7k in the cold and rain – let’s see if exercise can stop a cold!

Posted on Dec 04, 2011 under 5-10k, Health, Long Runs, Milestones, Season's Best | No Comment

I’ve got some really bad colds the last few winters, and notice this seemed to correlate with a period of injury where I had not been able to exercise. This winter I have been faring better and my running has been going well, but alas, recently I had a meeting with a colleague for an hour and a half of him sneezing and coughing in close proximity to me, and 2 days later I woke up with a mildly sore throat, the odd sniffle, and a few sneezes here and there, but thankfully so far no drained, tired, horrible feeling (despite some insomnia).

So, today looked to be pretty cold, about 3-4C, I had to put the heating on a little higher. When I went out for my run I could feel why – the outside doorhandle felt icy, and my breath was pluming around me. Even but the hood on my top up while the Garmin found its signal, then off I went on a planned 7k in the cold dark evening along puddled pavements.

I felt a little puffed out at first, despite the slow pace (6:30 per km) but got into my stride and took a long loping loop that had some inclines and declines included. At about 5k it started to rain pretty heavily, which was quite nice as I was pretty warmed up by then, and although the last km was a bit slower than the others, mainly due to having to navigate a lot of crossings and corners, I felt good and relaxed to a stop in 45:21, averaging 6:30 per km and while my body had worked hard, I felt pretty happy to have done a “long” run and even felt a mild endorphin buzz in the latter stages.

Now it remains to be seen whether running will help with this cold, it doesn’t feel too bad – I am hoping like a few other colds that have tried to get going, and failed after a run, that the effect will be the same this time, and I can prove the immune boosting power of running, if only to myself!

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