Starting training again after Covid-19

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Slantendicular Jan 2021 11:12pm, 26 Jan 2021 21 posts	0 Slantendicular Lying in bed after a positive Covid test last week I'm (hopefully) on the mend. I caught this week's BBC Radio 4 Inside Health programme discussing exercise after recovery and I was quite shocked to hear that it may be at least 4 weeks after the end of symptoms before I should undertake any running. I also found a worrying article on risks associated. nytimes.com Just wondered about others' experiences. There didn't seem to be a thread on this specifically. Put me right if there is one I've missed...
Night-owl Jan 2021 11:16pm, 26 Jan 2021 35,371 posts	0 Night-owl I can't advise but from what I've heard that you need to tread carefully and take care when resuming running. I wish you well I can do that
Slantendicular Jan 2021 11:21pm, 26 Jan 2021 23 posts	0 Slantendicular Thanks, Night Owl
gambrinus Jan 2021 11:28pm, 26 Jan 2021 72 posts	0 gambrinus I got pretty much wiped out for four weeks, but went back to 50km weeks after that without any real trouble. Only had mild symptoms though, was very lucky, although I did feel utterly knackered for those four weeks. The pace I move at can barely be called running, but it's preferable to drinking myself to death, which was my previous coping mechanism.
Ness Jan 2021 12:58pm, 27 Jan 2021 13,424 posts	0 Ness Can’t offer any advice but good luck with your training. Hope it goes well and your health continues to improve after the infection.
Longwayround [LWR] Jan 2021 4:55pm, 27 Jan 2021 1,722 posts	0 Longwayround [LWR] Moments after I started my own thread on a similar topic, I see yours. My advice to you is very much to take it easy. A merger of threads probably makes sense! This is what I posted: I've been off work since November because of that bug that's going round. The first two weeks were, in retrospect, not so bad. I had a headache for a fortnight, couldn't taste a thing, had a day in bed with a raging temperature and generally felt a bit flu-y. In week three I still had the headache and the flu-y feeling but the following week felt good enough to go back to work as a teacher. That's when I realised that I'd not actually spent any time standing up, walking round or talking to people for a while. The walk upstairs to my second lesson of the day finished me off. I've not been back. On occasion in the last two months I've pushed a not very full trolley round the supermarket and needed to pause to get my breath back. The doctor gave me an inhaler which helps. Sometimes it's felt that post-viral fatigue / ME could be a consequence of the virus. I'm sticking to wearing a mask while out because, even though I probably could claim an exemption, I also can manage if I take things slowly. I had a chest x-ray yesterday. Today I went for the first thing that could be considered exercise since November. Those 6 people who bought shares in me on Trader must be licking their lips! I went for a 'brisk' walk. By brisk, I mean 'slightly faster than an amble, sufficient to raise my heart rate'. It lasted a mile. I'll see how I feel tomorrow. The point of this thread is simple: I won't be alone in wanting to find a path back to running and cycling after the Bug. I cannot see another thread on this subject. If you want to discuss your experiences in dealing with getting active again, if you want some support, or if you just want to be supportive, here seems as good a place as any.
Sharkie Jan 2021 4:59pm, 27 Jan 2021 17,226 posts	0 Sharkie I posted this on the thread LWR just started. Might be useful to some Correct me if I'm wrong, LWR, but it sounds like you've fallen foul of 'Long Covid'. That's a long old haul you describe - hope you ARE on the recovery road now. Inside Health on R4 this afternoon had a whole prog devoted to exercise post Covid bbc.co.uk
AndyS Jan 2021 5:42pm, 27 Jan 2021 183 posts	0 AndyS This isn't what anyone wants to hear, but here's my tale of woe over the last 10 months (and counting) I had covid back in April last year, and was bed-ridden for a couple of weeks - headaches, fever (over 40℃ at one point), fatigue, cough, sore everything - felt like the worst flu ever and then some. Without hyperbole, I have never felt so ill in my entire life. I was spared the anosmia, but I did get a couple of short bouts of gasping for oxygen - I was getting air into my lungs fine, but if felt like they weren't extracting any O2 out of it. The worst bit was feeling like my brain was no longer functioning. (On the upside, I lost about 5kg in 2 weeks) After a couple of weeks, most of the physical symptoms had gone - still a little tired, but I felt over the worst of it, so went back to WFH. Really struggled with focus in a way that I'd never experienced before. After about 3/4 days, I gave up telling myself I was over it, and went back to bed for another week. The fever, headaches and fatigue were back, albeit less intense. It was a couple of weeks before I felt able to do anything physical, and so I started doing the occasional bit of walking, then started back on C25k and slowly built back up to being able to run for about 35 mins continuously (albeit much slower than my - already glacial - pre-covid pace) And then, at some point, it just fell off a cliff. One day I was running 5-6k, the next I couldn't run for 30seconds. And that's where I still am - 10 months later. In fact, if anything, it's got worse. I've lost all my fitness (my Garmin, FWIW, tells me my VO2max has plummeted from 46 to 32), putting on socks can leave me out of breath, everything hurts all the time, I can't concentrate on anything, my work has deteriorated to the point that I constantly feel like I'm in danger of being fired. Oh, and that 5kg I lost? Yeah, it came back - and brought friends. I'm now about 35kg more than I was back then - and there's nothing I can do to shift it. "Eat less" is the obvious advice, but I don't know how to convince my brain of that. Between October '19 and March '20, I ran PBs at 1mile, 5k, 10k, 13.1 and 26.2. Today, I'd struggle to run a bath.
Longwayround [LWR] Jan 2021 5:47pm, 27 Jan 2021 1,725 posts	0 Longwayround [LWR] AndyS, that's horrible to read. I've deliberately ignored the scales of late: they won't tell me anything I don't already know and there's not a lot I can do about it. Your tale does however remind me of the importance of not pushing training at all for a long while. It seems to me that it may be sensible to just stick to very gentle activity for a while.
AndyS Jan 2021 6:01pm, 27 Jan 2021 184 posts	0 AndyS @LWR: The thing I found was that, initially, a gentle progression was getting me there. And then I fell off that cliff - I don't know what (if anything) triggered it - but since then nothing's seemed to work.