Thursday, October 7, 2010

Running and my immune system

I've developed a cold.

Frustrating, mostly because the marathon that I have been training for all year is this Sunday.  Of course it had to happen that way, that's really just my luck.  I'm not a germ-a-phobe, in fact I'm generally the opposite, and I'm convinced that for that reason (and probably others), I don't get sick very often.  Which is probably why this inconvenient illness is so irritating.

So I do what I always do when I start to wonder about something.  I google search it.  And what do you know.  Perhaps this cold thing really isn't my fault after all.

Per the blog:  Sir Jog A Lot (and don't think that I didn't continue searching on this topic to authenticate his claims)

"Apparently, the volume of runners that pull out of the marathon due to illness is quite high. Here’s a fact that’ll put a smile on couch potatoes across the land. Endurance training causes a rise in the hormone cortisol which causes stress. This stress can affect the immune system, which can make you more susceptible to infection!  The key difference is the volume of exercise. Running for anything longer than 90 minutes causes blood sugar levels to drop to a level where this hormone is more prevalent. Marathon runners exceed this regularly in training and as a result, towards the end of their training, many marathoners pick up a cold."

Totally justified.  Still sick, but feeling better about it.

Not encouraged about post-race illness susceptibility, but if I'm already sick than how bad can it be?

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