The Dreaded Time Off

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post, July 4th to be precise, and this may be my longest break from blogging since I started in 2006.

Budapest, Hungary

Greg and I traveled to Europe during the last two weeks of July. We visited Prague for a few days, and then took a river cruise from Passau, Germany to Budapest, Hungary. We stopped in Vienna, Austria and Bratislava, Slovakia along the way. The trip was incredible, and we managed to run most days. I brought 7 pairs of shorts and 7 sports bras and all of them got used!

My favorite place to run was Budapest because they had an entire road blocked off for pedestrians right by the water. It was nicely paved (as opposed to the cobblestone of Prague and Passau) and it ran right by the Parliament building.

We kept our runs short and easy for the most part. 6 miles was the longest we ran, and we frequently stopped for photos. The goal was to use running as a way to explore the cities by foot and to maintain our fitness as opposed to building fitness. I spent all of June and the first half of July consistently logging workouts and long runs, so this would be a little cutback before marathon training started upon my return.

We used public transportation to get around the cities: busses, metros, trains and even a funicular to a high point in Linz, Austria. These were typically crowded, and I knew my risk of catching some type of illness was increased by this. But we wanted to see as many things as possible and public transportation was often the quickest and cheapest way to do it.

Sure enough, the morning we flew back home I noticed that my throat felt raw. It wasn’t that bad so I assumed it was probably a cold or something. And the rest of me felt totally fine – I wasn’t abnormally tired. I tested negative for Covid upon my return. Two days after arriving home, I had trouble getting out of bed. My sore throat was gone and I had no other symptoms other than body aches and fatigue. Shortly after, Greg and I both tested positive for Covid. This was my third time getting Covid, and every time I’ve gotten it on international travel. I automatically assumed I would need two full weeks off. But that would be okay. I’d get right back into running and still be able to run Indianapolis Monumental as planned. 

I waited 15 days and I felt mostly better so I went for a very easy 2-mile run on August 13. My legs felt slightly wobbly and a bit like jello. But otherwise, my energy level was normal. Greg and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary on August 14 by going out to eat. I felt perfectly fine. Because that run went well, I upped it to three miles the following day, and three miles again the day after that. But after the third day, I started feeling abnormally tired again. I realized I had tried to come back too quickly! Suddenly I was back in bed, having a hard time moving around with major body aches. My typical post-viral fatigue. Unfortunately, I have far too much experience with this!

Well, it took me an entire week of being couch/bed ridden until I finally started to feel somewhat normal. And by somewhat normal, I mean normal enough to take a slow 12-minute walk. This time, I vowed not to resume running too quickly. There would be no way I’d be ready for the Indy Monumental Marathon in time, so I started thinking about Philadelphia (two weeks after Indy) and a small marathon in Chesapeake, VA in early December. But I didn’t want to put any pressure on myself to recover in a particular time frame, so I was fully aware that I might not be able to run another marathon in 2024.

My spirits were high the entire time. Of course I didn’t enjoy post-viral fatigue, but I knew that stressing about it would only make matters worse. I tried my best to ignore it. Well-intended family members kept reaching out to ask me how I was feeling, and I appreciated their concern, but at the same time, I didn’t want to “monitor” my recovery. I wanted to simply rest, not focus on the illness and trust that I would eventually feel better. I didn’t want to analyze every body ache or every moment of dizziness. Fast forward to this week and I think I am 100%. With post viral fatigue you can never be too sure. And you need to be WAY out of the woods before you start running again. My rule of thumb is at least three 100% days in a row until I start running. I just passed three days and I might start run/walking to test the waters tomorrow. Or I might give it a few more days still. It’s not worth making the same mistake as I did in mid-August and getting set back another three weeks. 

For anyone struggling with post-viral fatigue or “post viral syndrome", my main symptoms are jelly legs, body aches, dizziness. I am not tired in the traditional sense of being sleepy. I was like that during the first two weeks of illness but that’s passed.

Here’s hoping you see another blog post from me soon talking about my comeback!