Damn cold again

rob39

Hi all when I get out on the bike and do some regular cycling and put some miles in, after a week or so I tend to get a cold which knocks me out of my routine. Why is this (my diet is good) and what steps can I take to lessen the chances of catching a cold and help recovery. And how long would you leave it until you would get back on the bike?

1@ATIME

Best thing i've found to fight colds are ginger shots http://news.juicemaster.com/12-amazing- ... or-ginger/ and Manuka Honey 15+. I had same problem with my daughter seemingly bringing every cold under the sun home from pre school. I now have 1 ginger shot a day when I feel cold coming on sometimes 2 and works a treat. If you have a cold get rid of it with simple chicken soup, add plenty of chillis, garlic, onion and ginger. I've found both fight off the infection as opposed to just relieving the symptoms.

neeb

I've had a couple of annoying colds recently too, the second one being a real stinker that had me off the bike for a week. In my case I'm pretty sure it was due to traveling/a long overnight flight with several stops, compounded by the stress of my uninsured luggage not arriving for a couple of days afterwards, and insisting on going out for a hard ride as soon as got back.

My experience is that:

1) if you have a very mild cold that is almost (or even completely) asymptomatic and would normally go away in a day or two, and you go for a hard ride during the stage when your body is still dealing with the virus "below the radar", you will probably push it over the edge and end up with a bad cold. I'm convinced that if you are healthy and with a normally good immune system you can sometimes have a cold without really being aware of it. This is a problem, as if you stress your body by going for a long or hard ride, the virus will get a foothold. I haven't yet found a way to tell for certain if I am in this situation, I know a lot of people recommend monitoring resting pulse, but for me this doesn't work as mine is so variable on a daily basis in any case. One thing you can do however is avoid training for a day or two after flying, having a late night with exposure to lots of people (e.g. a big social occasion), etc, so that you give your immune system time to deal with probable exposure to viruses etc.

2) You are very susceptible to picking up bugs immediately after training when your immune system is compromised. Try to go straight home after a ride, eat and hydrate, and relax completely on your own for a few hours. Obviously this is going to be very difficult for many people due to family/work etc...

As far as knowing when it is OK to get back on the bike goes, this really seems to be a black art... There is some point during the development of a cold when stressing your metabolism no longer risks making the virus much worse, but it's pretty difficult to get right.. Sometimes I have had a mild cold and thought it was effectively gone after two or three days, gone for a ride and then ended up with a much worse cold. When you are properly on the mend after a bad cold however, training doesn't seem to do any harm.

ut_och_cykla

Stress - training or work - or young kids (or teenagers!) makes you more susceptible. Hand hygiene is a good thing to watch. Also make sure you are getting enough protein - carbs are important if you're riding a lot/often but protein is needed for immune system. Adding Zinc, C & B vitamins has helped me go from a cold a month (!) to one a year or so.

ShutUpLegs

How hard are you working, are you recovering properly?

dw300

Stop socialising with sickly people.

What's your diet like? Are you getting a full compliment of vitamins and minerals required to keep you healthy?

1-2g of Vit C a day .. even when you're not sick too.

rob39

I'm a Nurse so how much I would love to dodge ill people I can't and stressful at times. Nutrition wise I aim to eat a well balanced diet and manage that. Vitamins wise I don't take but now taking a multi vitamin a day + garlic capsules. I also get cold sores so I know I'm run down.
Living where I do the roads are very lumpy and I tend to include 2-3 climbs in my ride short 14 mile ride(anything from 1-1.5 mile long usually with longer 2-3 mile climbs further out) I then do 12 hr shifts at work.
Normally I'm not a person who falls ill but recently colds have been a pain and once I start any fitness work a week later a cold starts to appear???? :roll:

ut_och_cykla

Hope you get it sorted - deff would look at nutrition again - even tho' you strive for helathy it might not be ebnough/right balance for stressful job & hardish rides.

neeb

As regards the Vit.C - I thought the idea that taking mega dozes (1g etc) was beneficial had been debunked, and that it might even be mildly harmful over the long term?

dw300

neeb wrote:

As regards the Vit.C - I thought the idea that taking mega dozes (1g etc) was beneficial had been debunked, and that it might even be mildly harmful over the long term?

I think 2g/day is max suggested, but you tend to absorb less the more you take. 11g/kg is lethal for 50% of people, so it's not gona kill you. I'm honestly not sure whether that much helps or not. I take my vits, and if im sick i take the max safe amount. Could be partly placebo effect, or might help me get better. But if you don't take it, then it's 100% certain it won't help!

