I’ve finally realized that intense trainer rides suppress my immune system so much that I develop cold/bronchitis symptoms which last 2-3 weeks, putting me down enough to sufficiently destroy my training. Moderate/hard trainer rides are fine, but on a few occasions I can tell that my body is allowing me to overextend myself. It’s almost like pain and fatigue go away and I am able to push beyond what I normally could do.

I thought this was my body adapting to training stress...

But, it's these workouts that have gotten me sick. It happens about every 4-5 months. Minutes after the workout, I get congested, which is followed by coughing, then a full blown cold (sore throat, bad congestion, fatigue) which lasts several weeks. Once I feel better, I slowly ramp back into training. Months go by of feeling great and then a super-successful ride gets me sick again. Repeat.

I keep my antioxidant intake high, I get 7-8 hrs sleep, and my diet is pretty clean, but those strategies aren’t helping as it just happened yet again.

The only connections I can make are 1) this seems to happen when my weekly TSS goes above 250, and 2) during these workouts I breathe harder than normal, from the very bottom of my diaphragm. Maybe I’m breathing too hard? Is this possible? Or is it possible to push too hard on the bike? Does this happen to anyone else?