Who’s had COVID and how did it impact your running?

I had extreme fatigue and a bad headache for about 5 days, then a cough for several days after that. I think for 10 days total I was symptomatic and I didn’t run at all. The first 5 days it was so bad that I would feel tired and winded just walking down the driveway to get the mail and back up. For the next 2 weeks after those 10 symptomatic days, my runs were slower and I didn’t have the energy to attempt a workout. About 3 weeks after my first symptom, I felt “normal” again and resumed training.

I suffered a lot. One day in bed!

For comparison, I was doing 60-90 in a marathon buildup through September, then 30 mpw in October while recovering. Running was starting to get back to normal when Covid hit.

Mileage last week: 10

Mileage this week: 2

Maybe next week I'll get back to training, but this crap just drags on.

It made me run around 1 minute per mile slower on my easy runs. Took around 6 months to get back to normal.

Didn’t require hospitalization, had it in March. Wasn’t life threatening but I still get oddly winded at times.

I must have had Covid because I can't break 7 minutes for the mile anymore.

panther coach wrote:

Who here has had COVID? Did it impact your running? Was there a time you were unable to train? Did you feel weaker after? Did your runs start feeling off before you tested positive?

I think I was asymptomatic for a while. I did have a little clearing of the throat for about 2 days. But the biggest problem I had was complete lost of taste and smell for nearly 3 weeks. I was still able to train and was averaging about 70+ miles a week with workouts. Lungs didn't get hit, though one day maybe a little tightness but once I started running it was gone. But never did I have shortness of breath. No major fatigue besides training. What I've come to learn is this thing affects everyone differently. Some people get wiped out. Others don't. I'm just glad I'm back to normal now.

I was a symptomatic positive. Started with a severe headache eventually a low grade fever, muscle and neck pain as well . Ended up taking a week off, and came back to running not feeling to bad to be honest.

I did. It didn’t affect it. Kept running. Ever run with a minor cold? Kinda like that

Had it in mid-March. I didn't get it really bad but it still sucked, it hurt to breathe no matter what I did and I was too tired to do much of anything.

My running felt worse before I tested positive because nobody really knew about COVID yet and testing was still hard to get in my area. Honestly if my running didn't feel off I probably would've written it off as the flu or something and not gotten tested, but I've run with the flu plenty of times and COVID was way worse (I felt sicker and my running was impacted more).

It definitely messed up my running, my entire chest hurt worse than it already did whenever I ran and I had to stop every minute or two to catch my breath (before I got sick I was running 50-60mpw and I did a 3K time trial in February that ended being upper-10s, so I wasn't in great shape or anything but I wasn't just shuffling along either). I ended up taking about a week and a half off from running after one run where I was so dizzy that I thought I was about to pass out.

I stopped feeling really sick after a bit more than 2 weeks, meaning I could get up and do stuff but I was still really tired and had a headache all the time. Breathing was easier except when I tried to run, I still had to stop every few minutes. I had to do C25K-style running for a while because I couldn't run for more than 5 minutes at a time no matter how slow my pace was. Eventually the headache went away (about a week after I started feeling better) and by June I could run 4 miles without stopping (probably could've done 5 but I was hesitant about pushing it). I still had some degree of chest pain/breathing difficulty up until July but it got progressively less problematic (by May it mostly just felt like I had really bad side stitches all the time, which was annoying but manageable).

Sick for 5 days. Back to running after 8 days. 11 days later, my heart doesn't work right and I can't breathe. Just kidding. No lingering problems here. Good luck.

panther coach wrote:

Who here has had COVID? Did it impact your running? Was there a time you were unable to train? Did you feel weaker after? Did your runs start feeling off before you tested positive?

Presumed case in July (minor case: sore throat+diarrhea). Was running 60-70 mpw for 4-5 months with a weekly tempo and long run. Average pace for easy was 6:45-8:00 and tempo pace was 5:20-5:40.

By July I was in about 4:20 shape for the mile. After getting a scratchy throat runs immediately got harder (fatigue and high hr by mile 2). Weekly mileage went from 70 down to 5 the next week. Stopped training for 3 months other than daily weight training and golf 3 times a week. By September I believed I was fit to start running again and, the doctor said I was cleared to run.

