Hi everyone, so, lately I've noticed that everytime I go on a very long and physically demanding ride, a couple of days later I always come down with the flu or something like that, and was wondering if there's someone out there that has noticed/experienced something like this, and what or how have you dealt wiht it? I took some vitamin C after yesterday's ride wich was 46Km long but with very very tough/steep climbs and long, fast descents, but I throat is getting sore and I've started getting a runny nose.. so I will most likely come down with strepthroat or flu.. again.. please help!
i'm no expert but i just read up on cold & flu recovery as i'm 3 weeks suffering & desperate to get out on the bike.it can take 3-4 weeks to recover fully from cold or flu virus & in that time the body is working to rid the body of infected cells which is why its recommended to rest well. when you do strenuos activity it can cause a relapse & so you may start too feel the usual symptoms associated with cold & flu.
The correlation is obvious - after long and exhausting ride your organism is not resistant to infections - your natural immunity is weakened and you're "open" for all viruses surrounding us. It may happen more often when your natural immunity is relatively lower (some people are more resistant, some are less). It's not obvious how to prevent: for sure you need to regenerate well after ride, drink, eat, rest and probably avoid direct contact with people. A-D-E made a good point - you must get well after long illness before coming back to exhausting rides!
I would also look into what your eating during and after a long ride, if your diet is clean and you nail a ton of goo it may drag down your immune system. I've eaten like crap after long rides and had come back to haunt me also. Good luck!
Well, my diet is pretty regular i think, nothing special.. I like to indulge in burgers every now and then, and have a couple beers a week.. when riding I mostly eat chocolate for the sugar rush, maybe a cliff bar if I find some of pecan pie flavored ones.. nothing too special either.. last long-ish ride wich was 46Km with lots of climbing plus rain and cold-as-f*ck. next day woke up with a pretty bad throat infection and had to take some antibiotics.. I asked a friend who is a personal trainer at a local gym and he told me that I should try taking some aminoacids supplements so that I don't stress my immune system to that point where I'm getting sick after every long ride.. I've started taken some of those and will see what happens after the weekends race.. if that doesn't work I might have to take a trip to the good ol' doctor and try and figure out what's going on.. it may be worth mentioning that I'm 29 years young, anyways, thanks for the advice.
check your teeth, same thing used to happen to me everytime i hit the gym id get sick. got my teeth fixed had 7 cavities and got my wisdom teeth pulled out, makes alot of difference no more getting sick twice a month.
Chocolate and sugar based snacks are not ideal for training/riding or recovery. You get the rush and boost but then a crash in sugar levels. I have low blood pressure and if I snack on chocy or treats it gives me headaches (think I abused energy drinks too much a few years ago) Eating well before during and after will help maintain energy and recovery. Better things to eat during would be nuts or fruit, peanut butter sandwich (should be ok to carry with you) and after eat some good protein loaded stuff. And water, enough waster to replace what is used during strenuous exercise. Since earting better my strength and fitness has greatly increased and I feel better. Also, do you sleep enough....? When my sleep pattern was wrecked with our baby I was always ill