pneumonia !!

[gtfpv cycler]

okay , as you are probably aware i have taking up cycling to get fit and lose weight for a number of reasons .
i have been riding now for about 6 weeks although it feels longer . i have been pushing it as much as i can , riding every 2nd day , and achieved good weight loss , remarkable feeling of fitness increase , and enjoying the riding .
i went to a 40th birthday party last saturday night , it was raining , and under a tarpolin , i consumed about 5 alcohol beverages , a lot for me . anyhow my kids and wife have had chest infections prior to this, for some weeks.
anyhow the next day we had to entertain visitors as well , i started coming down with a cough , on sunday . over sunday night i had my shirt off all night and sat on the lounge unable to sleep , because i could not lay down without a rip roaring cough and hot sweat.
off to the docs monday , onto antibiotics , and 2 more days of no sleep and uncontrollable coughing and fatigue , xrays on wednesday confirmed pneumonia , not severe . stronger anti biotics , by thursday feeling better , then bad friday and saturday , sunday feeling great , definately getting better .
i've never had this before and would not wish it on anyone , i dont know the av recovery time , and am scared to know when to get back on the bike , can anyone tell me thier past experiences with pneumonia . 2 days before i got this i did my best time on a 40km ride .
anyways , until the doctor tells me i wont know when to go back to work ? how long i have to be clear for before i start exercising again? and all that . DONT know why i got it either .
i wonder if i pushed it too hard too quickly the immunity came down , or it could be better that i was fitter when i got it , so i could fight it better .

[Wino]

sorry cant help you with what has caused yours, but...

I had pneumonia and a partially collapsed lung last year. I was off the bike for about 2months. Even though i felt better after a few weeks, my breathing capacity was significantly limited, and was very tired after any physical exercise. I initially just thought that it was a man cold and needed to HTFU, so I probably delayed visiting the doctor too long. good to hear you got it sorted sooner that me.

Advice is to rest and fully recover before you are back on the bike. Dont push yourself too soon, otherwise you will be off for much longer.

[gtfpv cycler]

thanks for the reply . i guess it's a little early to say im getting better already . the doc said you can feel better and then all of a sudden its back .
the scary thing for me is i work rotating shift work outdoors , rain , hail or shine , at heights and over Sea air, i hope the doc looks after me , i really have to put faith in someone else here .

[Phil]

I had Pneumonia last year (April) and it took ten weeks to really recover (41 at the time). I ended up on a massive dose of cortisol steroids, which really ballooned the weight up that I had been trying to lose.

[gtfpv cycler]

may i ask why it took so long to recover Phill ?

[trailgumby]

If you've been thrashing yourself and not allowed adequate recovery time you've almost certainly overtrained and dug yourself into a depleted immune system.

The 40th birthday is the key date. Joe Friel recommends that one easy week be taken as a recovery week every fourth week if under 40 (that is, three at training volume and intensity, one at recovery), shortened to two on, one off if over 40 like me.

You also need to allow adequate recovery between rides. I do mtb racing, and I found less is more for gaining fitness.

This is a typical "on" week for me: I do one long 3-4 hour ride typically on a Sunday morning, recover Mondays with no riding, do a hard hilly commute of about 29km each way on Tuesdays and Thursdays, easy spin on a spin bike at the gym for 30mins on Wednesdays if I ride at all, no riding on Fridays, and technical skills practice of 30mins to an hour on Saturdays. The long weekend training ride is the main one, the rest are maintenance.

I have gym sessions in there on Mon-Wed-Fri that deal with core strength and lower back and shoulder injury rehab. Not necessary for everyone, but I have some history and a sedentary deskbound job doesn't help lower back strength or flexibility. On "off" weeks I may not ride at all on weekends, or they'll be easy low intensity social rides and almost no rides midweek. Gym sessions are maintained.

I've gone from being dubbed "Captain Slow" in my ride group to probably being the fittest.

On-the-bike and recovery nutrition is also important for maintaining immune system strength, but that is the subject of another post.

[trailgumby]

Here is what happens when you train. You are actually less fit immediately after you train. The horizontal axis on the chart below is time.

[foo on patrol]

Do it right (recovery) or you will pay later on in life for it!

