Over the last week or so I seem to have picked up a succession of mild colds. The biggest problem with these is that they have impaired my breathing. This is caused by either a blocked nose or a wheezy chest. The symptoms are very mild and other than running they dont impact me at all.

My training has taken a real dent as I have noticed my pace and endurance have dropped substantially.

What's the view - should you train through these minor ailments ?

Richard

Mild sniffles are ok to train as soon as it starts to go on to the chest stop training. avoid speed work or faster running when you have a cold of any type. Echinasia think ive spelt it right is good to srenghthen you imune system, i swear by it

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Organic Exercise & sports injury massage gel

I did read somewhere that if you have a fever (I thinks its called a viremia) then its best not to run because there can be complications.

I take echinacea and I think it must work because I can't remember the last time I caught a cold or was ill of any description. You're only supposed to take it for a couple of weeks then lay off it for a while but it certainly gives your immune system a boost as far as I'm concerned. Apart from that ensure you take a good multi-vit.

Cheryl

Can you recommend a good multi-vit as there are soooooo many on the market I wouldn't know where to start!!!

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NELLIE

To be honest I just by Tescos own. If you look at the labels they still have the same vitamins in but you pay for the make with many of them.

Hi Nellie.......Holland and Barrat always have vitamins on 'specials'.....but do you have that chain of health shops over the water?

PS. I've been taking a multiviamin for a few months now and I've had a stinking cold.....haven't run for 9 days now!. (Also other things have got in the way).

I can't believe it - there I am posting that I'm never ill and now I've got a stinking cold. I'm sure it's something to do with overtraining, what with my dodgy leg (which I'm seeing the quack about tomorrow).

I clocked up that I trained 9 times in 5 days the week before last. It catches up with you eventually . . .

Yes we do thanks Bagpuss, I will pay them a visit this week...

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NELLIE

Try to get vitamins with well over the 100% RDA levels. Those levels were set by the Goverment along time ago and are the least you need for stopping things like scurvy...also alot of supermarket pills have lots of fillers like talc- so a bit rubbish really. Theres a really good book called Optimum Nutrition. It explains all this.

Why is it that whenever you can't train coz you feel crap with a cold or injuries you see nothing but folks out running? I have only done a couple of short slow runs this week due to a cold and funny ears (steve can reply to that one!) and every time I go out I see runners everywhere and I can't do it!

The only time I take multi-vitamins is when I'm away from home on long camping trips - like the annual coast to coast walk across Scotland when I'm living mainly on a diet of Pasta and porridge for ten or twelve days. On these trips I take with me a combined mineral/vitamin/Ginko Biloba tablet called 50 Plus from Healthspan in Guernsey.
At other times I reckon supplements are a bit of con and usually a waste of money. There are quite sufficient nutrients in a normal healthy diet which, in my case, consists of everything as fresh as possible - and perhaps a bit more of it to replace the calories I burn off when I'm running.
It doesn't stop me getting colds, I hasten to add. These are caused by things called GERMS!

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