Does anyone have any cures or ways to prevent the post race lung/throat burn that I usually experience following a cold weather cross race? I am certain that this is a pretty common self inflicted ailment and hopefully other posters on this board have some secret Belgian or other way to deal with it.

Thanks. David K

I'm not sure I ever experienced the lung/throat burn, but I know after a couple of races last year when I pushed through my EIA a little too much, I thought I was going to be sick. What worked for me was doing a good cool down after the race to slowly return things to normal. All I did was just slowly cruise around the parking lot in a real easy gear for about 5-10 minutes. Made a big difference, and might be worth a shot.

I agree with the above post. Whatever you do, don't stop immediately. ride around for 5-10 minutes.

beer.


If that doesn't work, try more beer.



Really: Nothing will prevent it, all you can do is minimize the discomfort. As soon as you come across the line, grab warm clothes. Cool down for 20 minutes. Drink warm fluids. Have a thermos of warm cider or tea and drink it while cooling down. Then, beer.

Anyone apply Vicks Vapo-rub after the race?

I am having the same problem during the races, not after. I am tempted to give Vicks a try.

Buddy B

was hot dusty and smoky from some fires (it's burn season here in SoCal) and my chest, throat still hurt. I did about 15-20 minutes of warm down as I was borderline having an EIB attack. tried to sooth it with numerous Stella Artois' but it didn't help. may medicate more tonight. Otherwise,slippery elm losenges or tea.

I don't have any more to add to the solutions, except stay hydrated, but I can explain the cause. I've done some research about this and these are my own conclusions that I've drawn.

Normally the upper respiratory system heat the air you breath in to body temperature and increases it to 100% humidity. When it's cold, and you're breathing hard the air travels through the upper respiratory system too fast for this to happen so you get cooler, dryer air than normal going into your bronchioles. This can cause irritation/inflamation which causes your lung to produce mucous. This is similar to what happen when you get an infection, but a different cause.

Staying hydrated will help, and a humidifier helps the tissue get back no normal quicker.

-Sol

Does anyone have any cures or ways to prevent the post race lung/throat burn that I usually experience following a cold weather cross race? I am certain that this is a pretty common self inflicted ailment and hopefully other posters on this board have some secret Belgian or other way to deal with it.

Thanks. David K

I tried 4-5 Halls the morning of the race. Maybe it helped? Racing still hurts; all afternoon I hack up bits and pieces of stuff.

Does anyone have any cures or ways to prevent the post race lung/throat burn that I usually experience following a cold weather cross race? I am certain that this is a pretty common self inflicted ailment and hopefully other posters on this board have some secret Belgian or other way to deal with it.

Thanks. David K



just spit up the puke, man, don't swallow :p

I don't have any more to add to the solutions, except stay hydrated, but I can explain the cause. I've done some research about this and these are my own conclusions that I've drawn.

Normally the upper respiratory system heat the air you breath in to body temperature and increases it to 100% humidity. When it's cold, and you're breathing hard the air travels through the upper respiratory system too fast for this to happen so you get cooler, dryer air than normal going into your bronchioles. This can cause irritation/inflamation which causes your lung to produce mucous. This is similar to what happen when you get an infection, but a different cause.

Staying hydrated will help, and a humidifier helps the tissue get back no normal quicker.

-Sol

Thanks. Your explanation makes alot sense, David K

As it gets colder, I suspect we are doing a bit of damage to our lungs. There have been a number of articles over the years about fairly severe damage to XC skiers competing in very cold weather, it's kind of scary--here's a conclusion of a typical article:

CONCLUSIONS--Asthma, asthma-like symptoms, and bronchial hyperresponsiveness are much more common in cross country skiers than in the general population and non-skiers. Strenuous exercise at low temperatures entailing breathing large volumes of cold air is the most probable explanation of persistent asthma in skiers.

PMID: 8257888 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

not sure if this will help....but may be of interest to you.

after 30 years of severe asthma (the kind that made me spend weeks at a time in the hospital), i thought i was finally "cured" last winter. my meds were cut back & i was feeling/riding great.

then i started getting this sharp pain in my chest during hard race effords. umm.. kinda like being stabbed in the sternum (yes, that sharp). follow that back an asthma attack a couple hours later. followed by about 2 or 3 days of coughing up mucus. some times the asthma would last more than a week.

i saw 4 different doctors, including a pulmanary specialist. because i KNEW that this pain was not the same asthma i have always delt with. regardless, they changed my asthma meds, did asthma testing, etc. when i wasnt having an attack, my numbers were great. so thier answer?? "stop racing'. yeah that wont work.

