Pills and racing

I had a very bad experience last year with allergy medication and heat. I was on prescription medication which caused me to dehydrate badly. I think it had a large dose of ephedrine in it. I was running a 10-mile race on the first hot day, about 88 degrees and humid. You could see the EMT's were pretty busy but being an experienced runner I didn't worry (first mistake). I was pushing hard to and was on track to beat my best time of 70 mins.

Around 8.8 miles into it I went from heavy sweating to cold and clammy and realized I was beginning heat stroke. I stopped running and started walking, went to the next water station and hydrated. I walked until I felt better and ran the last half mile in. My doctor said afterwards that if he had known I was running he would not have given me that medication. So let him/her know that in advance.

FWIW I take Clarinex (not D) when it's not too bad and I have an inhaler for sports asthma. Neither have any side effects I can see.

I think you are OK with loratidine. I take it without adverse effects and there is no way I'd be able to breathe otherwise. Just avoid Sudafed or anything with pseudephedrine. I'm assuming you're self-medicating, otherwise just tell your doctor. Don't let it keep you from training/racing!

Sigh...

Try not to read too much into one experience on an internet forum. Take a loratidine, go out for a moderately intense training ride. See how your heart rate responds. You can also try taking a 1/2 of a tablet, and see how that affects you as well.

The nice thing about loratidine is that it is a short half-life type of medication, so if the training session bombs out, it will be out of your system well before race day.

John

Its hard to run if you can't breathe.  I take a 12 hr pseudofed before races and big bike rides.  No problems. 

x2

I do Claritin and have had no adverse affects to heat or problems with dehydration

I am in the same boat, especially lately. I will always take my zyrtec (Citirazine?) though. The only side effect I get from it is a mildly dry mouth which sucks at time when running but I find that if I chew gum at the beginning of my run it ameliorates the effect. Claritan never worked for me and I never tried Claritan D. I would guess you would be fine taking it and running but try it out first. Depending on the symptoms you are fixing you could also use a combination of steroidal nasal sprays (Afrin) and eye drops. (obviously this wont effect if you are having lung issues but could help).

Good luck and know that you are not suffering alone.

As everyone is saying, just try it during training and see what happens.  For me, neither Claritin-D nor Zyrtec have any noticable effect on my HR or performance.  If I don't take them though, it's a miserable workout as the sneezing, coughing, congestion is ridiculous.  Not sure about the Tylenol as I believe there are studies showing it's not recommended.  Having said that, I've taken Tylenol and Advil in the past before workouts and races.  I used to even take ephedrine before workouts when it was still legal, no ill effects.  But everyone is different and I know people that can't tolerate any of those before a hard workout, they can't even have a little caffeine or their system freaks out.

I just have generic Loratidine. I have run with it lots of times but this is my first HIM. I just wasn't sure if it was one of those things that you shouldn't do during a longer endurance race, like my kidneys will shut down or something. Like I said, when I take it I end up feeling like my heart rate beats rapidly when I run but I'm never sure if it's the weather or the pill. I don't take it every day, maybe it would help more if I did. I took it today and I still have a headache so I'll just scrap it on race day. I don't get too snotty, just a little sneezing and a dull headache. I'll drag out the Netti pot tonight and give that a try .

Thanks for your replies though! Sounds like (as usual) you just have to find what works for you.

Hey I do ok with loratidine (generic no other stuff).  Just to add to your scientific sample.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to scare you. I had a bad experience on a prescription medicine and the cause was the pseudephedrine, but it had a massive dose and the weather was very hot and humid. It happened one time. Just wanted you to be aware of potential dehydration on that drug (i.e. Claritin-D or generic over-the-counter).

Loratidine (generic) is generally safe. Claritin (not D) is fine (same chemical). I just took a Clarinex and am going biking, did the same last Wednesday and it was 98 degrees.

Find a medication that works for your allergies so they don't interfere with getting out outside and running or biking. Otherwise it's just miserable.

Astepro is what the ENT switched me to, and it's amazing. If I took a Zyrtec I'd sleep through the race.