Chest Colds

[grannydea]

I had to make the trip to Washington state this weekend to see my mother and it was one of those trips that streches the stess level to breaking point, that and because I spent over 6 hours with her in the ER before they got her to her room I now have this stuff like a chest cold. My question for everyone is how do you deal with it in terms to riding? Do you wait for it to go completly away or when you feel better but not quite over it do you go back to lite workouts? I am at 90 miles per week in my training and have been off the bike all this week but am feeling a bit antsy about losing trainning time. What to do????
Dea

[MightyMitre]

Sorry to hear about your mum. Hope she's ok.

General advice for cycling & illness is if it's above the throat it's ok to train as normal, eg a headache or light head cold. But anything below that like lungs is a definite no-no.

If you've got a chesty cough I'd give riding a total miss till it's better. This might sound a bit over-the-top but lungs work hard when your riding, so to try and push them when they're not well would be like training with a pulled muscle in your leg.

I'm full of gloom & doom here - one of my clubmates tried to ride through a cough, but in the end it just made it worse and it hung around for about 4 weeks.

I know it's a total pain to stop when you've got a training plan to stick to , but it's got to be better to a few days off now, rather that trying to carry on and having to take a lot longer off.

Hope you get well soon...

[Dogmama]

Having just (knock wood) survived a chest cold, I have a few tips. One is - forget allopathic medicine. Unless it is caused by a bacteria, there isn't much they can do. Cough medicines - OK if you can stomach them.

Herbs - mullein tinctures - one dropperful every four hours. If you're taking other meds, make sure it doesn't interfere with them. I take meds for lupus & depression & did not have a problem. YMMV. Mullein is good for membranes.

Garlic - one clove chopped up like small vitamin pills three times a day. Garlic is a good anti-viral, antibiotic, etc. Also keeps vampires away.

Humidifier with eucalyptus aromatherapy while you sleep. It will help you cough up the junk.

Zinc & vitamin C - careful with zinc. I only use it for about five days. Vitamin C - 1000-2000 mg/day or to bowel tolerance.

Riding -- well -- I still ride but very slowly and short distances when I start to feel better. I know "they" say to stay home, but I find it helps me cough (non-productive coughs are miserable) and generally makes me feel better.

Lots of fluids - clear water, not beer .

[cyclingnewbie]

If I can't breath, either because I have a chest cold or, my nose is plugged, I wait until I'm over the worst of it and then get in a few easy rides that don't make me breath hard until I'm completely over it. Some of those "easy" rides can be very short and very slow, but I figure I'm doing my max for that day, and that's good enough.

[grannydea]

Thanks for all the good advice. I am going to live and will be trying a ride tomorrow weather permitting.
Dea