One of my mates son was on track to be riding at the Olympics, but every time he would get near peak fitness, he would become crook. It came to a head about three years ago on the lead up to the worlds. He was in hospital on a drip and oxygen for three days prior to flying out. He went and placed 5th in the junior pursuit while still being crook.

When he got back home, he had more detailed testing done and it was discovered that he had had pneumonia when a child and the bottom third of his lungs were scar tissue.
Doctors removed the bottom third of the lungs but his breathing capacity is greatly reduced, to the point where he could not get back to the point of being competitive enough to compete at the elite level.

So do the right thing and listen to your doctor and recover fully before pushing the envelope.

[gtfpv cycler]

yeah ' ive done a little internet reading on it . thanks for the reply's . today is a good day , i have improved so much after the last 2 days , its now the 8th day since onset . and i pretty much havent done any walking outside of the house in that time. i'm on the 3rd lot of anti biotics , and back for a reveiw for the 4th time tomorrow . the wheeze is pretty much gone now and i can take long full breaths. so i'm feeling good . i'm not going to take chances at all with this , i only hope the doc doesnt clear me for work too quickly as i want to get fully over it .
thew fitness did come on real quick over 2 months . i'm pissed off this happened , now i'll have to take it slow . however , looking on the bright side hopefully i'm on track for a good recovery .
all my life i have been on the able to do side with fitness , in a natural way . i still feel 25 if i train . if i dont i seem to get lazy and unfit .
perhaps i'll need to seek help on how to train in my 40's . bummer

[Phil]

Eeek. Read Trailgumby's post with horror.

I only have a rest if/when I get sick,otherwise its riding 6-7 days a week in the mornings and gym twicea week in the arvos. with a couple of days being 18km each way commutes.

This long weekend I have been out two hours plus every day, except this morning where it was 3.5. All I have noticed is every day this long long weekend I have less energy and have been going slower. Really hit the wall about 50kms in this morning and had a coffee and a sitdown in Applecross.

My wife has been telling me to have some recovery time - I have chosen to ignore her as you do So there may be somehting in this.

I too am a desk jockey and have been for twenty five years, dodgy rotator cuff which I am seeing the physio for.

Getting back to the original quest "why did it take so long to recover?" well my doctor told me it was normal for the severity of the infection I had. As usual I only went to the doctor when I could not breathe, so it was fairly bad.

[trailgumby]

This long weekend I have been out two hours plus every day, except this morning where it was 3.5. All I have noticed is every day this long long weekend I have less energy and have been going slower. Really hit the wall about 50kms in this morning and had a coffee and a sitdown in Applecross.

Well, that fits. You can't back up on subsequent days and expect to be able to hit the same intensity for as long. It's OK to ride every day, but some of them *must* be at "recovery" pace with no hills or you'll dig yourself a hole and fall in. Been there and done that - took awhile for me to learn the lesson I'm not proud to say. Owe a lot to mikesbytes for his advice on that one.

Hitting the wall at 50km may have something to do with on-the-bike nutrition.

If you want, PM me with your email address and I can send you the mtb endurance race training program I use.

[Phil]

This long weekend I have been out two hours plus every day, except this morning where it was 3.5. All I have noticed is every day this long long weekend I have less energy and have been going slower. Really hit the wall about 50kms in this morning and had a coffee and a sitdown in Applecross.

Well, that fits. You can't back up on subsequent days and expect to be able to hit the same intensity for as long. It's OK to ride every day, but some of them *must* be at "recovery" pace with no hills or you'll dig yourself a hole and fall in. Been there and done that - took awhile for me to learn the lesson I'm not proud to say. Owe a lot to mikesbytes for his advice on that one.

Hitting the wall at 50km may have something to do with on-the-bike nutrition.

If you want, PM me with your email address and I can send you the mtb endurance race training program I use.

Thanks for the offer, will take it up.

On-the-bike nutrition? Well I had some muesli before I left the house and I scarfed down a High5 Isogel at about the 40km ish mark. Yeah dreadfully inadequate, but using the bike to burn calories, so too paranoid to eat away my hard earned calorie deficit.

[ireland57]

Too many "on the bike" calories aren't the problem usually. So....eat enough while you're riding.

It's the "off the bike" stuff that makes the calorie counter wobble.