Herbsman

Basically, recover properly, stay away from people and don't touch things that other people have touched.

Maintain a good hand washing routine and do not touch your face after touching things.

Stay the f**k away from people.

ShutUpLegs

rob39 wrote:

Living where I do the roads are very lumpy and I tend to include 2-3 climbs in my ride short 14 mile ride(anything from 1-1.5 mile long usually with longer 2-3 mile climbs further out)

If you're doing these 2-3 mile climbs at your maximum and they are steep you could be working your heart too much. Rest and recover or do the climbs at an easier pace. Check your heart rate.

ut_och_cykla

Vitamin C is worth keeping up - but 1g a day as one dose is in my opinion a waste of money as most of it is excreted in the urine. Source 200mg - take one with each meal or one everyday and real fresh raw fruit & greens other meals.

Make sure you're getting 1-1,5 g protein per kg body weight per day - especially on days you train and split up over the day as your body can only take up 20-30g protein at a time - eggs , lean meat, fish and dairy and if this is difficult use a protein (carb free) shake on days you train for a few weeks.

Good carbs - potatoes & wholemeal bread - pasta is good dense energy source but nutritionally poor - few vitamins, trace elements etc. Fats will automatically follow with protein sources usually.

If you run out of energy on rides use small quantaties of easily digested carbs (gels, energy drinks or jam sarnies of white bread & jam (no butter/marg!) to keep you moving.

This combination will give you plenty of 'repair' material, but you need to sleep well, avoid being infected in a concerted way and perhaps back off the training for a week or two to allow your body to 'catch up' . As you point out cold sores are perhaps a sign you are run down - doing too much and not catching up on rest/nutrition.

neeb

ut_och_cykla wrote:

Make sure you're getting 1-1,5 g protein per kg body weight per day - especially on days you train and split up over the day as your body can only take up 20-30g protein at a time - eggs , lean meat, fish and dairy and if this is difficult use a protein (carb free) shake on days you train for a few weeks.

Good carbs - potatoes & wholemeal bread - pasta is good dense energy source but nutritionally poor - few vitamins, trace elements etc. Fats will automatically follow with protein sources usually.

I'm never sure if I'm getting enough protein or not - I'm more or less vegetarian, although I eat some white fish (in practice only a couple of times a week however). I eat a lot of tofu, occasional cheese, nut spreads and nut bars for snacks, and a lot of wholegrain cereals. Also a lot of pasta, although I always go for wholegrain wheat or mixed wheat/rye pasta, which is presumably nutritionally a lot better than white pasta. I always have chocolate soya milk as a recovery drink.

The idea of actually calculating how much protein I'm having each day seems a bit daunting, given the number of different sources and variation from day to day...

I'm also a bit reluctant to overdose on protein as it seems that a high protein diet might not be the best thing for long-term health.

dw300

If you're more or less a vegetarian, do you eat dairy and eggs?

Calculating your protein should be no harder than if you weren't a vegetarian .. you still work out the protein per 100g for the food, and weigh your portions. You only need to do this once per recipe/meal if you write it down or remember it.

Even at 1 - 1.5g/kg you're no where near getting too much protein. I think the only long term risk is to your kidneys if you're dumping large amounts into you over a sustained period of time.


Also, about the 20-30g at a time thing. This is the amount of protein you're body can use in a period of 2-3 hours, ie. for recovery, hence the guidelines for smaller regular meals to maximise recovery. This 2-3 hours is also the time period for your stomach to be empty after a meal, not the period of time to digest and absorb the meal. This is where the connection for the recommendation of 20-30g per meal comes from.

But not all protein get digested and absorbed at the same rate. You could eat an enormous healthy meal with 100g of protein from varied sources and plenty of fibre that takes 12 hours to digest, and due to the volume of food in your gut reducing rate of digestion and the rate of digestion of differing foods, your body would make use of quite a bit of it, not just 20-30g.

Some my be wasted, it's not quite as efficient as smaller regular meals, but if you're forced to miss meals then I wouldn't be afraid to eat larger meals afterwards if your priority is to retain lean mass. Just keep them healthy. If you're over-eating like this for one big meal every day, as well as a couple of smaller meals in order to hit your protein needs, you're more likely to be taking on more calories than you really need to, which is why it's not recommended as a long term nutrition strategy.

ut_och_cykla

Your original post was about colds. Personally I think it would be worth looking at your protein intake even if it seems tricky at first. And making a food log for a week may well give you a few other pointers - too much pasta maybe instead of 'better' nutritional choices etc. A site like Livestrong - you can log all you eat and it will give you an idea about the general state of things - or a more detailed check with a site like finelli.fi - there is probably a british site that will help too.
personally if you can't be bothered /find time to calculate you could always just make sure you up your protein quantity & quality for a month by adding a protein drink, extra milk/ eggs plenty of fish and seeing if it helps. Unless you have a kidney disease you are unlikely to cause any harm.

