Training with a chest infection?

king_jeffers

Hi all, my little girl started nursery about a year ago and since then has been bringing back every illness known to mankind. It’s really knocking my training schedule, I keep putting it back and back and now I’m faced with a 100 mile sportive at the end of next month. Current illness is a bad chest infection, my question; is it worth pushing through the pain or should I rest up? Tried cycling to work this morning and was wrecked. My commute is about 7 miles. Two weeks ago I did 80 miles on the weekend and felt okay. Just starting to get really frustrated by it all. Putting on weight and struggling to get my breath at the moment, just want to get this training scheduled nailed but illnesses have other ideas. Off to the docs tonight to ham up my symptoms and hopefully get some antibiotics to kill of the infection :-)

Currently no gym... no cycling and was thinking about doing the insanity workout to shed some pounds... going insane...

PerformingMonkey

From personal experience I would say rest up and you will recover quicker from the chest infection. I have tried both ways, first time I rested and was still able to race, I didn't win and noticed the lack of training but I finished. Second time I trained up until the normal tapering period for my event, took longer to recover and was still too ill on the day to contemplate the distance (I didn't get a refund or could carry over my entrance fee).

And unfortunately rest means just that, no light training, just lounging around keeping warm, drinking plenty of fluids and getting through some box sets!

arthur_scrimshaw

My rule is if a cold has gone to the chest then I don't ride. Neck upwards is ok.

mamba80

why don't you stop eating then?

Rest is what you need and proper diagnosis.

oola

There have been cases where athletes have died whilst training with flu symptoms or chest infections. Rest up and much as possible with sleep and good diet.

Training through it at best you'll make the infection worse or prolong the illness.

meanredspider

Rest and more rest.

hypster

I have a friend who seems to get chest infections quite regularly. If I were you I would not train through it because you will just tend to make things worse and prolong the problem. If it is a viral infection then antibiotics won't do you much good but if you want the doctor to prescribe them then tell him you are coughing up green phlegm (you may well be already).

This will indicate that the infection is bacterial and he will then prescribe a course of antibiotics. Make sure that you take the whole course as well even if you start to feel better, otherwise it will come back with a vengence.

shockedsoshocked

Definitely don't train on a chest infection. My GF did despite my telling her not to (running in freezing temperatures in winter despite having a terrible hacking cough and bringing up various shades of green and brown phlegm).

She eventually developed pneumonia, had to take over a month off, be on antibiotics and put up my incredibly smug "i told you so remarks".

Admittedly that's a huge worst case scenario but you don't want to prolong things. A week off now is worth having to take a month+ off in the future.

mamba80

hypster wrote:

I have a friend who seems to get chest infections quite regularly. If I were you I would not train through it because you will just tend to make things worse and prolong the problem. If it is a viral infection then antibiotics won't do you much good but if you want the doctor to prescribe them then tell him you are coughing up green phlegm (you may well be already).

This will indicate that the infection is bacterial and he will then prescribe a course of antibiotics. Make sure that you take the whole course as well even if you start to feel better, otherwise it will come back with a vengence.

Myth, I am afraid, green phlegm indicates...not a lot really, can be viral or bacterial or how it smells.

hypster

mamba80 wrote:

hypster wrote:

I have a friend who seems to get chest infections quite regularly. If I were you I would not train through it because you will just tend to make things worse and prolong the problem. If it is a viral infection then antibiotics won't do you much good but if you want the doctor to prescribe them then tell him you are coughing up green phlegm (you may well be already).

This will indicate that the infection is bacterial and he will then prescribe a course of antibiotics. Make sure that you take the whole course as well even if you start to feel better, otherwise it will come back with a vengence.

Myth, I am afraid, green phlegm indicates...not a lot really, can be viral or bacterial or how it smells.

Fair enough, just going by what my mate tells me when his doctor examines him and usually prescribes antibiotics for green phlegm.

mentalalex

Training with a chest infection is a big NO.

All you will do is make yourself worse, I lost around 8-10 weeks of training last year during the start of my winter block, I tried training with it, ended up making it far worse and ended up having to have two courses of rather strong antibiotics.

vs

I rode my bike with a chest infection once, ended up with bronchitis, didn't ride at all for 3 months and didn't 'train' for 6 months. I lost around half a stone during that period, through a balanced diet, and, I guess, some muscle loss.

Rest and get better.

trekvet

AS others have rightly said, rest (off the bike), and I would add - concentrate on boosting your immune system, by having a healthy diet concentrating on plenty of veg, loads of salad veg., some fruit but none acidic (so that's no raspberries or strawberries but satsumas and bananas), mackerel in olive oil, that sort of thing. I have porridge, almonds and low fat natural yog (ALDI is recommended 45p.) for brek, cold meat or fish salad for lunch, chopped fruit in a glass (chop it in the glass so not to lose the juice) with the yog on top for tea, Rooibos tea and loads of water. No colds this winter, despite playing with the grandchildren.

vs

madasahattersley wrote:

Don't EVER do it. EVER. Unless you like chronic post viral fatigue and missing weeks or months of training afterwards.

Yep, that's exactly what I had following the bronchitis, took six months to recover fully.

Zingzang

madasahattersley wrote:

Don't EVER do it. EVER. Unless you like chronic post viral fatigue and missing weeks or months of training afterwards.

Instead of weeks and months you could say years, or even the rest of your life. I know, because I am one of those basket cases.

damocles10

I raced with a chest infection.....the season was ruined for me after that...in fact it was one of the contributing factors for me hang up the race bike.

flycop2000

I know its a bit late now from the original post but talking from experience, I would not train hard with a chest infection as I did! One week in hospital with a blood clot in each lung, Two months off work and prescribed Warfarin for 6 months. The docs thought the clots were caused by hard training whilst having the chest infection :shock:

frisbee

What do people classify as a chest infection?
The occasional bit of mucus coughed up at the back end of a cold but no other noticeable effects? Or coughing up a lung style cough, going to the doctor and being prescribed antibiotics?

sloppyschleckonds

Most people self diagnose using the internetz