Common Cold?
According to Dr Gregory W. Heath, an epidemiologist, runners have only half as many upper-respiratory infections as the general population. But in the middle of heavy training, that protection dwindles, making pre-race colds common among marathon runners.
In a survey of 2,311 participants in the Los Angeles Marathon, Dr David C. Nieman, a professor of health and exercise science, found that 40 per cent of them caught colds during the two-month pre-race period. (These months, January and February, are the peak cold/flu season in the USA.) Training more than 60 miles a week doubled the risk of infection. Also, in the week following the race, 13 per cent of marathon finishers caught colds, compared to 2 per cent of those who didn’t race.
Save your high-mileage training for the spring, summer and autumn months when the risk of infection is lower. Get fit enough so that a week lost to flu won’t be that much of a setback. Taper early to prevent last-week problems. And make certain that you take post-race precautions against catching a bug since your resistance will be at its lowest then.
I can almost pinpoint when it happened. Super Bowl Sunday. I went out for a nine mile run, ran the first 4.5 miles hard and took in a lot of wind and sun during the afternoon. This run following two weeks of three-a-days and two-a-day workouts so my immune system was down.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home