# Cycling Through Chest Infection



## G-Zero (10 Oct 2011)

I picked up a persistent chest infection off one of the kids, which hit home on the 28th September when I struggled home from work through coughing fits and a general lack of stamina.

The following morning I took the bike again and on a particularly steep climb (east from Cocken Bridge, towards Gt. Lumley for locals) I really struggled to get enough air in to deal with the climb, and felt ill by the time I'd reached the top.
After a slow ride home that night I got a lift in the following day and totally wimped out for 5 days after that, using a few owed days up, either side of the weekend, as I could barely speak without an ensuing coughing fit.

I started back on the bike last Wednesday, but even tonight in lovely conditions, I still feel as if my energy levels have abandoned me; and although my chest is still rattling, its feeling much better.

Q. Should I have stopped cycling earlier and have I prolonged the infection by not doing so, or is this just a fact of cycling life that I need to put up with ?


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## Zoiders (10 Oct 2011)

Yes you made it worse and prolonged it.

But then again you don't have a time machine to go back and fix what you did - you will know for next time though to bin the cycling early if you start feeling that rough again.


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## PK99 (10 Oct 2011)

G-Zero said:


> Q. Should I have stopped cycling earlier and have I prolonged the infection by not doing so, or is this just a fact of cycling life that I need to put up with ?




rule of thumb: 

above the neck, work through it

below the neck, rest it.

IANADB, there is a real risk of serious damage to the heart when exercising hard with a viral chest infection


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## Becs (10 Oct 2011)

PK99 said:


> rule of thumb:
> 
> above the neck, work through it
> 
> ...



this is very real - it's how a lot of the heart attacks connected to swine flu were caused. Sometimes viral conditions can leave people with a viral myocarditis that predisposes the heart to abnormal rhythms (arrhythmias) - happens in race horses too incidentally. In addition if you have a bad chest infection the resistance in your blood vessels is greater as they are inflamed so the heart has to work a lot harder to do a given level of exercise. While manning up with a little cold is fair enough as PK99 says if you feel unwell in yourself you really should rest, or at least take it very easy!

It's also quite common to get hyper-responsive airways after a chest infection which may require a short course of inhalers to calm the inflammation down.

Get well soon!


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## albion (10 Oct 2011)

I don't know how common this is but years ago I recall being bug ridden and riding up a steep hill to find my lungs suddenly collapse like bellows.

A very haunting noise was emitted for a couple of seconds before I automatically relaxed and they expanded once again. Do some of us have '9 lives' in our youth?


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## Zoiders (11 Oct 2011)

PK99 said:


> rule of thumb:
> 
> above the neck, work through it
> 
> ...


The same goes for gum infections as well.


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## G-Zero (11 Oct 2011)

Thanks for all your replies and I hadn't realised how serious a chest infection and cycling could be  

I'll be more careful in future


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