Thursday, March 11, 2010

An Immune System Side Effect?

I can’t believe that I’m writing this this late in the game. Ten days until the Big Day and my body is trying to fight off a cold. I feel like a truck has hit me. Apparently I’m not the only one – check out this blog post from KNBC News Anchor Chris Schauble: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/station/as-seen-on/Iron-News-Man---March-10-2010-87228927.html. He writes today he’s feeling better. I can only hope the same….

So this got me thinking. I’ve been running for 18 weeks through cold, wind, rain (well okay – rain a couple of times) and I’ve been pretty healthy. So what gives? I slow down one week and whamo! Well, it happens there may be a link. From an article on Runner’s World Online:

“One possible reason: A major mileage cut can signal to the immune system that it's okay to back off. But by maintaining volume, your immune response remains constant.”

I wouldn’t think that I would be susceptible. After all, the article says a “major mileage cut.” Face it – my first week of taper was greater mileage than the week prior! Ha ha ! Whatever the reason – I’ll be attacking it with the zinc lozenges this week.

This raises another interesting debate though. On the one hand, the current body of knowledge says maintain intensity but reduce volume. On the other hand, this article says reduce volume, but not too much. As with the rest of life, there must be a delicate balance here. Oh well. Time to pop another Zicam.

Speaking of reduced volume – last night was a nice easy 4 miler. I’m digging this taper stuff!

19 comments:

  1. 10 days to go. Wow. Its almost here. I wish you well in fighting off this cold that you have. You have posted some good links to this. Thanks for the info.

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  2. How interesting! From experience, I find that stressing about the up coming race also affect the immune system. I know it is easier said than done but I try really hard to not think about the race as much as possible by doing other fun activities like yoga, riding my bike or just going on some fun runs with friends and not bring the Garmin along.

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  3. Get well vibes coming your way!

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  4. Doesn't the taper just want to make ya crawl out of your skin? You are cracking me up with all your research :). I always cut volume of long run in almost half each week of taper and while I do do intensity workouts, I also cut the volume of those. The key is to go into the race with fresh legs having given them a break and a body full of glycogen from good carbs the few days before! Hope that cold is gone soon!!! I do think our immune system is in kinda a shock when we suddenly stop running so much...that, and all the crud in the air right now. Rest up!!

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  5. WOW. This is TOTALLY what happened to me!! Back off on miles - blamo... sick.

    Here is to hoping that we BOTH feel better. No worries though, you have lots of time to feel better.

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  6. That is pretty interesting about the immune system. Almost as if by tapering you are daring your body to get sick. Keep the zicam handy just in case!

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  7. That tends to happen to me...when I relax, I get sick. I've been taking a multivitamin and have avoided getting sick this winter so far (*knocking on wood*).

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  8. I've been having the same sorts of thoughts about immune system stuff. I actually think I do better when I run every day....but my problem is if I run, I run too hard. So much to learn, and such a delicate balance, like you said.
    Elaine

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  9. blah. I'm sick now too. hence my suckage with running motivation. :p Get better now, you'll be good to go for race day. :)

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  10. Colds and flus before a marathon are very common. Take comfort that you may not be the only one with a cold at the start in another week. But, that's plenty of time to get better too.

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  11. You know, there is no reason to worry unless there is a reason to worry. You have plenty of time to recover from this cold. No worries yet.

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  12. Get better soon Glenn:) Take care of yourself!!

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  13. Glenn..take some D3. You can do a 10,000 IU dose for a couple days, then drop it to 5000. This time of year everyones' vitamin D levels are low...coming out of winter and not yet spring. It should help. That is interesting about the immune system and the taper, too. Makes sense. Ramp it up with some D..it is the single best immune function booster out there! And, if it is sunny..sit in the sun for 20-30 minutes with no sunscreen. (sunscreen blocks vitamin D..which is why so many people in sunny places are also deficient).

    I'm on the verge of a throat cold thing right now, too. I feel you pain. Errg!

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  14. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/199565/is_vitamin_d_deficiency_causing_colds.html

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  15. I'm sorry you're not feeling well! Feel better soon!

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  16. Glenn! I hope you feel better soon! Seriously that runners world article is right!! I used to get sick every march because we would end bball season and i would like totally STOP working out and then I would get a cold on spring break! It was horrible! So I hope you feel better soon!

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  17. Maybe. All I know is I felt like I was hit by a truck right after the Carlsbad HM, and just got over it.

    Take care and do all the things you know you're supposed to do -- rest, liquids, etc. :)

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  18. On a related note, I tend to get Cold sores during marathon recovery. I think I've finally figured out why. The Herpes Simplex virus feeds off Arginine, which is also an important amino acid for endurance athletes. My diet is very high in arginine (lots of nuts, rasperries, blueberries, whole wheat etc). I think that while I'm in training, my muscles use up all the arginine, but while I'm in recovery, there's lots of arginine left over for the virus to use for replication and growth.

    This time, I took a lyseine supplement which binds the arginine into a lyseine/arginine complex that the virus can't use. This drastically cut down on the length of my cold sore.

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