Pretty much everyone I know has had the lurgy at some point over the past few weeks, however I managed to avoid it over Christmas.

Had a slightly dodgy tummy on Wednesday night, but didn’t seem too bad on Thursday morning, so went out on our group’s Christmas ride (back to the pub for a pint and homemade curry after).

This was only my 4th ride this year (due to working away), so it was always going to hurt me, but got back to the pub and whilst getting warm in front of the fire started feeling all shivery – it almost felt like I could feel the lurg pumping through my veins.

Had a rubbish nights sleep and now woken up all sweaty/shivery/achy. Could the ride have brought this on, or was I just going to be ill anyway? Or was I going to be ill anyway, but riding has made it worse?

Crap New Years Eve awaits.

Yes, if it helps I did exactly the same thing after Boxing Day…

I ignored an annoying cough/cold before Xmas and carried on as usual. Now on amoxylin for my first ever chest infection…

Yes, exercise lowers the immune system.

I did read something yesterday about ‘the flu’ and it said that extreme excercise would weaken the immune system, not due to the excercise itself but due to the dehydration caused by that excercise, the cells simply don’t have enough fluid to function properly.
I was feeling a bit ropey yesterday, that’s why I was looking up info. I had a 2000mg boost of vitamin C before bed and feel ok this morning. I was thinking of riding this afternoon though and I bet I’m feeling rough tomorrow 😕

If it’s the bug that’s doing the rounds right now, don’t expect any change out of a week. Have a look at the man flu thread.

You’re way too serious with all this cycling malacky. Eat more cake, drink more port, ease off a bit and you’ll be fine. If it’s cold, seriously cold, you’ll be fine hammering it but when it’s just a bit wet and damp and cold… leave it.

There’s a fair bit of research that shows intense exercise temporarily weakens the immune system – lock yourself in a secure bathroom for an hour after a hard session – so logically, as above, yes.

I’ve always been fascinated by the odd thing where you go out for a ride, feel super-human strong and indestructible, then keel over the next morning, which has happened to me a few times. I’ve seen a few explanations about raised body temperature and the idea that your body is in overdrive fighting off a virus, so functioning better, but it’s always made me suspicious of days when you feel too good to be true, because sometimes it is just that.

I’ve just started using the ithlete app on my iphone, it measures HRV – heart-rate variability – and claims to give you an accurate indication of how well recovered you are as well as an early indication of the onset of viruses etc. You spend a minute measuring HRV every morning and the app charts your levels over time and also gives you a simple indication of whether you’re fully recovered and can give it maximum beanz if you want to, should back off a little and have and easy day or – if the indicator is red – take a full rest day.

It’s really interesting. Not least because you realise very quickly that it’s intensity that hammers your system rather than miles. I can do back-to-back long, steady days without my HRV slumping, but a brutal interval session or hilly rip-up group ride will send it through the floor next morning. And so far it seems uncannily accurate – I can feel okay generally, but if the app says I’m rubbish, then I am usually rubbish on the bike. Conversely, if the app says I’m good, even if I feel a tad yawny and lethargic, then it’s reflected on how I feel on the bike.

Hopefully it’ll stop me doing my characteristic trick of riding myself into a black hole this year, it’s much easier to back off when your phone tells you that you need to. Then again, being told what to do by an iphone is kind of irritating…

I think that the endorphins from riding can mask anything short of a broken leg. So as the endoprphins settle down you start to feel as ill as you would have done. Plus if its your fourth ride this years its quite a stress to the system and that can make you feel rubbish

I’ve always been fascinated by the odd thing where you go out for a ride, feel super-human strong and indestructible, then keel over the next morning, which has happened to me a few times. I’ve seen a few explanations about raised body temperature and the idea that your body is in overdrive fighting off a virus, so functioning better, but it’s always made me suspicious of days when you feel too good to be true, because sometimes it is just that.

I didn’t realise this was something that had been researched, as I’ve experienced it a few times, but convinced myself I was imagining it.

As an ex fell runner of moderate ability,I would see talented,driven runners overtrain to the point of long term fatigue syndromes.The whole point of training is stress which must be balanced by rest,be it enforced or otherwise.Anything respiratory just back off and,if you must,have an active rest.Some of my best races came after 2-3 weeks enforced rest(having trained hard previously)