Naturally, I wanted to see where my fitness was. Ran a 1 mile time trial and got 6:05. The days and weeks after I suffered from 160-200 hr during slow runs (12-14 minute miles, heart palpitations, and temporary orthostatic tachycardia (120-160 hr upon standing). At this point the same effects are occurring/I haven’t really recovered much. Basically any running worsens the condition for 1-2 weeks (characterized by high hr, palpitations, new bradycardia 20-30, dizziness, high blood pressure, dyspnea, fatigue, etc.

For context I’m 16.

20 guys on my team tested positive late summer and early in the season. None had symptoms. All ran faster than the year before.

Wow, interesting thread here. I hope the posts are legit. I never got tested, but I think I had it back in March as well. Was training for a 'thon in April, it was going great, had a really solid long run (for me) of about 20 miles first weekend of March, and then about a week later, boom, splat, plop. I felt like I had a slight fever for about 2 or 3 weeks, but not enough to stay home for (although I was working from home anyway). My running went to hell, I could still run, but only much shorter and only really slow. Muscle aches all over, and my hammies seemed to shrink in size and were often sore for no training-related reason, but I was sitting a lot more than normal-I'm a vocational school teacher and all my lessons moved online. A friend of mine once told me during this period in a video call that I looked like sh@t. Anyway, started feeling better after about 3 weeks and the running got better again but backed off on hard efforts as there were no Races anyway. Managed to get in one Mountain Race (I live in Switzerland) that took place in August and ramped up the training for that with some speedwork. Ended up improving my time by 3 1/2 minutes from the last time I ran in that event back in 2017, which was exciting as I'm 47, so that kind of improvement is harder to come by now.

I'd like to add to this thread. I'm 22 years old and Male. I tested positive for Covid-19 around 1 month ago. I had to take a test because my flatmate experienced symptoms.

I was asymptomatic personally and really just felt fine the whole time. I did some workouts in my bedroom while I was self-isolating and performed to around the same standard I would've expected if I weren't ill.

I've been back running for several weeks now and the 10 days of no running did of course cause me to lose some fitness. I was around 20-30 seconds per mile slower than usual on my easy runs. However, my fitness quickly returned and I am now back to roughly the same level of fitness I was pre-covid with no noticeable adverse effects.

So my experience was that covid did not have an impact on my running. Of course, I'm only one person so perhaps others will be affected.

I've personally known hundreds of people who have had "covid" and no one has experienced any symptoms whatsoever. I do not know a single person who has tested positive who has had to stop running at all.

All of you people who experienced symptoms likely had a transient dietary deficiency (vitamin C, zinc, etc) and the doctors listed you as positive to boost the numbers and get a larger reimbursement.

OPEN AMERICA NOW

M.A.G.A.

KAG

"Four more years!"

The Trump Family Dynasty is a Mandate From Heaven!

Libertarian Christian wrote:

I've personally known hundreds of people who have had "covid" and no one has experienced any symptoms whatsoever. I do not know a single person who has tested positive who has had to stop running at all.

All of you people who experienced symptoms likely had a transient dietary deficiency (vitamin C, zinc, etc) and the doctors listed you as positive to boost the numbers and get a larger reimbursement.

OPEN AMERICA NOW

M.A.G.A.

KAG

"Four more years!"

The Trump Family Dynasty is a Mandate From Heaven!

Hey Trump called. He needs another jerk on his staff, since he is cutting bait every minute of the day. Call him now!

95% of young people are asymptomatic and 99.9% completely recover. I don't understand the quest for anecdotal information when we have real data. Why don't people believe in science?

Libertarian Christian wrote:

I've personally known hundreds of people who have had "covid" and no one has experienced any symptoms whatsoever. I do not know a single person who has tested positive who has had to stop running at all.

All of you people who experienced symptoms likely had a transient dietary deficiency (vitamin C, zinc, etc) and the doctors listed you as positive to boost the numbers and get a larger reimbursement.

OPEN AMERICA NOW

M.A.G.A.

KAG

"Four more years!"

The Trump Family Dynasty is a Mandate From Heaven!

Had tons of blood tests, urine etc., everything was normal.