How to Battle the Common Cold While Cycling

Doctors often say that a cold lasts seven days without treatment, and one week with it. But seriously, the cold is the most frequently occurring illness worldwide and as cyclists you’re probably very aware of that fact. How to battle the common cold while cycling is a double-edged sword. Too much riding can initiate or make a cold worse. Just the right amount of cycling can help you from getting a cold in the first place.

What it Is

A cold is an inflammation of the upper respiratory tract caused by a virus that becomes a viral infection. Although medical science is still arguing about it, growing evidence suggests that at least among adults, cold viruses are passed from person to person primarily by being inhaled into the nose and air passageways. More than 200 different viruses cause colds. Learning how to battle the common cold while cycling is more important than ever during the winter months.

Cold and Damp

Any advice about how to battle the common cold while cycling should include advice from your childhood. But it likely contradicts what you’ve been told since you were riding a trike. Damp, cold or drafty weather does not increase the risk of getting a cold. According to most cold researchers, cold or bad weather simply brings people together indoors, which leads to more person-to-person contact. So that cold ride is not directly related to your cold symptoms even though that’s what it might feel like.

Meds and Symptoms

Most nonprescription medications including antihistamines, decongestants, cough medicines, and analgesics provide only temporary relief of the symptoms of a cold. These types of medications make you feel more comfortable while your immune system is at work fighting the infection. To eliminate the cold, the immune system makes antibodies to destroy the virus and that takes three to four days. Common antibiotics have little value in the treatment of the common cold.

Battle the Common Cold While Cycling

Training hard on your bike makes you perform better on the bike. But a tough session can actually compromise your immune system, leaving you more vulnerable to colds. Recent studies show that there are physiological changes in the immune system that happen when a person exercises.

Moderate Cycling

Tim Noakes, is a professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He says that mild to moderate exercise prompts the immune system to:

Release a protein called endogenous pyrogen, which increases the body’s temperature, making it more hostile to invading bugs
Produce more interferon, a protein that is active against viruses
Increase the activity of ‘killer’ white blood cells

“The combined effect of these proteins and cells is to reduce the risk of an athlete developing an infection.” Noakes says. “This gives rise to the concept that mild to moderate levels of physical activity enhance immunity, whereas high levels of training and competitive stress increase the risk of infection.”

Cyclist Versus Sedentary

Mike Gleeson is a professor of exercise biochemistry at Loughborough University. He sums it up like this: “Athletes are not necessarily at greater risk of catching colds — apart from when the athlete participates in a very prolonged, fatiguing endurance session or competitive event when the immune system becomes temporarily depressed, and this can increase infection risk.”
In short, during a particularly hard training week, and especially straight after an intense session, you are more susceptible to catching a cold.

Above or Below the Neck

Common knowledge has often relied on a simple practice — continue training if your symptoms are above the neck, and taper off or stop if symptoms are below the neck. But Gleeson says it depends on the level at which you are training.

Hard Cycling

“For people who are not professional athletes, it is sensible to avoid any hard exercise when cold symptoms begin,” he says, “and to only restart hard exercise when symptoms start to get better. It is not essential to stop exercise altogether but any training session should be shorter and less intense than usual.”

The Symptoms

Dr. David Nieman, an exercise immunologist at Appalachian State University, is one of the country’s most respected authorities in this area and he agrees with Gleeson. “It’s typically safe to exercise at a low intensity if you have a runny nose, are sneezing, or have a sore throat. If those symptoms diminish during the first few minutes of exercise, the intensity may be increased. Exercise isn’t recommended for people with fever, sore muscles or joints, vomiting, diarrhea, or a cough that produces mucous. If you have those symptoms, let the cold run its course before you resume physical activity.”

Common Meds

Your body is already at work fighting the common cold by the time you realize that you have an infection so depressing your immune system through hard training can prolong the infection.
It usually takes a week or two to recover from a cold. Certain over-the-counter supplements have been shown to reduce the duration and severity of symptoms. “Zinc supplementation and herbals such as echinacea may be effective,” Gleeson adds.