Running after Covid?

Interesting to hear that it took weeks - about how many do you recall?

It's 3.5 weeks since i tested positive and I feel 100% in day to day life but running is torture. My HR is extremely high and everything just feels so hard - my legs are heavy, I'm sweating and breathing heavily. I have only done easy runs and all shorter in distance than I would be used to doing. I did a parkrun on Saturday in 37 mins - was with my little one and took some (very welcome) walk breaks. My Garmin afterwards told me I was "Overreaching" and needed 3 days recovery. For context my 5k PB is 22:xx and I would normally be able run 24-25mins as a steady effort. I'm getting frustrated but also trying to keep things in context. I'm hopeful that this will pass with patience!

Best of luck OP, running after sickness always sucks. Why are you doing 37 min runs if they kill you? Do 20, 25, 30 preferably in threes before doing doing the next.

I am the master of illnesses and injuries return, take it slow, and you will get there faster.

I had a moderate case, first four days in bed with shivers, aches, temperature. Another four weakness with a chesty cough.

I started running again day 10 after first positive. Pre COVID I was up to 50 mile weeks and in good shape as I was at the tail end of a marathon block.

Initially my chest was quite glassy but gradually reduced and I built up to a 20 mile lsr 20 days after first positive, I still wasn't fully back fit and my heart rate was elevated compared to pre COVID levels for at least 4 weeks.

I wear my watch all the time. my sleeping heart rate went from late 40s to mod 50s for at least 30 days after positive test. This is probably the main metric I used for the affect it had on me. One month before normal.

That was me.

Everyone is effected differently. It's a novel disease so it's very unlikely you will get good advise other than take it easy.

I really think smartwatches/garmin/fitbit etc are an under-analysed mine of data for Covid. As you mention, Rest Heart Rate is a fundamental indicator of fitness and could be aggregated to at least provide different recovery (or otherwise) scenarios. All those companies are sitting on tons of data I hope they are doing something with it for the common good...

How reliable is this sort of stress level data?

Tested positive in late November...was fairly sick with flu symptoms for about a week, felt crappy for a few weeks and then started getting breathless in January so went on a bunch of meds that more or less cleared that up.

Back running a few weeks now but not feeling 100%....feel like a car with a couple of gears missing. Also get random bouts of feeling tired/meh for 2-3 days so trying to build a consistent base is challenging.

Have a deferred entry for DCM but it's starting to dawn on me that I won't be able to train for and/or run it in the way that I want.

Doing a bit more cycling as well lately...seems to be less of a drain than running right now.

I wear a Garmin 245 and keep an eye on the stats but only have it since Christmas so don't have anything to benchmark it against unfortunately

I track HRV daily (first thing in the morning) using a finger sensor and the Elite HRV app. I find it pretty reliable, the morning after a hard session my HRV goes down and my RHR goes up giving me a lower readiness score, I have also seen negative changes after vaccines and if I've had a few beers, followed by a poor nights sleep. Ultimately I will go by feel, but if I feel a little extra fatigued and the data is backing that up I will adjust my training or bring forward a recovery day.

Running is a big part of my life and I have been lucky to avoid covid so far (as far as I know). As an over 50 boosted in December it is a pity I can't buy an extra booster. The vaccines are plentiful now and paying for them for those who want it should be allowed. It used to be the way with the flu vaccine.

Even willing to pay twice the price so that someone else who cannot afford it gets it.

I really do not fancy the risk of being floored for a week and unable to run properly for months. Quality of life matters.

I had it in December sore throat and cough, I started back after the isolation ended ,HR was a little higher than normal for it but all good since then.

I will be 5 weeks post first + test tomorrow. My HR (resting & running) has finally returned to normal. I still have some fatigue (heavy legs) but that could also be due to a drop in fitness as it's closer to 6 weeks since I was running consistently due to having symptoms for 2-3 days before testing positive. I'm not in a rush back to full volume/intensity but it's a relief and a comfort to see the beginnings of a return to normal. The time 'off' has given me a chance to reassess some things so in hindsight not a bad thing at all.

Your current situation sounds quite like a couple of people In my club who are still struggling with running quite a while after having covid.

If every easy run leaves you genuinely feeling like you ran a session, have you considered NOT running every day?

I’m getting over a mild case myself and have not run in 12 days but I plan to be very cautious about the return.

Still no real change for me really.

Training away ok-ish - doing the 6 Mile Run in Limerick on Sunday so tried to pop in a couple of speed sessions this week to remind myself what running fast feels like.

Ordinarily my target race pace would be < 4:00 per km but won't be anywhere near that for the weekend.

In the past my faster training runs would be fairly comfortable at < 4:15 pace; my regular pace at ~4:30 - 4:45 with slow runs at 4:50 - 5:00 per km pace.

Now, everything has shifted to the right....4:15 pace is off the table and 4:30 is now my "fast pace" and even holding that for 8K was a real battle earlier on.

So the 6 miler on Sunday won't be pretty time wise...a pre-Covid target would have been at least < 39 mins but I'll be deffo nearer 43 mins and even a sub 45 could be a more realistic goal tbh.

Not getting any pains, wheeze etc but to continue my car driving analogy, it still feels like I'm on the motorway and can't go beyond 3rd gear.

My sleep is still a bit hit and miss but generally feeling grand. Hoping my running mojo returns at some stage...willing to be patient and not going to push to hard

So despite all my doom mongering I actually managed to run a course PB (< 39:30) on Sunday 🤯

There was zero indication of this in my training....my longest long run was a poor quality 12K and speed work was pretty much non-existent or ended in a wheezy mess.

Still not sure how I pulled it off tbh...got a bit tired after halfway but nothing out of the ordinary. I was waiting for the inevitable blowout but it never really came...no shortness of breath and no issues since the race.

Maybe I was subconsciously minding myself or being over cautious in training (??)

Or maybe being in a race scenario with large number of runners, crowds etc helped me (??)

Hard to know either way I guess and I'm not going to spend too much time analyzing it....but it's certainly given me some hope and encouragement

My experience so far is pretty similar to others - HR has been high on the easy runs I've been doing since covid. I only had (very mild) symptoms for a few days but continued to test positive for about 12 days. Restarted easy running in week 3, but using the HR monitor and keeping it at 65-70% HRR max (zone 2). Slow and sluggish still in week 4 but getting there. I'll be trying something a bit steadier next week. I'm still sleeping more and better than usual which suggests to me that my body is still working it off.

Another quick update....generally feeling much much better and even starting to sleep better as well.

Haven't felt the need to use inhalers in a couple of weeks which is good, and while I still feel like I'm plodding a bit rather than running free like a wild gazelle, things are definitely trending upwards.

Still on the fence about the DCM....the thoughts of marathon training atm doesn't appeal at all but I'll hold off on making a decision for another bit.

Good luck to all 👍

7-8 weeks out from covid, out of curiosity I headed to parkrun on Sat with the intention of giving it a good go. Ran 80 seconds slower than the last time i gave it a good hard effort for the same HR metrics. Found it a bit demoralising as i just couldn't hold a decent pace at all. I haven't been doing much in the way of sessions bar a few strides so hoping it'll come back with a few weeks of proper training, in fairness HR is slowly coming good on easy runs now. Garmin still has me down 3 VO2 max pts overall, I dropped 4 altogether and have gained 1 back, slow and steady 🤞