Running with a cold that's migrated to your chest

Apologies to everyone I’ve been subjecting to regular snot updates over the last few weeks during the longest lasting cold in the world, but I thought it was timely to cover off the joy of running with a cold.

There's some advice in this link in how to avoid a cold in the first place - sleep lots, drink lots, keep washing your hands & avoid contact with those with a cold.  But let's face it, the occasional cold is inevitable.

General advice is that if the symptoms are above your neck, you’re fine to run.  So if you have a head full of snot, that’s OK. 

If the symptoms are below your neck, give it a rest until you are completely OK.  So a chesty cough means a break from running.  I find this incredibly frustrating as my colds often seem to morph into a chest infection.  Antibiotics won’t speed my return as the cold is viral – as are most of the resulting chest infections.  Running might aggravate the lung damage, leading to pneumonia.  Even scarier, there’s a risk of the virus passing to your heart.  Even without the risk of making a mild infection a major issue, running may actually prolong the infection, not allowing lungs to recover.  So rest is a much, much better option than continuing to train.

And if you have flu, you really won't be able to contemplate running!  I like the test that the NHS have on this video - if there was £10 on the floor would you bend down to pick it up?  Yes - it's a cold.  No, couldn't - it's flu.

Although I'm feeling loads better than I was, I can tell that my body is still not in what passes for tip-top condition – my resting heart rate is about 10-15 bpm above what it should be and everyday activities that I normally take in my stride are wiping me out.  So until I'm 100% better, it's gentle exercise for me.  I am still running, but much less than usual & I am using my heart rate monitor to ensure that I'm not working hard - and I pulled out of a half marathon.  I'm avoiding the gym & am being the back marker for SRS training sessions.  I did do a RR10 cross country & a 10K staying under 170 bpm.  I don't think it did anything for me physically, but boy it felt good to be out in the great outdoors & being active!  Walking would be a good option too.  I often cycle at the SRS training sessions if my chest is bad, but I'm staying off the bike generally at present as I know I'd put too much effort into it.

Returning to running is going to be tough.  My lungs will struggle and I know I will have lost some fitness.  However, I've built it back before & I will do so again.  It's just another challenge!

Colds are so annoying!