And of course if the repeat cold stuff carries on - get checked by a doctor - allergies? Aneamia? etc

neeb

ut_och_cykla wrote:

Your original post was about colds. Personally I think it would be worth looking at your protein intake even if it seems tricky at first. And making a food log for a week may well give you a few other pointers - too much pasta maybe instead of 'better' nutritional choices etc. A site like Livestrong - you can log all you eat and it will give you an idea about the general state of things - or a more detailed check with a site like finelli.fi - there is probably a british site that will help too.
personally if you can't be bothered /find time to calculate you could always just make sure you up your protein quantity & quality for a month by adding a protein drink, extra milk/ eggs plenty of fish and seeing if it helps. Unless you have a kidney disease you are unlikely to cause any harm.

And of course if the repeat cold stuff carries on - get checked by a doctor - allergies? Aneamia? etc

Not sure if this was aimed at me or the OP (I guess it doesn't matter, the advice might apply to both of us, but sorry OP if I've unintentionally hijacked!). Myself, I don't usually get that many colds, although I've had more than my fair share in the past couple of months. I think about my protein intake more from a recovery standpoint, I find it difficult to train more often than 3 or 4 times a week (i.e. every other day) and also recover properly. I might try eating more protein and see what happens.

dw300 wrote:

If you're more or less a vegetarian, do you eat dairy and eggs?

Well, I do, but I don't much like eggs or milk as a rule, so I have them only as ingredients, i.e. I wouldn't eat a boiled egg or drink a glass of milk. I eat cheese, but try to limit it because of the fat content.

dw300 wrote:

Even at 1 - 1.5g/kg you're no where near getting too much protein. I think the only long term risk is to your kidneys if you're dumping large amounts into you over a sustained period of time.

I was thinking of the more theoretical / speculative side of things where there is some evidence that a high protein diet may not be the best thing for longevity. Seems that the well demonstrated positive effects of calorie restriction on longevity may work mainly through protein restriction. Vegetarians in general tend to live longer and there's some suggestion that this might be because they eat less protein on average. I suspect that the trick is to eat enough protein to meet your needs, but no more. Obviously your needs will be greater if you are training regularly however.

dan man

i know all about :x have been sick twice a month from oct to feb. ended up getting tonsilitus, sick for two weeks ,took two rounds of antibotics to shift it. :x think i trying to do too much too soon and not listing to my boady. winter, to much on bike , physical job, new babby , wipe out,took too month off bike last time i got sick needed every bit of it. new start now going to try listin to boady more look out for sines ,mouth ulcer,sore thoats,and have better diet and good nite sleep after training

adm1

I haven't had a cold for over two years now. I do have three kids who bring all the diseases home from school and my wife works at the same school. I used to catch colds and stuff from them all the time.

The thing is, I had a stent put in one of my arteries two and a half years ago. Ever since then I have been pretty fanatical about my fitness and diet (for obvious reasons). For diet, I use a low carb regime on the whole - but with carbs added at the right time to offset my cycling needs. Sounds strange, but that's the way I do it. I mainly drink red wine instead of beer these days. As little processed food as possible and no added sugar.

The only other thing I changed was to take a daily supplement from Healthspan - this has plant sterols, garlic, folic acid, B vitamins, vitamin D, Co-enzyme Q10 and Omega 3.

Not sure if that's it - but I haven't had so much as a sniffle in over two years despite working like a dog and spending a lot of time on planes (I always used to catch colds from proximity to people on aircraft)

pastryboy

I get this too.

What happens to me is that, I do some intensive exercise, feel absolutely fine after it - eat, completely relax - feel pretty good, then several hours later, I get a slightly blocked/phleghmy feeling in the back of my throat (i.e the glands swelling which is a sign of fighting infection). Sometimes it goes away on its own but other times it turns into a cold. I also find my digestive system starts playing up.

I looked into it and it's called post exercise immuno suppression. Might be worth having a read on the subject.

Some info here:

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/exercise-stress.html

For what it's worth I don't think protein alone will help. I had the same problem when I was weight training and consuming loads of protein. However, eating enough is definitely a major factor. I tend to not feel that hungry but I've forced myself to eat more and it seems to help.

In the past I found echinacea tended to help when fighting a cold infection. There is some evidence it helps:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6231190.stm