Discussion: Sickness & training

In the past 2 weeks, more than half the people I know have had some sort of cold/flu symptoms for several days. This ranged from 103 fever for 4-6 days, to sore throats, congestion and coughing.

When are you too sick to run? Why?

My general rule has been if I have a fever, don't run, otherwise, run, just not hard. However, today, I was only moderately congested, I took to Sudafed in the morning (the no longer banned kind :) and ran 30 minutes. I felt terrible by the end. So maybe I should add _if fever or on medication_ don't run. What do others do?

(See also the thread on Boris' log...)

I never take any drugs unless I can't sleep. I make a distinction between body and head. If I have a cough but I don't feel any drowsiness, headache, nausea etc., I might still go for a short run if it has been a persistent cold.

I *never* work out if I'm *about* to get sick. Instead I take massive amounts of vitamin C (1-3 grams) and drink a lot of water. If I think I have a flue (as opposed to a cold) I wait until it's gone.

I often skip working out if I haven't had enough sleep, since in my experience sleep deprivation is very bad for the immune system.

To avoid getting sick I take multi-vitamins every day. I take cod liver oil September through April. (Every month with an 'r' in it.) I also try to change out of damp work-out clothes as quickly as possible after a work-out, even if this means changing in the parking lot.

My old friend Tony thought being sick made for a good ultradistance training opportunity. Instead of having to run for hours to feel depleted, if he felt wasted right away he could work on pushing through it in a relatively shorter run. Of course, he was nuts. One of the amusing things about ultrarunning is that everyone who participates seems to have a threshold beyond which, "those guys are nuts". The threshold is variable. For example, "perfectly sane" 50 mile runners think 24 hour runners are crazy, 100 mile runners know that 6-day runners are crazy. Likewise, the 6-day guys know that those guys who ran across the US were crazy.

It looks like a just-in-time topic for me. I'm still recovering from a severe cold flu I didn't have in years. Immune system is not that strong when you exercise hard. I caught my flu at the end of my toughest week in the 4-week cycle. Well, it is not a surprise when a half of your colleagues at work already took few sick days. I had a feeling like catching a light cold and skipped my planned long hill interval on weekend. I even took a sick day on Monday. I started feeling better and biked to work for two days. No swimming, no running those days. I was biking to work because I hate New York subway. Besides, you can catch another bug down there. My flu (could be another one) took over on the second day and I barely made my commute home. Normally I fight flu with tea, honey and lemon. This time I had to take a very powerful drug - painkiller and cough suppressant. Fever to 103, throat like after eating a bowl of razors... I lost 8 pounds in three days. Well, I didn't have much fat with my training. It looks like this crazy flu ate quite a bit of my muscles too. The worst days finished a week ago, but I'm still recovering. I believe, it's also getting harder with age to get back to normal after sickness or injury. Just some ideas:
1. It's better to skip a workout if you catch cold since you never know upfront how bad it could be.
2. Do not take drugs if your body can fight flu. This way your immune system will get more training. Drink more water and eat more vitiamins, especially C.
3. Watch your immune system during a flu season. Give more time for recovery after hard workouts, sleep more, take performance multi-vitamins.

Learn form the mistakes of others! In my case the reduction in training volume is usually coincident with or an inevitable consequence of getting sick, as opposed to a planned response. Here is the recipe:

1- overextension on the work/home front
2- deteriorating environmental conditions (uncooperative weather/allergy seasons/etc)
3- attempt to maintain or limit losses in training volume in the face of obviously reduced available training time
4- reduction in baseline rest and recovery while trying to work around 1-3

Occasionally I see this situation developing and consciously elect to gamble. Think of it as a speedy approach to a narrow aperture. Sometimes one makes it through safely sometimes not.

More often though the illness hits me without advance contemplation while overextended on time, in denial. Volumes then deteriorate further while I clean-up whatever mess I have gotten myself into on bullet one and try to give my body its baseline rest demands. I would train right through if I had the time but generally don’t. Doc training pals have supported the theory that if you are not feverish already and in a condition of mild sickness the elevation of core temp from exercise can stimulate certain immune responses.

For the record this happened much less frequently to not at all when I lived in San Diego, had far fewer responsibilities, and had little or no concern for career consequences of preserving a training schedule... The problem now is that it takes me longer to get back on track. I attribute this more to aging and the lower commitment to any performance level than I do to change in locale. Although I have never felt sick in the Caribbean…

I more often than not will train through sickness albeit at reduced levels. I too have observed as Rich has written that increased core temperature from exercise seems to help me get over being sick. I've tried before to wait out a lingering cold but the activity seems to stimulate recovery if done moderately. It's best applied on the upswing, after the downward spiral to sickness.

Like many others have said, it depends on the type of sickness. Cough or congestion, usually means a shorter or adjusted type of workout. Headache, body tiredness, fever, etc. means lots of rest, lots of liquids, lots of vitamin C. I have a slight something just this past sunday, and thus ditched my planned run.
To prevent getting sick, I really try to drink lots of fluids, particularly in the winter, take multi-Vs, and ALWAYS make sure I have a dry change of clothing after training. This has kept me from getting substantially sick while in Sweden (I can think of only three days of sickness that kept me from training while here).

