Cycling with a cold

[Twilkes]

Have you ever cycled while having a cold and regretted it? At what point would you think you were better enough to ride a reasonable distance, whatever that means for you?

 

[HMS_Dave]

Road cyclists must always have a cold. They goss all over the place!

 

[PK99]

Rule of thumb:

Above the neck cold, ride but take it easier.

Below the neck cold, rest up, you could do serious harm to yourself. Until the chestiness is gone, do not ride.

 

[midlife]

There is a link between exercise and viral myocarditis. Best not to do a lot while you have a viral infection.

 

[Kajjal]

It depends on how the cold affects you and how your body reacts. The result can be anything from feeling a little tired to making the cold considerably worse. Best to learn from your own experience as we are all different.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Rule of thumb:

Above the neck cold, ride but take it easier.

Below the neck cold, rest up, you could do serious harm to yourself. Until the chestiness is gone, do not ride.

This

 

[battered]

Ever cycled with a cold and regretted it? Yes, a Polaris back in the 90s. I had a terrible cold on the Friday as we drove up. I'd taken the Friday off to travel, if I hadn't been going away I would have rung in sick. Instead we had cycling to do. Saturday came, I was in bits. "No, I'll be fine". I staggered through the day, we did OK. Tent up, I crawled in and died. My pal gave me some food, I ate it and died again. The next morning I was even worse. I crawled up to the give-out, my pal looked at me and said "you're not going to make it, are you?" We did the easy bale-out run, 10 points, and went home. I slept the whole way. By the Thursday my pal was off sick from work, he'd caught it from me in the tent and he was wrecked, lying in bed with his wife bringing him soup. "I've never had a cold so awful, 2 days off work, it wrecked the whole weekend and everything". Sorry Pete.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Have you ever cycled while having a cold and regretted it? At what point would you think you were better enough to ride a reasonable distance, whatever that means for you?

I've frequently ridden with a cold because I've generally commuted at least partly by bike. I would allow plenty of time and take it easy, and generally felt much better on arriving at work/college than when I started out.

On the other hand since I started cycling more I catch less colds in a year and they go away a lot faster. I used to catch every cold going and they'd quickly develop into Bronchitis and last for over a month. Now I catch two in a bad year and can fight them off much faster.

 

[ColinJ]

Have you ever cycled while having a cold and regretted it?

Oh, yes!

At what point would you think you were better enough to ride a reasonable distance, whatever that means for you?

I thought that about 30 minutes before I set off up a local 12% climb, and about 60 minutes before I came round in a pile of damp leaves on the wrong side of a dry stone wall towards the top of that climb...!

(I was clearly not as over the illness as I'd thought that I was. The strain of the climb got to me and I started to feel really wobbly on the bike so I got off and sat on the wall, but then realised that I was going to black out. I just had time to put my bike over the wall and clamber over, then - *POW* - out cold. I felt really wretched when I woke up. I turned round, headed straight home, and spent several more days in bed before I started to make a proper recovery.)

 

[fossyant]

What's said above, head 'cold' OK, take it easy. Be wary after chest infections too - took months to recover many years ago - would cough my guts up every time I stopped in cold weather (traffic lights or end of ride), as my lungs started to warm up again. Never again.

Flu, just don't.

 

[Blue Hills]

I had a pretty serious chest cold/cough once that necessitated some special pills. I sounded like death to the folks on rides I was leading. I specifically asked the doc about cycling. He said to just keep taking the pills and to keep cycling. It seemed good advice. Yes I continued to cough like hell but I wasn't aware of any extra bad consequences.
So I'd be inclined to take whatever meds are prescribed, keep cycling, eat well, go to bed early and sleep well.

 

[Twilkes]

Feeling worse today so cancelled a big ride on Sunday, if it's just snotty sneezes then that's okay but feeling aches in my limbs and don't want to conk out get stuck in the middle of nowhere. Frustrating but best decision. Cheers,

 

[Drago]

In this modern age where repiratory illness has takrn on a new dimension of importance, I would suggest it is irresponsible to even leave the house until fully recovered.

 

[PaulSB]

Rule of thumb:

Above the neck cold, ride but take it easier.

Below the neck cold, rest up, you could do serious harm to yourself. Until the chestiness is gone, do not ride.

100% with this. I know two people who rode with chest infections. One eventually recovered properly, took about three years. The other, five years later, still struggles very badly with breathing and is nothing like the cyclist he once was.

 

[PK99]

I had a pretty serious chest cold/cough once that necessitated some special pills. I sounded like death to the folks on rides I was leading. I specifically asked the doc about cycling. He said to just keep taking the pills and to keep cycling. It seemed good advice. Yes I continued to cough like hell but I wasn't aware of any extra bad consequences.
So I'd be inclined to take whatever meds are prescribed, keep cycling, eat well, go to bed early and sleep well.

That VERY much depends on the condition and meds concerned.