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How to avoid catching a cold whenever I run
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I am a regular runner in my mid 30s and in fit condition generally, but over the last 12 months I have caught a severe cold at least four times. I usually catch a cold the day after a hard session of running., whether indoors or outdoors. The longest cold I have had has been over four weeks, with a bad sore throat and a dry cough. I don't start running again until after I have recovered, but easily become susceptible again. I take lots of natural remedies to recover from colds, eg lots of honey, ginger and lemons. Cough syrups and the like offer temporary respite but aren't a cure.
I have asmtha this has deteriorated as well over the last few months. I now have an asthma spray with corticosteroid to use. I am gonna give Powerbreathe a shot too.
Any helpful advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Henry
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/if you've been doing intensive training, I'd say that your immune system is lower. But if you are training indoors, my bet is on the germs at the gym or in the underground etc...
Load up on foods rich in vitamin C and zinc. Or load up onthe vitamins. I take dissolvable zinc tablets with 1000mg of Vitamin C when flu season hits and before the big marathon.
hope this helps! good luck!
Henry...I could have made that identical post myself. I have the same prob that very often when I begin to up my training I get very run down and get colds etc.
Will watch this thread with interest
Henry - Have a read of this short article on Glutamine
I take 10g a day (5g @ breakfast and 5g in my post workout / run shake) and touch wood I've been pretty snot free so far ... except for a rather bad flu type attack when I'd not taken it for a week when I ran out.
Probably best to check with gp though as you have asthma meds.
Give your body a chance to recover from the hard sessions. This means both replenishing rpotein and vit c, plenty of sleep and also, if possible planning your hard sessions where you're not going to over-expose yourself to lots of germs before your immune system has replenished itself. This may sound daft, but for example, for a school teacher the best time to completely trash their body is probably a friday night or saturday morning, before exposing themselves to herds of germy children on Monday. The same will apply to you with things like going to get anything from your gp for your asthma - if you've trashed your body the night before the last place you should be sitting is a doctor's waiting room. Gyms, swimming pools etc... are also not the best places to be. If you've really trashed yourself, have a day off.
Dietry supplements, such as vit c supplements and zinc, as suggested above, and also echinacea may help, though as gmike says, if you're on other things then check with gp.
Also, keeping warm when it's cold, eating or drinking something with carbohydrate and protein soon after training, keeping well hydrated, and getting in a shower asap before it develops into a cold sweat and you start getting really cold are all good practices for avoiding bugs.
Additionally, it's about listening to your body if you do get ill. After making this mistake once to disasterous consequences, I learnt that the best thing to do sometimes is not to fight it. A few years ago I fought and fought a virus for weeks and weeks through the major championships until, on the nigth before british colleges i developed an absolutely horrific bug. I ran the race, badly, and spent most of the next week, thankfully half term, in bed, and couldn't train properly for several weeks. In total, the after effects of the illness and loss of training took me about a year to recover my form. Now, if i feel a cold coming and I haven't got a race planned in the next couple of weeks I'll often let myself get ill, because I know I'm healthy enough to shake it off quickly when it's little and only miss a couple of sessions, which is much better than months. Knowing and admitting you're not well and backing off to let yourself recover quickly is the best policy, rather than letting it sit there attacking your body and never quite getting rid of it - you don't have to wait until you HAVE to stop.
Fizzy Vit C is great. I know its not a miracle, but ALOT of people swear by them.
I train like an idiot, but not had a cold since Feb 07 - fingers crossed!!!
Hi folks,
Thanks for the tips, especially from Dancing in Spikes.
I take vitamin C and echinacea as well to ward off colds, as well as lots of carbs and protein after running sessions. I wil give the fizzy vitamin c and glutamine a go.
I do tend to get a cold after a hard session, even if I have had plenty of rest before such a session.
I am almost over my current cold (I am currently in the tropics so it's not because of cold weather!) so I will listen intently to my body as I get back into the swing of things. I just hope my body listens to me!
hcy - bear in mind that you don't 'catch a cold' the day after a hard session. The body would have picked up the cold virus some time before your training session. The pesky virus then sits there waiting for you to trash your immune system and then moves in for the kill, which is why you develop the symptoms after a hard session/race, or with some folks when they've got a hangover or just being overtired.
If you're doing everything you can really re food/supplements then just try and avoid other sick peeps (easier said than done), also wash your hands more frequently, especially after being in public places/shops/work and always wash your hands before you eat anything without cutlery...like your sandwiches at work.
Apparantly there are 200 cold viruses and you can only catch each one once.....