How to get back on the bike if you've been ill

My immune system went to shit about a year ago when for some reason I started to get high levels of thyroid antibodies kicking about. I got everything under the sun from flu, to a cough that ended a chest infection, coughing up blood and inflammed chest cartlidge. Eyes started playing up as well with eye ulcers and blepharitis. When I got back on for a trial run in the middle of February I hit ice, wiped out and got a haematoma at the top of my thigh that took ages to go go down. Health wise, worst year of my life. 

Took me until about July this year to get any decent work done on the bike, kept having wiped out tiredness relapses even though my cardio seemed good. The one benefit of time away was my knee injury healed. I kept thinking I could work through it, do physio exercises and it would get better but it never did. I got stronger and the knee still hurt. Sometimes just stopping the activity completely is maybe the best thing but I had Strava mania and probably did myself more harm than good. 

Other than my T4 I'm just on a standard multivitamin, magnesium citrate and fish oil. The rest of it is just trying to eat healthily, or at least not eat processed stuff and things full  of sugar other than fruits. I've been through loads of other supplements but I think most of it is snake oil or 'marginal gains' and maybe only of use if you've got a really bad diet. 

Good diet, beats any supplementation full stop. Sensible training, limits absolute risk. You will get ill no matter what eventually, so deal with it sensibly and take stock, reducing intensity. Many supplements are poorly absorbed and surplus to requirement if your diet is good. Food combinations are key to optimising absorption of fat soluble vitamins especially. As a doctor it always surprises me  how gullible people are to the marketing of the supplement manufacturers. Cyclists are definitely some of the worst offenders. It's like clean doping looking for marginal gains, but there are no quick fixes. Of course if you want to waste your money, then buy and take what you want. No evidence super duper, extra pure, even more expensive e.g. blue ice fermented cod liver oil, any better than super market own brand cheap stuff. Of course there will be a placebo effect and this has been proven greater the more you spend. 

Amazing! Dave Smith's advice is so good it's brought this article back from the dead (original comments 2 years old)!

And then everything else is just placebo. And I here you ask "where can we get this placebo?"

[with thanks to Dr Julius Hibbert of Springfield]

I've started taking 5,000iu vitamin D daily. As mentioned above, it's brilliant for your immune system and I find it makes my legs feel stronger when I take it, I think it has real benefits for muscles as well.

"Do some mental imagery training on your cornering ability.  Watch some inspiring racing videos, read some books on training."

That's my kind of burn feel.

beer works

for sore throat, my choice is a spray with local antiseptic-analgesic combo, like tantum verde forte or septo lete

https://www.krka.biz/hu/termekek/veny-nelkul-kiadhato-gyogyszerek/septol...

the tablets like strepsils are disgusting-gets anyone nauseous and they are incredibly pricey compared to spray formulations. Note, these sprays are only antiseptic and analgesic, they do not contain antibiotics. 

For stuffy nose, I'd only recommend some salty formula, the nasal decongestant sprays have nasty side effect of developing dependance. I don't had this issue, as I rarely used them (1once every 2-3 weeks..) But several of my buddies actually experienced this "rhinitis medicamentosa" phenomenon.

Vitamin D, 6-8thousand IU per day is a must. I had a collegaue of mine, who tested with LOW serum vit-d levels, even though she spent hours on sunlight during summer (leisure time gardening and hiking) and took 4000 IU per day during the summer.

Buying vitamin-D is cheaper than running a serum level test (250 gel caps of 4000 IU cost less than the test itself. Do not waste time with testing, just take the stuff, almost impossible to overdose on it, and has incredible benefits on the immune functions)

Vitamin-C is overrated IMHO, and can be dangerous to those who are predisposed for developing renal stones. I'd stay away from anything greater than 500mg per day.

And if illness prevails, try to rest! 4 years ago developed pericarditis due to a viral URTI, so, I do not think that chasing your physical limits while sick is a wise choice..

I had big plans for my winter. Having two toddlers knocked that right on the head. Only now am I just starting to get any fitness at all back.

Excellent piece, I'd not realised about the residual infection post symptoms. Good to know as I just got over 2 weeks of sniffles.
Liposomal type Vit C can aid recovery too, they say. And Blue Ice fermented codliver oil (the best stuff) can help boost immunity.
It might also be good to consider sublingual vit D3 supplementation. Betteryou (online) do a vit D3 blood test by post in cooperation with a hospital. The results come with a spray (under the tongue, best way to administer D).
Living this far from the equator even we outdoor types are well short of sunlight (thus depleted in D3) October to April or so. Apparently if the sun is less than 45 degrees then we humans dont get enough D3 from sunlight. During the summer months short sleeves and sensible exposure without sunscreen should sort it, I was tested mid last Sept and levels were good. Dont think you're going to get this from a multivit which are, sadly, mostly pretty useless.

Thanks Dave. Good piece.