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Friday, December 30, 2005

Beating the cold

By Jenny Kincaid Boone

Kincaid Boone

Jenny Kincaid Boone

Jenny Kincaid Boone has been running since she was in eighth grade. She competed in cross country and track at Fort Defiance High School (Fort Defiance, Va.) and at Roanoke College, where she was all-ODAC in cross country for four years. When her knees and legs aren't aching from the wear of years of competition, she hits the 19 to low 20-minute range for a 5K.

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Winter can be the season for sniffles and runny noses. But should you keep running if you feel a cold coming on? Should you take your workout indoors or put on more layers of clothing when running outside?

A sinus infection that I had in mid-December prompted me to take a look at whether my runs in the frigid outdoor air contributed to me picking up the virus, which began with a runny nose.

Here’s what I found:

  • It’s okay to run when you have a cold. Running actually opens up your nasal passages, helping you breathe easier and increasing circulation, said Roanoke allergist, Dr. Luis Matos.

    “Exercise may help clean things out,” he said.

    Running also doesn’t make a cold worse nor does it typically prolong it, said John Aquaviva, an exercise physiologist and former professor of exercise science at Roanoke College.

    “Once people catch a cold, it has to run its course, whether we exercise or don’t exercise,” he said.

  • But lay off exercising, whether it is running indoors on a treadmill or outside on the roads, if you feel a cold starting, to prevent the symptoms from turning into a full-blown virus.

    “What our body is telling us is we need to rest or take it easy,” Acquaviva said. “If we exercise, it won’t help the situation.”

    Also, do not run or exercise if you have the flu or a fever, cautioned Acquaviva and Matos. Running elevates body temperature, keeping it from responding to an illness and slowing recovery, Acquaviva said.

  • Running actually helps your body fight off sicknesses, such as colds or the flu, according to research by a professor at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. David Nieman, director of Appalachian State’s Human Performance Lab, found in a study that he conducted of marathon runners in California that running and other exercise increases circulation of the body’s immune cells. That makes runners less likely to pick up a virus, Nieman stated, according to an article in Runner’s World.

    Runners and other people who exercise contract less upper-respiratory illnesses than those who do not exercise, he also cited in his research.

    But running for 90 minutes or longer decreases the changes that your body will fight off infections, because it puts extra stress on certain virus-fighting cells, Nieman said, after he discovered that marathon runners typically caught colds after competition.

    Training more than 60 miles a week doubles the chances that runners will catch a cold, compared to running less than 20 miles a week, he said.

    To prevent catching a cold and staying healthy, Nieman suggests that runners back off the pace for some long runs, particularly in the winter, and take certain precautions, such as those below.

    Ways to prevent catching a cold or other illness during the winter months:

    1. Get enough sleep
    2. Avoid overtraining, such as high-mileage weeks. Back off on the pace.
    3. Eat a well-balanced diet
    4. Prevent fatigue from traveling by sticking close by for races, rather than traveling to out-of-town competitions.

    Sources: Life Fitness, Runners’ World

    Here are some upcoming races and running events for your New Year schedule:

    Dec. 31: Craig Creek 50K Big Fun Run, starts at Caldwell Fields and covers parts of the Appalachian Trail

    Jan. 1: Star City Striders annual run up Mill Mountain, starts in Ramada Inn parking lot on Franklin Road in Roanoke

    Feb. 25: Blacksburg Classic 10 Miler and 5K

    Feb. 26: Colonial Half Marathon, Williamsburg

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