Getting sick

[larkl]

I've been sick a lot of the past month :cry:
I don't know if it's infections or not. It hasn't been anything that was obviously a bug, like I know it if I have a cold. I have immune system problems that can make me feel pretty sick without actually having viruses dancing on my blood cells :(
But it maybe is because of doing too much hard training. I read some things online about people who were working out hard and they said they stayed sick all winter ...
Checking your resting heart rate in the morning is a good way of finding out if you need rest, apparently; one author said if your resting heart rate is up by 10%, do a light workout, if it's up by 20% don't work out at all.
So I'm trying this to see if it helps me feel better.
I've been doing a lot of time trials and sprints in the last month. When I'm not sprinting I work out with my heart rate pretty high. It's apparently raised my anaerobic threshold so I can go for half an hour with my heart rate pretty close to max. This is a hard workout, I'm breathing quite hard. But I can do it, it's aerobic and I can keep it up because my body's been trained to it.
And what I found out reading about it is that it's fine to do this - just that I need a light day or two afterwards as my body repairs.
Laura

[trifit1]

I think if you get enough sleep and maintain a proper diet your immune system should be able to handle it. I know mine can but everyone is different. Elevated stress levels also derail your best efforts with disease so keep that in mind. Erging is morer of a cross training thing with me. Prefer to be outdoors which I feel also has an edge on getting sick. Food for thought....G

[Yankeerunner]

I think if you get enough sleep and maintain a proper diet your immune system should be able to handle it.

What if your trainer/advisor is one of the toughest sumbitches in the world and is trying to make you just as tough?

[TomR]

then grit your teeth and man up.

or fire the guy and start wearing a tutu.

[johnlvs2run]

I've been doing a lot of time trials and sprints in the last month. When I'm not sprinting I work out with my heart rate pretty high. It's apparently raised my anaerobic threshold so I can go for half an hour with my heart rate pretty close to max. This is a hard workout, I'm breathing quite hard. But I can do it, it's aerobic and I can keep it up because my body's been trained to it.

Training so hard every day is not a good way to train and would definitely run down your system.

In fact the only time to go all out with a race effort, is a race.

Otherwise you don't have time to recover, and when you're not recovering, it's a strain on your immune system and your body.

The purpose of training is to extend yourself and then recover to get stronger. If you only kept extending yourself, without ample recovery in between, you would keep running yourself down more and more.

The key is to train within yourself, so you have the reserves to recover and improve. It is not necessary nor desirable to train as hard as you can every day. It is fine to train hard, as long as your body has a chance to recover reasonably and you have a balance in your training.

[Joanvb]

.....
What if your trainer/advisor is one of the toughest sumbitches in the world and is trying to make you just as tough?

Suck it up, and do what she says.

[Yankeerunner]

then grit your teeth and man up.

Suck it up, and do what she says.

Tom & Joan, messages received, tears have been wiped away and I'm off to the erg.

[TomR]

.....
What if your trainer/advisor is one of the toughest sumbitches in the world and is trying to make you just as tough?

Suck it up, and do what she says.

Nice touch.

[BobD]

But John is correct, and the older you get, the more rest days you need

[larkl]

the older you get, the more rest days you need :(

As people get older they have more free radicals in their bodies after exercising. But antioxidants like vitamin C and E help with this. I read about a study, I don't remember the details, where vitamin E helped people recover after exercise. They used 1000 IU per day.

I row better after a day's rest - I've been working out every other day, that's basically what keeping track of my resting heart rate tells me, that after a hard workout I need a day's rest, after a slightly less hard workout I could work out very lightly the next day.

I actually doubt I've been getting sick because of bugs - it may not have anything to do with working out.

Laura

[larkl]

