Sick again!

Noel PT

I don't know about anyone else but, I seem to get a cold or the flu every other month or more. It is really getting me down.

Its only since my son started going to creche. The books all recommend staying away from your child for at least 4 hours after training...... :roll: but lets be realistic.

I ride everyday, and weight train every other day. I would never be around him! Thats just not an option.

Any suggestions or techniques or dare I say it home remidies.....

CrookedCucumber

Minor infections are part of life, especially if you have children. Personally, I wouldn't be put off cycling because I had a sniffle -- if I were, I'd never leave the house.

I appreciate that this doesn't help you at all, but I just accept these things as part of the joy of parenthood There are all kinds of folk remedies, but that's all they are. If your diet is basically OK, there not really a lot more you can do other that walking around your house in a surgical mask.

Noel PT

Please don't get me wrong it doesn't put me off cycling, or parent hood. Maybe I sounded a bit anti, but not at all.

I love being a parent, but its tough dealing with clients all day, when you got the sniffles. They don't wanna catch it. And I work for myself so I can't afford the time off.

I suppose what I was looking for is, the reasurance thats it common among endurance athletes.

azzerb

I always come down a lot more during peak times of exercise. Try vitamin supplements maybe and make sure you're eating correct nutrition.

doyler78

With respect to both of you but a flu is not a sniffle and if you have it you will not be any bike. Getting the energy to go the toilet is about as much energy as I could muster a couple of weeks ago when I had it.

I agree that a minor cold doesn't keep me off the bike, if it did I would never be on it though sense should prevail and those sessions should be light training as all out efforts are only going leave you in a worse position as you will be comprimising your bodies fight against your cold.

CrookedCucumber

doyler78 wrote:

With respect to both of you but a flu is not a sniffle and if you have it you will not be any bike. Getting the energy to go the toilet is about as much energy as I could muster a couple of weeks ago when I had it.

Indeed. But, happily, real flu is quite uncommon, in the UK at least. If you really have flu, the question whether to cycle or not isn't one that is going to arise. And if you're getting flu repeatedly, something is amiss.

As to whether sniffles (not flu) are common in endurance athletes, my experience is that they're common in everybody, of any level of fitness. I suspect that fit people notice them more, because the loss of capacity is more striking than in an unfit person.

dennisn

Are you getting enough rest to allow your body to recover from all the stresses in your
life. Work, cycling, family,and weight training are ones you mention and it sounds like
you have pretty full days. Getting your body run down trying to keep up with it all is
a sure way to ill health. Are you pushing yourself a bit to hard by riding everyday
and maybe riding to hard to often??? Do you think that lifting weights every other is
helping your health or keeping your bodies defences low, because of overwork,
and making you more prone to illness??? Maybe your bodies defences are too weak to actually get rid of this cold or whatever and it's just sort of the same cold kind of coming and going?? Are you tired all the time???? I only ask this because this desire to do it all,
all the time, without proper rest can do things like this to you. You sort of stay half sick, half the time. Rest at least as hard as you work and train, if not more. No one can do it all.
Give yourself a break.

Dennis Noward

Noel PT

Not sure how to respond to that, cause I constantly wanna push harder and be faster and cutting back doesn't help getting better.

But I see your point and I suppose I could take it easier on my weekends on the mountain bike.

What sort of mileage do you guys do a week. I think I average about 80 - 100kms on the road and about 30 -50 km on the mountain bike.

I just realized that I am most definetly a roadie........ used to be a mountain biker...... :shock:

iga

I'm no expert on training routines but I'm with Dennis on this one, you're not giving your body enough time to recover, leaving it susceptible to infection. Cutting back will actually help you get better, you'll go faster and further mixing training with rest days. I'd have thought you need at least one complete rest day a week with your schedule.

AndyChud

I ride everyday, and weight train every other day.

Do you find that you are almost always tired as a result of constant training/work?
If so then it is not uncommon to get ill a lot seeing as lots of exercise does dumb down the immune system for a while after training until it is fully rested, so if you are not getting sufficient sleep then it is highly likely and very probable that you need to train/work less and rest more.
Multi-vitamins and other vitamin supplements are a good idea, but only when taken regularlyI(ie everyday) otherwise they have very little or no effect.

