I am a little under the weather, cough sniffles etc. My commute is 14 miles of fairly hilly North Carolina heat. My wife says I have to drive so this is kind of a mute point. However, what do you guys think about riding while sick. Not flu sick but just small cold sick. Would you get better faster or stay sick longer?

To quote something someone here once quoted at me:

Sick above the neck (blocked nose, headache): ride. Sometimes the fresh air helps.

Sick below the neck (cough, wheezing, chest pains, sore throat): don't ride, or if you do, take it very gently.

Hilly North Carolina heat would not be taking it gently.

Works for me.

If I'm too sick to ride to work, I'm too sick to go to work.

There's actually a couple of studies that have shown for colds exercise causes you to recover more quickly. For flu's the exercise may be bad.

Dunno about anyone else, but with the flu I just plain have no desire at all to ride..

My personal experience seems to back this up, or at least not refutiate the results. I generally only ever get a couple minor head colds a year (knock on wood), but I ride/commute through them w/ no negative side effects. In fact, I've found a good morning bike ride in to work can really help to break up some of the congestion I might be suffering from.

+1 to all experiences reported here.

One other thing I've learned the hard way: don't ride when taking, or recovering from, cough medicine, but then I have a low tolerance for medications. If the warning label says, "May cause drowsiness," the drug will knock me unconscious.

^This.

Of course I'm fortunate in that I have a lot of sick time saved up and a job that doesn't discourage people from taking sick leave, especially if they might be contagious. I also have the bus as an option, which is nice. Taking the car, until recently, was not actually an option, so that further cemented the position that if I'm not well enough to bike, I'm not well enough to go to work. Once I was feeling ill enough that I made a doctor's appointment. I grabbed my helmet and bike and headed for the door. My wife had some choice words then, too, but I told her, "I'm sick, not dead."

To echo what's been said, I actually find that a bike ride can clear up a stuffy head, although only temporarily, for the duration of the ride and a little afterwards, but it's a welcome change when you're really stuffed up. I have no idea how, if at all, that affects my recovery time. A typical cold seems to last 1 to 2 weeks no matter what I do or do not do to help/hinder recovery. But, yes, if you have respiratory issues or something more serious than a cold, it might be a good idea not to overexert yourself. But for me that doesn't mean driving to work instead. It means staying home and watching Judge Judy.

+1

funny you should bring this up- i'm sitting here at work trying not to toss my cookies
i rode my usual 22 mile one way commute this morning. about an hour ago i started feeling awful
like i was going to get sick, the thought of trying to ride home while trying not to heave is too tough
i called my wife, she's coming to pick me up- in my 4 years of bike commuting, 3 days a week, i've never
had this happen but have thought about it.

Yeah I would agree with this one as well

Dunno about anyone else, but with the flu I just plain have no desire at all to go to work...

Nah but seriously, if it's just a light cold, a SLOW ride and the fresh air may do you good... Fever and Flu: go back to bed :/

I don't go to work when i'm sick. If I do, they'd just make me go home. Bosses are germ freaks.

Definitely this ^

As my pharmacist sister says, if your symptoms are above the neck, you have no excuse for avoiding physical activity. Below the neck means you're probably too ill to go to work anyways.

^ +1

I had sniffles and such, and rode through it. Not commuting, just for fun. It actually made me feel great while I was riding, my nose cleared up quite once my heart got going. There was snot everywhere, but I could breath Didn't notice a difference in the time I took to get over it from normal, but riding made me feel almost not sick.

I second the notion:

Neck or above, ride but take it easy.

Below the neck.... don't ride, you'll likely make it worse.

Don't 'eff" with anything in your lungs or you'll be consuming cocktails of antibiotics.

If you're spewing, I can't visualize an outcome that's going to be good for anyone.

I had a nasty head/chest cold last week. I let the snot rockets fly and kept riding. 140 mile week.

This could just be a reflection of my body's ability to fight colds/flus but sometimes I have to take a day or two off to let my body focus on fighting the cold. During the winter it isn't too uncommon for me to have a cold for a month... and I think my continued riding actually inhibits my body's ability to fight the cold.

That's my strategy, even in wintertime.

Same here.. I've actually ridden to work and had to go home because I couldn't function at work.

+1

And I'm in Coastal NC (Jacksonville), so I can relate to the heat and humidity...Having (stupidly) attempted to ride to work while ill, I say from experience that it's bad-news bears.

Hope you get well soon, though!

I always try to go to work when i am sick. It seems a waste of a good day off to spend it sick in bed. There is a further advantage to working when sick. Your boss will know you are really sick when you call up and tell them you are sick so you can have a day off.

If it is just a cold I will ride. If I need frequent visits to the toilet, I stay at home. If I have an injury, like a sore neck or back (very rare for me unless I have fallen off) I catch a cab.

I dont get sick very often

z