[gtfpv cycler]

getting much much better now , feel like exercising again . about 90% recovered in 2 weeks i feel. Still on antibiotics, off work until the 9th of may , and feeling the energy coming back strongly, tempted to get on the bike as i feel i'm not getting any exercise . but will have to restrain myself . the hardest part now will be to keep the calories moderate , and take it easy , i'm happy i'm getting over this so quickly and got it very early , its going to be hard to fully recover when all you can do is not exert yourself , however its working , so i'll have to keep my witts .

[sogood]

So do the right thing and listen to your doctor and recover fully before pushing the envelope.

If only more people do that. But yet again, people's objectives to exercise differ and some aim for long term health and longevity while others go for short term glory. I would think most amateurs are aiming for prior.

[anth73]

The winters of 2009 and 2010 were horrid for me with at least three bouts of severe flu and one case of bronchitis. At the moment I'm recovering from the flu, having come down with it on Good Friday. Today was the first day I woke up feeling better then the day before.

I skipped my recovery week to do another period of high intensity training on the back of a month of solid work and racing. This and a lot on my plate with work is the likely reason I came down with flu so early.

I have learned to not rush into training too early, so won't ride until a few days after I finish antibiotics. It will mean over two weeks off the bike but the recent winters taught me a valuable lesson to respect my body.

Good luck with your recovery.

[Mugglechops]

Start of 2009 was a bad one for me. I got a chest infection that lasted for 3 weeks then that turned to Pneumonia. I started back on the bike a bit to early and ended up getting whooping cough. I was out for about 5 months all up.

[gtfpv cycler]

WOAH !!!! some interesting stories here , thanks for sharing , it gives me a point of reference with recovery .
it appears although i recovered 90% the last 10% is a hurdle and reminder that this isnt a walk in the park , today is the 15th day , and last night was horrible , i couldnt sleep and coughed all night , the nights bgefore this i was sleeping through , i have had 3 lots of antibiotics and went to the docs today and told him about last night , which ended with me getting a penicilin shot in the arse . feeling better than i was 2 weeks ago for sure , but this cough is very disheartening and annoying .

[foo on patrol]

^^ Bummer!^^
Do it right or pay the price later on.

[petie]

I had pneumonia at the end of last year. Had a month off work because i couldn't last the day without a nap. Cough lasted about a month. Still not back to full fitness, but finally early this year when i took another month off work i kicked the ridiculous fatigue. I'm 23 and fit and healthy otherwise, just caught some gansta virus and had huge fevers for 5 days then got pneumonia. Definitely don't push yourself if you feel tired, better to have a sleep than push through at this stage. Only when i could charge through a day did i start to think about hard exercise again.

[Wino]

Another thing before jumping back into intense exercise is to start by focusing on strength building rather than aerobic activity. It took me a long time to be able to breath sufficiently well, but was going crazy not riding. So I started with lots of situps, pressup, squats etc etc It can be very frustrating, but its best to take it easy.

[gtfpv cycler]

xrays today show all clear . i still have anight cough , but lungs and heart showing normal
i just have to stay warm , inhale ventolin twice daily and not catch the flu again short term , and when i am completely better get a flu shot according to the doc. i was so happy with the doc , kept me out of hospital , and took the right course of action/treatment . after 17 days i'm on the mend . just have to re assure myself to take it easy for some time yet i guess .

[foo on patrol]

^^ Happy days again! ^^

[gtfpv cycler]

not on treatment anymore , and back at work , but doc still wont let me ride . bummer , still have a cough , a few times a day , and if cold can cough because of it . i'd say about 98 or 99% over it now .

[gtfpv cycler]

this is a real mongrol of a thing . i'm feeling almost over it , but still not 100% well , i still have like a smokers cough which is reducing , as its never lengthy any more can take full deep breathes without coughing , but i just have a little tingling presence just below the throat, inline with my shoulders where the wind pipe is which causes a little cough. sometimes i take ventolin for it , which can settle it , or sometimes make it worse , and bring on the cough more . this is decreasing gradually but very slowly . i'm almost ready to get back on the bike . i think next week , i'll be cycling again . just looked at the 1st post . the thread is only a month old . so allup its only 6 weeks since onset . i suppose that may be quick recovery wise , but feels so slow . , been working night shifts outdoors etc in the wind and rain , can do that ok but cant wait till this cough is completely gone , and hoping i dont become asthmatic .