(stay with me)

this cycle of doing a race, followed by 2-4 weeks of no hard riding continued all summer. all my time spent from dec 1st to april, on the trainer every day was wasted. i was now out of shape, and pissed off.

then i saw another doctor who suggested GERD (gastroesophageal reflux desease). huh? no way was this all just heart burn. she talked about it in great detail & how it can be related to asthma, or even cause attacks. "if you have untreated GERD, you will never get your asthma under control". basically regurgitated acid gets down into your esophogus & lungs causing that pain, and triggering asthma. (or something like that)

i have heart burn maybe 5 times in my life, and it certainly didnt feel like this. but i played along. i started a sample of Nexium and sure enough, things improved. i was amazed.
i was doing cold weather races with no problems at all.

unfortunately, my insurance doesnt cover nexium, and we are trying a few other things, so im back to coughing up mucus & some chest pain, but not at the level as before. and i can still race.

sorry for the rambling. but i never in a million years would have thought the cause of my problems would be due to this.

do some research on it. seems like its more common then i thought. possibly an antacid of some sort could help your situation. i vaguely remember her telling me that this helps people with cold-weather lung problems as well ( could be wrong about that).
but untill this point, i could never race in cold weather. now i seem to be doing ok.

hope thigns get better for you!!!

disclaimer: im not a doctor, nor do i play one on TV;

not sure if this will help....but may be of interest to you.

after 30 years of severe asthma (the kind that made me spend weeks at a time in the hospital), i thought i was finally "cured" last winter. my meds were cut back & i was feeling/riding great.

then i started getting this sharp pain in my chest during hard race effords. umm.. kinda like being stabbed in the sternum (yes, that sharp). follow that back an asthma attack a couple hours later. followed by about 2 or 3 days of coughing up mucus. some times the asthma would last more than a week.

i saw 4 different doctors, including a pulmanary specialist. because i KNEW that this pain was not the same asthma i have always delt with. regardless, they changed my asthma meds, did asthma testing, etc. when i wasnt having an attack, my numbers were great. so thier answer?? "stop racing'. yeah that wont work.

(stay with me)

this cycle of doing a race, followed by 2-4 weeks of no hard riding continued all summer. all my time spent from dec 1st to april, on the trainer every day was wasted. i was now out of shape, and pissed off.

then i saw another doctor who suggested GIRD (gastro intestinal reflux desease). huh? no way was this all just heart burn. she talked about it in great detail & how it can be related to asthma, or even cause attacks. "if you have untreated GIRD, you will never get your asthma under control". basically regurgitated acid gets down into your esophogus & lungs causing that pain, and triggering asthma. (or something like that)

i have heart burn maybe 5 times in my life, and it certainly didnt feel like this. but i played along. i started a sample of Nexium and sure enough, things improved. i was amazed.
i was doing cold weather races with no problems at all.

unfortunately, my insurance doesnt cover nexium, and we are trying a few other things, so im back to coughing up mucus & some chest pain, but not at the level as before. and i can still race.

sorry for the rambling. but i never in a million years would have thought the cause of my problems would be due to this.

do some research on it. seems like its more common then i thought. possibly an antacid of some sort could help your situation. i vaguely remember her telling me that this helps people with cold-weather lung problems as well ( could be wrong about that).
but untill this point, i could never race in cold weather. now i seem to be doing ok.

hope thigns get better for you!!!

disclaimer: im not a doctor, nor do i play one on TV;



It's actually GERD, gastroesophageal reflux, and you don't have to "feel" heartburn to have it. A ph probe is the definitive dx, but not always necessary... empirical tx w/ proton pump inhibitor- like you did- or H2-antagonist are other options.

It's actually GERD, gastroesophageal reflux, and you don't have to "feel" heartburn to have it. A ph probe is the definitive dx, but not always necessary... empirical tx w/ proton pump inhibitor- like you did- or H2-antagonist are other options.
thanks for the correction. it was much too early when i wrote that :)

We do training races at night during the winter on the skis, short 5K efforts with a lot of climbing--I have found that when it is very cold, say 0F that my chest has a great deal of pain when I finish, and have noticed others comment on the same thing. I'm thinking that racing in such cold weather may just be counterproductive and the coughing that many of us experience in cross racing or cross country running races in the cooler weather may be related to this same mechanism on a less damaging level. I'm not coughing after a hard effort in the summer time, for sure.