Coughing After Runs

If you're running outside the cold winter air could be irritating your throat. It used to happen to me all the time on the track team.

Cold air makes cough. I had bronchitis 15 years ago and never really recovered.

This happens to me as well. I was diagnosed with MILD exercise-induced asthma when I was in high school and I always figured that was the cause. I played sports all through high school and do not take any asthma treatments or medication. Never have. Running ALWAYS makes me cough though and cold air definitely makes it worse.

Echoing the comments that you might have mild asthma and should get tested for it. Meanwhile, you could try running with a scarf over your mouth and nose to warm the air a little before it hits your lungs. That said, even eating ice cream can make me cough - happens occasionally to my son, too, and (unlike me) he doesn't have asthma.

"Cough variant asthma." Both exercise and cold weather can be triggers.

Always best to ask your doctor with these types of things, because it could be nothing or it could be early signs of heart failure. But your doctor has more data on you than internet strangers.

Out of curiosity, are you running really, really hard?? The reason I ask is that coughing in the rowing world after a very strenuous workout is very common. So common that they call it "rower's cough". If you do a hard 2K, which is only 7 to 8 minutes and just brutal, I cough for hours.

I'd get it checked to be safe but if you're running super hard, could just be the workout. When you really work your lungs, and especially if you go anaerobic, it's not uncommon to cough for hours. Most joggers, distance runners don't often push this hard. This would be something more common, I would think, in 400m to mile specialists. Think all out for five to 15 minutes. Maybe a very, very hard 5K runner (like sub 20 minutes).

You'll know the answer to this if you run so hard that you're struggling to breath. If you feel like you're semi drowning, that's how hard you'd have to run to create a cough from overexertion.

Hi Running2Fit! 10 years ago, I retired after 34 years in the Canadian Army, with a lot of it done in the Airborne. We ran all the flippin time, especially in the winter! Some of those 5k snowshoe runs at -20 degrees C were flat out misery, especially with a rucksack on. We didn't have the Internet back then, and I coughed a lot after some of those workouts. The Doc told us it was due to the cold, so I looked up several books on the subject. Speed skater Eric Heiden (1980 medallist) called it the "400-meter hack" due to his extreme anaerobic efforts at that distance. It does seem these days like everyone raises the asthma flag for anything that seems wrong, so perhaps a visit to your Doc is in order. That said, and in the absence of other indicators, I'll bet you're just fine. Good luck and keep up the great efforts! PK

It's funny you ask that, because I am not a runner and yesterday I had to run through 3 terminals of the airport to catch a flight and I coughed for at least an hour afterward.

When I run in the cold I cough a lot. I did ask my doctor and get checked out. No asthma, no other issues. I forget what he called it but his take was basically that my lungs are sensitive to cold... breathing deeply when the air is dry and cold irritate them.

This winter I tried wearing a balaclava if it is cold and that completely fixed the issue. It makes my nose run more while I'm running (maybe it's just condensation?) but the coughing later in the day is gone.