I'm still sick ... I've been sick since middle of December with the similar stuff. I got sick in the middle of December, no other symptoms than feeling VERY muzzy. since then I've only felt well about a couple of days at a time. I saw the doctor about it, he thought I probably have a mild deep sinus infection and gave me antibiotics. So I'll see if that stops it. Maybe I have a bacterial infection. He also said it will help me recover if I just rest. I'd stopped working out hard every day, as I said I'd been going by my heart rate and working out about every other day. People's sinuses aren't very well served by the immune system and it's easy for them to stay infected. And if you're working out and it weakens the immune system too that could make things worse.
The thing is, I'm used to keeping on going when I feel this way - slightly out of it - because I have 53 (!) allergies and they make me feel kind of bad a lot of the time - rather similar to this - I guess, basically, deep congestion, my nose isn't stuffy but I feel out of it. So I'm used to just takiing some pseudoephedrine and keeping on when I feel bad. Some mold for example growing somewhere in my house could make me very sick, and I would stay sick until I found the problem ...
But I put a couple of exhaust ventilation fans into my house recently. So now I have a good way to check whether a vague sickness is just allergies or not ... I can turn the exhaust fans up all the way and turn on the heater fan to keep the air circulating. So then I should be breathing quite pure air. I tried this for a few days and I didn't feel well. So I decided it probably wasn't just allergies.
I had these kind of sicknesses many times a year before I found out about my food intolerances. Apparently the food intolerances caused inflammation in my sinuses so they'd get infected easily, or maybe my sinuses were just inflamed ... So it was frustrating that I'd get this kind of sickness again after I've cleared the foods I had reactions to out of my diet.
But - just taking care of my diet is no guarantee against getting sinus infections - and maybe many years of getting sinus infections made me more prone to them.
So I'm trying rest and antibiotics.
By the way I've found, on the elliptical, that I can work out with my heart rate at 165 for 45 minutes and I don't even breathe very hard any more and it doesn't raise my resting heart rate the following day. According to my heart rate at least, this is not over-tiring. I could work out with my heart rate at 170+ for 45 minutes - I do it for half an hour and I feel sure I could keep on doing that for 45 minutes (although that might raise my resting heart rate for a day or so). So it really is something my body is used to, it doesn't seem to be excessive according to my heart rate.
Laura

[johnlvs2run]

I'm still sick ... I saw the doctor about it, he thought I probably have a mild deep sinus infection and gave me antibiotics.

You're probably allergic to doctors - a common affliction.

[Shepherd]

I've been sick for over a month now -- started as a cold and then turned into long-term bronchitis. I'm still coughing, but I feel okay otherwise... I just cough a lot.

I've been laying off exercise (still walk 4 km to/from work every day) to try to get better, but this damn cough just won't go away. At this point, will exercise, especially erging, be particularly bad?

[iain]

I've been sick for over a month now -- started as a cold and then turned into long-term bronchitis. I'm still coughing, but I feel okay otherwise... I just cough a lot.

I've been laying off exercise (still walk 4 km to/from work every day) to try to get better, but this damn cough just won't go away. At this point, will exercise, especially erging, be particularly bad?

Same here only I was much better for a 10 day spell before going back down. I also had a mild fever last Thursday. I had a week off (only 1hr/day walking) - by which time I was climbing the walls. Tuesday evening did gentle 30min, felt great (endorphin high?) (although my nose was streaming), but despite extended warm down and stretching, still have PES day and a half later. Torn, will definitely do the 1k for Carol, but will probably take it easy. I am itching to have a go at the CTC challenge (Although not a member of a team). Burt will rely on extended sleep and fewer milder sessions for the present. I am getting very highly strung without my exercise kicks! So I owe it to the world to get back on!

Kind regards

Iain

[jamesg]

But I put a couple of exhaust ventilation fans into my house recently. So now I have a good way to check whether a vague sickness is just allergies or not
If you switch the fan on or go outdoors and get worse, it means you're pulling in the allergens and dust (from traffic in cities). That's not the best way to get good air, indeed it's the opposite, you don't know where the incoming air is from nor what's in it. It's better to use a fan for inlet air, with a filter. Keeps the house under pressure so cleaner too. If you have an air-con system, that will also remove dust; just keep the filters clean.
Any further than this and you need a competent HVAC engineer.

As to the training/rest balance, I spent 0.6% of my total time on the erg and 1x last year, plus sundry mtb and K2. No problems, and so I should hope at that level. This year I'm at 1% up to now on the erg alone, not having done any of the others yet. No problems to date. My typical wo is 30-40' ut1, 3-5 times a week.

The comforting idea is that we get fitter when resting, not when working. The work causes the damage, the rest repairs and adapts us. Too little rest and we're stuck with the damage. I'm still waiting for too much rest to cause me problems.

I've found the flu vaccine seems to steer me clear of colds as well, but maybe I've already had all the 200 odd cold virus strains around. Oranges when in season seem to help a lot too; I'm hooked on the Sicilian Tarocco variety.