Hey everybody!

I’m checking in from the air as I fly to the Midwest for some loppet racing. I hope everyone’s been enjoying winter – Bozeman has been getting dumped on pretty frequently and the skiing has been sweeeet. Although between the Bozeman SuperTour 20k and the Boulder Mountain Tour last weekend, plowing through fresh pow on long skate days is getting a little tiring…

In other news, you may have heard that some of the team came down with illness at US Nationals in Anchorage. We faced similar misfortune back in August at our Sweden training camp. Colds are annoying in everyday life, but when you’re pursuing peak physical performance a cold can spell the end of your race week. ~muscling through~ and racing sick never leads to good performances and can set you back days or weeks in your recovery; which is why a couple of my teammates sat out some races at nationals.

I’m here to give a couple of tips and best practices that have helped me manage to stay healthy though some hard weeks of racing, travel, and sick teammates this winter, and could help anyone during cold and flu season.

Best practice basics:

Ultimately we stay healthy when our immune systems have the energy and metabolic resources to fight viruses as soon as they come onboard. Our energy levels are lower and stress on the body is higher after training and racing, making us more vulnerable to infection. My first tip is to be diligent about fueling and hydration before, during, and after exercise. Sports drink, bars, gels during and immediately after; a meal with whole food sand a mix of proteins and nutrient rich complex carbs and fats within a couple hours.  This reduces the overall stress load on the body, allowing more energy allocation to immune function.

Likewise, get warm and dry as soon as possible after exercise so that your body doesn’t need to spend extra energy trying to warm you up after training. I particularly like packing an extra wool layer and a big hoodie to get me from the trail/race venue to  the shower.

This one might not be a surprise, but I also generally avoid alcohol throughout the winter. Boring perhaps, but a powerful habit to keeping your immune function high.

Travel/Public spaces:

Traveling during the winter is necessary for us ski racers and hardly avoidable for most. It’s a bit of a harrowing prospect. Why is it so common to catch a cold post travel? Travel often involves early mornings or late nights, and sometimes jet lag, all of which compromise sleep. Like every physiological process, immune function is best supported by good sleep. Travel and logistics are often stressful, even without itinerary complications and lost bags; elevated cortisol has a substantial negative effect on immune effectiveness. And not only are we simply exposed to a lot of people, meaning an increased probability of contact with a contagious person, but airplanes have low cabin pressure and dry air which are dehydrating and also reduce the your body’s ability to trap viruses in the nose and throat and prevent them from getting deep in the respiratory tract.

Yikes! What do we do to help our bodies out during travel? I like to prioritize hydration before, during, and after a travel day.  Hydration is key to keeping all systems running optimally.

We also want to limit the amount of germs that are able to enter the body. These are the basics: wash and sanitize hands always, but especially before eating, and don’t touch your mouth or eyes if you can avoid it. Probably the easiest and most effective tip in this post: wear an N95 or KN95 mask. Everyone learned the statistics during the pandemic; they are truly effective in preventing airborne illnesses from entering through the nose and mouth.

If we do a good job with the steps above, we can greatly limit the amount of germs that come onboard. To try to stop anything from multiplying and turning into an infection, here’s my pro tip: I regularly use ColdEeze or Zicam throat lozenges and Zicam nasal swabs anytime I’m traveling or in a busy public space for an extended time. These products are formulated using zinc which inhibit viruses’ ability to replicate. (ColdEeze make my mouth feel kinda funny so I prefer Zicam.)

Supplementation to help the immune system:

In my view, the final controllable variable in reducing sick days is supplementation for general immune support. The way I see it, taking the steps I’ve outlined so far do the bulk of the work in preventing infections from starting or being able to advance. Supplements are a shiny fun topic – who doesn’t love the idea of swallowing a pill and never getting sick again. They’re a pretty easy (if sometimes pricey) way to check wellness boxes and supplements in general do have measurable benefits. But ultimately supplements usually are striving for the tenths of percent, marginal gains, and it’s easy to expect too much out of a supplement. So just try not to fall into that trap - I know I have.

With that being said: to make sure I’m never accidentally deficient in macronutrients that could affect immune function or performance, I take the First Endurance Multivitamin. It’s three chunky pills that taste like dirt, but I think it’s as good as any out there content-wise. With vitamins in general I tend to believe you get what you pay for, but do some research and find what you like. Any high quality multivitamin (athlete specific is something to look for) could be a great tool in staying healthy.

When it comes to things that are marketed as immune-specific, like zinc, vitamin C, vitamin D, etc, I find it easiest to find a general immune support supplement that covers multiple bases. In fact, my multivitamin contains normal amounts of each of these already, and supplementing each individually in addition runs the risk of oversaturating some of these vitamins and minerals– and it’s expensive. There’s also supplements with things like elderberry and echinacea that are immune supporters, and many of these are sold with extra vitaminC and zinc added. To simplify things, I take Swiss RX Immunity Defense (currently BOGO on The Feed) – an all in one immune support that complements my multivitamin without over-supplementing any single vitamin. I take 2/day when traveling and racing, and otherwise only take a single capsule as needed if feeling run down or have a scratchy throat. I also occasionally steal Erin’s vitamin D gummies because they’re delicious, and I think it’s worth being extra topped up on.

With all that said, sometimes you can do everything right and still catch a bug. We have a best practice on our team of being really transparent with teammates about how we’re feeling so that we can try to reduce exposures and keep as many people healthy as possible. Remove judgement from colds! They happen! And they’re best contained if we’re comfortable being frank with our teammates.

I hope this can help some folks think about their immune support practices, and ultimately have a healthier community! If there’s something you practice that I haven’t mentioned, I’d love to hear about it so don’t be a stranger!

Be well everyone,

Willson

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