Hope this is accurate advice and it helps, Andy Sparks

thamacdaddy

sounds like classic overtraining to me and easy to do....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining

Would be worth assessing putting good rest days in your schedule. Your performance will only benefit from it really as I am sure if you are getting ill that often although you might feel fine you might not actually be working at a peak.

CrookedCucumber

I hate to say this, but if you've got small children, getting an infection of some sort every month or so is not at all unusual. There's not a huge amount of research on this, but what little there is suggests that children are most prone to upper respiratory tract infections at the age of two, at which point boys can expect to get about nine such infections per year, and girls about seven.

Of course, parents don't always get the infections their kids bring home, but I know from experience that if my little boy starts sneezing, the rest of us are usually sneezing a week later.

The idea that hard exercise suppresses the immune system and thus increases the risk of infection is highly speculative. There are at least as many studies that reject this view as those that promote it.

Additionally, this time of year you have to factor in the sniffles related to pollen, if you're affected by that kind of thing.

Although it shouldn't be regarded as unusual to get a cold every month or two, if you're actually getting flu -- the real thing -- that often, you need to seek medical advice. That's very unusual. I recommend the ten-pound note test for this: if you drop a ten-pound note in the street and you feel too ill to pick it up, it's probably flu

Brian B

My kids are 3 and 5 years old and for the first two years of parenthood I suffered pretty much with colds etc on a regular basis. I found that I was still trying to live the non children way, staying up late at nights playing computer games and watching films.

Coupled with a lot of excercising and hectic work life and now a hectic house life I found that I was just not getting enough sleep as although my nightly sleeping habits had not changed I was not grabbing those little sleeps on the sofa after my evening meal or post excercise.

Once I started to going to bed early(I sound like a parent - wait there I am!!) I found I have been pretty immune to my childrens monthly sniffles.

Mike Townsend

I have a two year old. Since he started nursery he has had endless coughs and colds. I had a long period off the bike last Spring (Feb through to June) and then was off Oct '07 through to April '08! The frustration with a persistent cough was unbearable and I kept trying to go back to exercise before I was truly well.

So I think the lesson is - you are going to get infections with young children at nursery ... and they will be hard to shift if you are a bit run down with managing a young family (sleep disturbed nights etc). Best to accept that fact and wait to get better.

Finally - on a positive note - your child will have a great immune system by the time they get to school!

CrookedCucumber

Brian B wrote:

Once I started to going to bed early(I sound like a parent - wait there I am!!) I found I have been pretty immune to my childrens monthly sniffles.

Maybe -- but maybe it's just that your kids got past the age where they are most effective at incubating bugs to spread around

The research suggests that after about two years of age, children become decreasingly likely to contract every minor infection that goes around. I don't know if that's because their immune systems have become more effective (however that is to be understood), or simply because by that point they've already had all the viruses in the neighbourhood.

scapaslow

One a month is not bad!

I've got 3 kids, different schools/classes/afterschool clubs and a wife who works in a large office with parents of very many different children where there's always something "doing the rounds". Add in public transport etc...It's no surprise we catch many viruses.

Just get on with it, there's no magic cure. Most little 'colds' can be exercised with.

Sounds like you need more recovery time as you are exercising every day.

I've tried vitamins, First Defence (nasal spray and soap) and just a plain good diet with lots of fruit. The latter seems to work as well or as badly as the rest.

Not Another Hill

I've 3 youngish children and a teacher so I am constantly exposed to viruses etc. Over the last 2 years I've avoided nearly everything they have had. I put this down to the following:

Cutting down drastically on alcohol (no more than 7 units per week)

Exercising outside regularly but not overdoing it.

Ventilated room (all classroom windows open, even in winter, and heating off)

Washing my hands regularly.

Healthy diet.

When I do get a cold, it tends to come and go within 3-4 days. If I feel terrible, I do not exercise (apart from the cycle commute) and try and rest as best I can.

All this seems to work for me. No doubt I'll be struck down by Lassa Fever this half-term now

mm1

Agree with everything that NAH says especially:

Washing my hands regularly.

While you're about it, don't rub your eyes, as this is one of the main vectors for cold / flu type infections. Drink lots of water too.

I took the whole of the Easter school holiday off this year, intending to get miles in early and then spend the day doing what the children wanted; spent 2 weeks languishing on the sofa even more bored than they were!