Ran Super hard repeat workout, now sick as crap.

This is quite normal. It's part of the body's endocrine reaction to stress. With all the stress hormones elevated, the body has a reaction as if it were

under attack by an infectious agent. So you get a fever and the sweats. The reaction should go away in a short period of time. See this link for additional info...

http://www.succeedscaps.com/endocrine.html

Get healthy.

I don't do that much mileage. Maybe 40-60 a week for the last year. I'm an 800/1500 guy.

The thing is I took some dayquil and I am feeling fine now. The only thing I can think of was that I caught something the day before and it went unnoticed until I ran my workout.

really not many takers.

I'm interested in hearing people's thoughts on the intensity of this workout. I always operated under the impression that you should not run interval workouts "all out" like this, especially this time of year.

Especially if you went so hard as to get sick afterward, the workout seems like it was counterproductive.

I had this as a recurring problem, until I found out that if you replace your lost nutrition ASAP after a hard workout it will combat the body's weakness and suppressed immune system reaction. I use Endurox right now, but have seen others use SlimFast or even lowfat chocolate milk with similar results. First thing after EVERY run now I head for nutrition.

I've had this sort of thing happen to me a few times in the last 2 years, but not on the intensity with which you describe. SOMETIMES, not always, I will have strange body aches, like I caught a virus, for about 24 hours after a really hard effort.

The worst one was when I ran 33km at 3:18/km (20.5 miles under 5:20/mile) in Bangkok last January. I started puking 2 hours after this, and had to go to the hospital for IV fluids.

My advice to you is to try to get some good food in you, get some good sports drinks (Gatorade is fine), avoid medicines, and just jog for a few days after this, no hard workouts. I think you will bounce back from the workout well.

Kudos to you for tackling a hard workout like that!!!

makes sense.

had Turkey, and 2 PBJ's after the run about 2 hours post.

and some cookies and watermelon 2 hours after that.

chocolate milk and maybe instant breakfest seem like good ideas.

Funny to see this topic as I just had the worst post-run experience of my life last night. I ran 10 miles on a hilly course which was entirely paved. The first half was mostly uphill and I felt pretty strong, the second half was mostly downhill and my legs took a beating on the pavement. On top of that I got diahrea in the last few miles. When I finally arrived home things got progressively worse. My whole body began aching, the diahrea continued, my testes ached really bad, and I began to get the chills.

My dad was ready to take me to the emergency room, but I told him things would get better. After a few hours, the only symptoms left were aching legs, and today I feel pretty good. Definitely no run today, though. It definitely felt like I had the flu for awhile and I was worried that something was quite wrong. So, it sounds like my hard run convinced my immune system that I had a virus or something???

I had the same type of flu-like reaction 2 years ago, when I made my jump to 90mpw for the first time ever. Exactly as you described. I slept for the better part of 2 days, and was back out running again, but had to really ease back into it. Be smart, your body is telling you to back off a bit and recover

What kind of cooldown did you do? As a younger guy I used to run fairly intense workouts and then basically walk and jog around for ten minutes and go home. Then I'd end up with a splitting headache all day.

More recently I do a really long cooldown including some semi-uptempo running. This can be pretty hard if you've pushed yourself to the point of passing out, so maybe that's part of the solution here. Anyway, after workouts where I hit faster than 5K pace, I like to jog easy for 5 minutes, then go at about 80 percent effort for 20-25 minutes, then 5 easy. It'll be hard as hell at first to run a little uptempo, and it won't be fast (go by effort, not pace) but in a short while you will start to feel better and run more smoothly. It was explained to me that this hastens the body's ability to process the lactate byproducts in the blood (through the liver?). It works for me.

me toooo wrote:

...So, it sounds like my hard run convinced my immune system that I had a virus or something???

No, it sounds like your hard run convinced you that you are a pussy...

Could be a mild dose of the flu - it's not just for winter months. I caught a dose of it in July one year after a 130 mile week - my immune system was probably a bit compromised from months of high mileage - wiped me out for 6 days.

ran yesterday after a day off.

feeling better by the minute. If its the flu I'm kicking its ass. I'll eat like a pro and cool down at least 30 next time.

I might even be able to race come saturday.