Hm. OK.

So I was going to be doing a final distance swim today, 3200m, then tapering off the rest of the week before the 5000m next Sunday.  Except, although my nose is far less productive today, the cold has headed down onto my chest and breathing is exactly as difficult as when my nose was completely stuffed and runny.  So I'm tired, breathless, fuzzy in the head and weak.  Oh, and despite stuffing my face for the last 3 days, my weight hasn't changed at all.

4 weeks now with pretty much no weight training (I've done two light sessions on two weekends), 3 weeks with pretty much no cardio exercise (one 1600m swim since I've been back from skiing), and I'm pretty sure that despite being slap-bang in the middle of my target weight range, I've gained fat and lost muscle.  I can't use my body-fat measurement machine because it works on electrical impedance and is keenly affected by hydration levels which are utterly out of whack with having a cold, so I can't really assess the situation in a quantitative way and it's all just subjective in how I feel.  And having a cold makes me feel squishy anyway, so it'll all just so hard to tell.  I am pretty sure there is some muscle loss, however.  It is disappointing, having spent 10 months working on improving my muscles, strength and fitness, to have quite a bit of that work set back.  I know it's not through lack of determination or enthusiasm on my part, I can't beat myself up about it because there's pretty much nothing I can do about it until I'm over both my injury and my cold.  Nevertheless, it is still disappointing.

As for the Swimathon next Sunday; I'll definitely finish the 5km, there's no doubt there at all.  It's just that I don't think I'll put in a representative time which is quite disappointing.  I wanted to do the 5km in 01:40 (or less), but I think that without a swim on Friday last week and no distance swim today, probably no sprint swim tomorrow... well, there's really not going to be much benefit to be had from the normal swim on Wednesday and the gentle swim on Friday at all.  Given that, I reckon I could put in a time anywhere between 01:50 and 02:00.  Again; disappointing.

And then there's the 2nd Thames Turbo Triathlon in 3 weeks time.  I've not run in months, cycled in very much longer and 3 weeks really isn't very long to get on with training never mind the fact it's actually going to be 2 weeks because I'm going to be still coldy for some of next week and tapering (hah, tapering down from no exercise; funny) for the rest of it for the Swimathon.  Again, I'm sure I'll finish the triathlon, but the time will be abysmal.  I suppose at least it means I'll be very likely to improve for the 3rd one.