Sick of being Sick

Yesterday marked the 30th day of zero exercise just in this year alone. That is more than I took off last year combined! Pretty much our whole family has been hit hard with this flu season. Amy was talking with the doctor last week and he said there have been three really bad strain of flu's to hit this year, the worst he's seen in years. Even if you got a flu shot - most likely you were still vulnerable to it. The sicknesses I've had -have not been the typical stuffy nose, cough, sore throat etc. They have been the serious ones. Viral Bronchitis, Sinus infections, fever - all the worst ones to have when you are a triathlete. I was almost fully recovered until I raced Oceanside. I felt good for the first time two days before the race and then the day after the race I woke up with a raging sinus infection. The past few weeks have been very minimal in training. One of those things where you really have to be careful so you don't end up with pneumonia. I went on a ride the other day and had to turn back. Started breaking out in sweats, feeling fever-y again and just not right. So needless to say, I'm really bummed as we hit three weeks out from Ironman St. George 70.3.

It's a good thing I qualified for Vegas at Oceanside because it looks like St. George is going to be just more of a workout day for me. I cannot risk jumping into a tough three week block to try and get ready for the race. It's just not worth it. I've already relapsed from two sicknesses this year from racing and cannot afford to miss anymore time off. It's super depressing. For those of you that work out often and constantly get that endorphin high, when you miss workouts - it really brings on a chemical imbalance to your body and leaves you....well a bit depressed. I still try and look at it as a positive though. I was going to take a few easy weeks after St. George to start slowly building towards Vegas, so now with all this time off - I'll just have a longer base-building phase which will make me even more strong leading into build and the World Championships.

Does anybody have any great tips for staying healthy through the flu season? Especially ones with kids? We feel like we do what we can to prevent it to spreading in our home but are always open to any one's advice. This is what we currently do:
1. Eat very clean.
2. Top of the line SportMulti multi-vitamins, supplements, immune boosters...etc
3. Sanitize our hands often.
4. Clean house, clean carpet
5. All bathe very often!
6. Exercise
7. Ton of water (no soft drinks)
8. Try to avoid other sick kids/people when possible
9. Plenty of sleep

I've become a bit of a germ-a-phobe since I started racing triathlon, but would love to hear what everyone else does to stay healthy!

That's all I've got. Lack of training and beer makes this blog a bit dull haha. Hopefully the blog next week brings good news on the training front!