After you read what I am about to write, you’re going to think I am either very silly, very stupid, or … something worse, so I won’t give you ideas:

I was away for most of this week on a business trip. Since I am horrible at sleeping on planes and in hotel rooms and since this trip involved a three-hour time difference, I got very little sleep, even less than my usual miserable amount. On top of this, the trip involved some extra celebrating sessions with my team, which — as you might guess — brought with them some alcoholic beverages. When I landed on Thursday after a sleepless five-hour red-eye flight, I felt like I’d been punched all over. I went home, slept for three hours, and got right back up to take my daughter to our work Halloween party.

That night I slept like a baby but I woke up on Friday feeling not much better than before. I went to bed later than I should have — c’mon, I had to have at least one real conversation with my husband after a week of short text messages and “gotta run!” calls. On Saturday morning, I was still exhausted. But… (and now we get to the point of this longish story)

 … I still went with my husband to our weekly grueling one-hour super-spin class. (My parents are kind enough to take our daughter for a few hours every Saturday morning and our usual routine involves taking a walk, going to spin, and then out for brunch.) I’m a long-time spinner and my body just gets into a groove in class, so I got through it fine. But as soon as I stepped off the bike, I knew it: I was getting sick.

I’ll save you any suspense: It’s Sunday afternoon, and I feel terrible. After a hopeful morning of having escaped this one, I can tell you for certain that the study recently written about in the New York Times Well blog, which found that intense exercise weakens your immune system significantly, is absolutely right on. Whether I had the bug in my system before I went to spinning or caught it after during the night out trick or treating, strenuous exercise made it much easier for it to take over.

And here’s the part where you call me stupid: This is definitely not the first time this has happened. I.e. this is definitely not the first time when I went to exercise when I felt less than 100% and the rational part of my mind should have spoken up much louder. Why, you ask? Well, for one, exercise is a big part of my life and while I grunt and complain through many a spin class, I love the way I feel afterwards. But it’s more than that — as another study mentioned in the article also found, moderate exercise actually strengthens your immune system and helps you get sick less often and less severely. There have been multiple times when I went to the gym while recovering from a cold and felt that my recovery was much faster.

Still, right now, I am feeling really stupid. I am clearly sucking at juggling sleep, health and exercise and it’s a trio I need to figure out. The way I feel now, I am out of exercise commission for at least a few days — perhaps if I’d just skipped the spin class I would be feeling much better now.

How do you deal with exercise and health? Do you exercise at all when you’re not 100%? Do you feel that moderate (e.g. fast walking) exercise helps you stay healthier? In the season of various kinds of the flu, this is an important topic - share your thoughts in the comments.

(P.S. Yes, I always wipe my equipment at the gym and give dirty looks to those who don’t. It’s the least we can do for each other.)