Post Covid Fatigue

Since returning from France, my running has not gone as well as expected.  I knew that the combination of jet lag (which only lasted a day or two), Covid, and a three-week hiatus were setbacks that I needed to overcome gradually, and so on my first run back in Highlands my only goal was to complete a single mile (see post of August 3).  The following week, I increased that distance to two- and three-mile runs on alternate days at a very easy pace with plenty of walking breaks, and I felt pretty good in other respects – I mowed the yard, I resumed lifting weights.  The following week I increased the distance to four and then five miles.  Early in the next week, I even tried two 400-meter interval.  I was feeling pretty good!

And then it all went south.  After completing those two intervals, I found myself walking most of the final mile.  TIRED I wrote in my running log.  I fell into a habit of taking naps every afternoon, something I rarely do.  On Saturday, I could barely keep up with my friends Karen and Vicki, and after two miles I urged them to go on without me.  I don’t think I have experienced fatigue like this since those days long ago when I resumed running after completing a marathon.  I finally came to the realization that Martha was right.  I needed more of that bitter medicine that most runners are forced to take as a last resort:  Rest.

I have been doing a lot of research, and what I have been experiencing seems to fit something called Post Covid Fatigue Syndrome.  “Some experts believe it might be a natural course of the infection to see symptoms ebb, then return,” one Harvard Medical School researcher said.  “Covid’s course it not a purely linear process; it waxes and wanes a little bit.”  That would explain why I felt good enough to run five miles one day, and yet was dragging around slowly the next day.

I finally took the recommended medicine this week – five days without running a step, although I did walk between one and three miles most of those days.  Finally, on Thursday, I tried to run a single mile without stopping . . . and it went just great!  Not only that, I felt good enough to mow the yard again and do some other work around the house, and still felt good the next day.  And I have not needed naps in the afternoon. 

 So it seems as if Covid is beginning to wane.  And I hope it will continue to do so.