan stops and the return starts over.

When TriCoo sends you to a doctor#

There are two cases when there are no steps and the plan stays paused until you see a doctor.

• The illness came back for the third time within 30 days.
• Fever, aches or weakness have lasted longer than 10 days since the first mark.

If the fever rises again after the return, see a doctor straight away too. When the doctor clears you to train, record that yourself in the Health section. All the rules in detail are in the help article Safety and where medicine begins.

What happens to your fitness#

During the days of illness fitness on the chart dips a little. That is normal: it counts load, and there was none. If you had no training for a week or longer, the first week after the break has less volume. Days of illness and return do not make the next week a recovery week early and do not spoil your resting heart rate baseline.

Sometimes in the morning your resting heart rate jumps and your heart rate variability drops. The traffic light may then show red. Illness sometimes starts like this. But TriCoo does not detect illness from your watch. Red only means it is better to rest today. More about the traffic light in the help article Readiness: your traffic light.

If your main race is far away, one short illness does not break your preparation. The week rebuilds itself and the plan goes on. How a long season works is on the Your main race is 8 months away or more page.