In theory I like to keep up reduced training while sick because I have found that a quick workout can help with a headache or congestion. I always viewed it as a way to simulate a fever by getting a bit overheated. I usually feel better after running or at least no worse. Anything with a sore throat or cough is different, if it is hard to breath then I stay in.
In practice, however; so much of my training is late at night or requires getting up early that I just wimp out and sleep instead. What ends up happening is that I still race when sick but do not do much training when sick

For prevention, get a flu shot, even if you're not so old.

For the record, I can reveal that Wyatt was only joking and he didn't think anyone would take him seriously. Wyatt spends at least half his time (many of you will have no idea) in Aruba sipping various adult beverages while basking in the sun, and hasn't been sick for more than a minute or two in the past 23 years. But the other half of the time he works very hard, so really you'd have to say he has earned it all.

well, what I am not sure about is when this particular cold has moved into your lungs... (as alot of mine do - I recently had to go on asthma medication to get over a wheesy cold)

If it is affecting your lungs is it not more dangerous to exercise through it, especially at high intesities? would it be possible to injure your lungs? However the fact that it is hard to breathe impedes you from exercise at high intesities anyway, so maybe just go for whatever you can do!

Okay experiment!!

Yesterday felt tired and yucky during my workout, afterwards, symptoms of another cold arose. Decided to skip my evening training, and went early to bed. Today, feel ok, NOT worse, but also not better. Decided not to run in blizzard snow storm and if I still have energy at the end of the day to bike indoors for an hour.
Lets see if I get more sick or not!! Symptoms are not flu like, running nose and coughing.
Question: This should be my hard training week, that means almost 2 hours a day, now yesterday and today I have reduced my training hours, but I haven't yet decided to abandon the whole weeks plan... what I do will depend on how I feel after tonight’s bike ride. What would you do in your cyclic training plan, when should I do a hard week, if I have to bag it this week, and is a "recovery" week when your sick, really a recovery time??

I generally train through sickness - I don't think I missed more than a couple days last year due to illness. I do take days off just to give myself a rest now and then and that probably helps keep me healthy. Getting enough sleep is quite important. If I'm working a lot of hours, I cut back on training so I can get enough sleep.

Several have mentioned taking multi-vitamins and/or vitamin C as preventative. I do this too. It should be noted that these are not remedies - by the time you're sick, it's too late to get much benefit from them.

Two things that haven't been mentioned:

1) Gaining some weight in the winter really helps your immune system. Not too much, of course; I gain 3-5% of total mass. I don't have any trouble loosing it in the spring, but it does require some discipline.

2) Long workouts are great for fighting colds (not flu). A 5-6 hour low-intensity workout nicely simulates a fever. High-intensity stuff is bad. Deep breathing just pushes all that junk down into your lungs.

Okay, so I didn't have enough energy to workout tonight, and it’s probably for the best. Marc just had to stomach flu (yesterday) and even though my stomach feels fine, I would rather be safe than sorry. Like Dmitriy said "Watch your immune system during a flu season. Give more time for recovery after hard work outs; sleep more, take performance multi-vitamins."

What’s also very important to say, is that one should never train with a fever. This can cause an infection of heart wall, causing, pectoralis angina. Very serious, there have been cases of athlete’s suddenly dying of heart attacks either during or after a workout. I asked my boss who is a head doctor at the Olympic training center and an orienteer. Anyway that's his professional opinion
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My chance to experiment as well. I had felt mostly ok all day but the cough was borderline as to whether I felt I could breathe well enough. Wanted the head clearing run so decided to go for it. But it started to rain before I could start and I once again demonstrated my sickness training method. Think about working out but use any excuse not to and claim it is because I am sick.
Tried to go drugless this morning and ended up spending most of the day in bed. I could not shake the headache until taking the decongestant and Ibuprofen that has keep me going the last 4 days.
Will repeat the experiment again tonight.

Here is my recent experience.

My cold/flu started last week on Thursday as light throat soreness and it was similar for the next few days. I did not take to much attention, just took some preventive measures like vitamin C and Oscillococcinum. By Monday morning I was sick and spent three days resting in my bed at evenings. To keep me "alive" at work I took every morning Tylenol FLU (Maximum Strength) and every 6 hours Robitussin Cough Syrup (Honey Cough). In addition, during working hours, I drank a lot of hot tea. As today, three days later, I was able to do some indoor training. Anyway, outside there are several inches of fresh snow...

Below is my list of measures in fight with cold/flu.

Preventive on regular basis (every morning):
- Lemon juice (half a lemon squeeze into glass of water);
- Multivitamins;
- Morning physical exercises with the following hot/cold shower;

In case of first Cold/Flu symptoms:
- Vitamin C (up to 1-2g dissolve in glass of water/twice per day);
- Oscillococcinum (immune system booster);
- Garlic cloves (strongly recommended);
- Hot tea with honey, raspberries, and lemon;

Then use regular Cold/Flu medicine (in addition to listed below measures) and/or go to see your personal doctor.

Usually I light train if it is only symptoms like sore throat, running nose, or coughing. If I have a headache I never train.
There is nothing so worthy as your own health. Never force yourself over limits during cold/flu. Listen to your body!

I notice that both Vadimm and Karen seem to put headaches in the do not train category. Maybe it is because I get headaches so often (dehydration and caffeine are primary reasons) but if I can function at all with a headache, I find that same exercise usually helps clear it.

Reviving this old thread, an article to make you sleep.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/01...