Sick + Advice from RR Forum

Aaargh! I missed my run yesterday and this morning since I have a cold. In fact, I'm taking a day off from teaching today to rest up. I can't believe that tomorrow is the beginning of the Toronto Marathon expo. Only 2 days to "get healthy". I'll see on the weekend if I can run this one; my "A" race was at the Scotiabank so this cold is just really bad timing :-( Hopefully lots of rest today will help. Knock on wood...

Here's a thread that I starting on the RR forum with a snipets of ususal advise from my on-line colleagues:


Posted: 16 Oct 2008 02:20 Post subject: Running + Colds

I read the following in the current (November 08 issue of the Runner's World (p. 29):

Running hard can give you a cold. Hard exercise suppresses the immune system,
making the body more susceptible to infection. Fend off a postrun flu by
regularly eating apples, garlic, and onions. These food contain quercetin, a
compound that studies have linked to increased immune health.

With the Toronto Marathon approaching, a cold developed yesterday (this afternoon, I began losing my voice and now am coughing) I "felt" something wrong on Monday, the day after my LSD (the same happened last week as well). I'm coming to the reality that I may have (another) DNS I missed my 40 minute run this morning and will miss it again tomorrow. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed I can run the half marathon race on Sunday. I've never heard that it is a fact that running can lead to a cold...

From i_blokland:

The key symptom will be the cough (the old "above the neck" vs. "below the
neck" advice). In the meantime, stay hydrated, keep your electrolytes topped up,
get plenty of sleep, and on Sunday, stash a handkerchief or two in your
pocket.

So long as your lungs are clear, a stuffy nose is only going to be an inconvenience. Even still, it is a good idea to run more conservatively than if you were healthy.

From impet:

My understanding is that running suppresses the immune system only if you
suddenly subject yourself to an extremely intense or long workout, which most of
us don't do. If you've just been building up (or, in fact, tapering!) sensibly,
then it's far more likely that your cold is attributable to bad luck.

From jwolf:

If I have just head-cold symptoms, I usually don't have to slow down or run
more conservatively at all, actually. That is, unless I'm feeling really tired
and run-down-- then it doesn't really matter where the symptoms are, I usually
take a rest day to help the immune system recover.