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Training making sickness worse
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Digger262
Feb 19, 19 9:18
Post #1 of 6 (779 views)
Let's face it we're all pretty hardheaded and dedicated as triathletes. It's part of what allows us to do what we do. I have trained during some pretty sick(illness) times in my life(colds, flus, etc).

I'm currently coming off a sinus infection and trained(swam 3500 yards) yesterday for the first time in 4 days. Today I'm feeling a little worse which led to the question "Have you ever trained through a sickness and made it worse"? We alway see the question should I train with (fill in the sickness). So, has anyone trained with a cold or a flu and led to pneumonia, hospital stay, etc?
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Re: Training making sickness worse [Digger262] [ In reply to ]
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echappist
Feb 19, 19 9:27
Post #2 of 6 (756 views)
This is really a no s***, Sherlock situation

I’ve had minor colds turn into bacterial bronchial infections due to insistence on training through illness. What could have healed in 4-5 days turned into a two-week ordeal, with requisite course of antibiotics. Now i just don’t push it

Take the rest, and your body (and the future you) will thank you for it. Missing a week of training has a negligible effect, in the grand acheme of things.

And i can’t imagine anyone with the flu to actually want to train through it... cold, perhaps if one’s foolhardy enough; no way the flu. Most of us are not being paid to do this.
Last edited by: echappist: Feb 19, 19 9:28
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Re: Training making sickness worse [Digger262] [ In reply to ]
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devolikewhoa83
Feb 19, 19 9:28
Post #3 of 6 (749 views)
it's usually a judgment call for me whether to rest or keep training. Sometimes light, easy training has been fine, other times it's made it worse. I can usually tell whether i should or should not, but as you note, i'm not always happy about it :)

In college rowing, we had a lot of pressure to keep showing up for practice even when sick, otherwise you'd lose your seat. Hard training plus the calorie restrictions of lightweight rowing made the flu get really, really bad one time, i was sick for weeks until finally one day i had trouble just walking to practice. I checked into college health services and finally got better. Lost my seat but it's clearly what i should have done from the outset.

My rule of thumb is, if i feel symptoms below the neck (e.g., fever, chills, muscle pain, weakness) I don't train, period. If it's above the neck only (i.e. you have sniffles but you otherwise feel fine), i train light and easy. That seems to work pretty well in most cases.
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Re: Training making sickness worse [Digger262] [ In reply to ]
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RichardL
Feb 19, 19 10:17
Post #4 of 6 (675 views)
No duh. Your immune system is already compromised when you are sick. You are taxing it even more by putting additional stress on it through heavy training.
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Re: Training making sickness worse [Digger262] [ In reply to ]
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cartsman
Feb 19, 19 10:18
Post #5 of 6 (671 views)
Yes, I've trained through sickness (or tried to) and made it worse. I've done my best to learn not to do it again. You can train through a cold, but there are things you can't train through (and by the way, real flu is one of them - you didn't train through flu, you trained through a bad cold or similar). I do know people who have properly messed themselves up, one friend who had several years of ME/chronic fatigue syndrome after trying to keep up her marathon training programme while sick.

My general approach:
- if I'm running a significant fever then don't train at all
- avoid swimming if I've got any sinus or respiratory issues
- if it's not a fever then try an easy to moderate training session, be prepared to shut it down, and see how I respond
- if HR, power/speed, etc are fairly normal, and there are no adverse after-effects, then I'll carry on training but will probably stick to zones 1-3 for a day or 2 until I'm sure I'm not going to make myself worse
- if HR and power/speed are completely out of line with each other, then shut it down and try again a day or 2 later if feeling better
- HRV4Training app is also pretty useful at telling me when I'm on the road to recovery.
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Re: Training making sickness worse [cartsman] [ In reply to ]
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PatMcNichol61
Feb 19, 19 10:32
Post #6 of 6 (645 views)
cartsman wrote:
Yes, I've trained through sickness (or tried to) and made it worse. I've done my best to learn not to do it again. You can train through a cold, but there are things you can't train through (and by the way, real flu is one of them - you didn't train through flu, you trained through a bad cold or similar). I do know people who have properly messed themselves up, one friend who had several years of ME/chronic fatigue syndrome after trying to keep up her marathon training programme while sick.

My general approach:
- if I'm running a significant fever then don't train at all
- avoid swimming if I've got any sinus or respiratory issues
- if it's not a fever then try an easy to moderate training session, be prepared to shut it down, and see how I respond
- if HR, power/speed, etc are fairly normal, and there are no adverse after-effects, then I'll carry on training but will probably stick to zones 1-3 for a day or 2 until I'm sure I'm not going to make myself worse
- if HR and power/speed are completely out of line with each other, then shut it down and try again a day or 2 later if feeling better
- HRV4Training app is also pretty useful at telling me when I'm on the road to recovery.


Mostly this (especially if I am running a fever), but I have found that swimming helps me when I have sinus issues.
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