Bronchitis - running advice?

Hi....first post so please be gentle.....

I am due to be running the Birmingham Half on sunday (my 2nd half marathon) however i came down with flu which led to a cough & the doctor last week said i had bronchitis.

The symptons have died down slightly but i'm still coughing & not 100%, i've not trained for 2 weeks.  I can't decide whether i should run or not at the weekend.

Anyone else ever experienced similar?  Any advice?

Just ran a half-marathon last weekend after a cold that got to my chest in the two weeks before the race.  I wouldn't recommend it as I really struggled and ran my worst ever time.  This was also a minor cold - nowhere near the intensity of bronchitis.

Have you got a heart-rate monitor?  The one tell-tale sign that I wasn't right was that my heart rate was elevated (around 15 bpm higher than it should have been).  With hindsight I should have spotted this on the easy run that I did on the Thursday before the race (as I thought I was over the cold). 

There will be plenty of races in the future, although it seems hard at the time it is probably better to withdraw.

Hi stutyr

Thanks for your response.  I appreciate your advice.

My heart says i must run, i've been raising money for charity etc (my son has Leukeamia), i'll be letting people down.

My head says don't do it, recover & run an event (albeit slightly smaller) a few weeks after i've recovered.

I did a half a couple of years back with this and afraid I was coughing so bad after a couple of miles that I throw up it wasn't pretty. I would be tempted to wait until the weekend and just in case you feel better but if you are still ill don't do it. I wouldn't worry to much about not training for two weeks at the end of the day that's just a long taper and won't have a massive impact on how well you do.

x-post if you feel that you should do it for the money raised you can still get to the end you will just feel very very rough afterwards. Would still say it's a bad idea but you can get round if you really want to.

How many more times do I have to say this? The rule is symptoms above the neck - ok to run. Below the neck, DON'T DO IT! It can be very dangerous, I personally know of several people who cannot run at all any more due to inflammation of the heart muscle brought on by running when ill, and one man who went out and ran 10km when not recovered properly from flu came home and dropped dead 30 mins after his training run, He was a very fit guy, a Marine and a member of the British Orienteering Team, but his fitness didn't prevent his heart getting overtaxed by trying to cope with a run as well as illness. Please - for your own sake, pass up this run. There will always be others - but you  may not be running if you don't rest when you should.

If you have been diagnosed with bronchitis then no. Being fit means that your body compensates for illness better, consequently you feel OK (ish) even though you are ill. The problem is that abusing this fact means that if you over do it the result could be something like pneumonia which will take ages to recover from. Sit this one out.

my diagnosis of bronchitus has now turned out to be asthma after a week of pencilling and not touching it. I ran robin hood half before i went to dr and only went as ended the race blue in lips which scared me. my time wasnt great and i knew deep down i shouldnt of ran and already today been given clear to run kilomarathon next week even though still got a cough which they linked to my asthma and given me a preventor to use over the winter months.

go back to the dr and see what they say and do as they say.

WBA, it's not even a decision to make. You're not in any shape to be running, and don't have any real running experience over the distance.

Do not run.

People who have sponsored you will understand, and switch the event.

ps Lisa above...you post that last line at 7.17 on a friday evening. Her race is on sunday.

Come on...do you think she can get to the doc in between

WBA - I can only echo what others have said about not running.  I was due to run the Brighton Marathon for charity this year but 3 weeks before the race I got a chest infection.  Although I was feeling a lot better by race day I took the sensible decision not to run.

What you need now is rest, rest and more rest not run a half marathon.

And best wishes for a speedy recovery

There is a lot of it about! There is also nothing worse than the frustration of working towards something and seeing it slip away. I think we have all been there; but, there are plenty more races out there. Remember you are also giving your joints/muscles a rest, you should come back fitter, stronger and more determined!

Glad to hear you listened when I heard someone had died there I immediately thought of you.