!!!

 I guess I've been busy, too busy to realize or even entertain the possibility that I might have long COVID. 

To recap: I caught COVID in 2022 and my running/jogging pace dropped abruptly and stayed there.

I figured that I had gained some weight or something, and that if I just kept on jogging, it would sort itself out. 

Meanwhile my runs dwindled; 15 minute jogs were no longer recovery runs. It was somewhat miserable.

Fast forward two years or so. I'm discussing it with a colleague and we started joking that I have long COVID.

But shoot, maybe I do. I have felt pretty crappy for a while, but I attributed it to life and overtime and uh other illnesses including COVID again. But what if the virus had actually taken a crowbar to my cardiovascular system? How can I live with it? Or can I reverse it?

Fast forward a couple of months and a pop culture regurgitation of the Norwegian HUNT study (granted, I didn't pull up the complete article either): 4X 4 min intervals. I'm not sure if there's a more complete protocol, but whatever, I decided to do this twice a week for a few months. I'm not even sure what the rest period or the level of effort should be, but 4 minutes of tempo effort is not very daunting at least, so a good place to start.

This turned out to be the main key: "effort." Whether or not I have long COVID or increased corpulence or just some plain old deconditioning, pushing myself too much on longer runs isn't productive. Maybe that's why I keep getting sick. So I calculated my heart rate zones somewhat, yada yada...so now on my other runs, I'm jogging VERY slowly and taking walk breaks whenever my heart rate gets too high. 

To my surprise, after a few weeks of this, I jogged (with some walk breaks, mind you) for almost 90 minutes and felt surprisingly fine. When's the last time that happened?  I can't remember the last time I jogged for more than 45 minutes honestly. And it felt really chill.

Maybe this is actually working?

 Still heading somewhere but really nowhere

Running is still mainly disappointing to be honest, even the little bits I'm doing these days. If I hang in too long, I get sick. I've lost track of how many times this has occurred. Last time was about four weeks ago, I jogged easy for about 45 minutes and then had a cold for a few weeks.  Running 2-3X my usual sad and sorry distance was a poor choice in retrospect, but it honestly felt okay at the time.

So what do I really want to get out of running these days? Stroke risk reduction? Increased allergen exposure because people are always mowing grass around here unless it's pouring or 30+ degrees. 

There's so much wasted space filled with lawn here. I feel like I get nowhere. There's no place I can run to that gives me a frisson of something, anything.

There are no endorphins anymore. 

But if I can coast along for 15-20 minutes a few times a week without feeling too much like shit, maybe that's enough for now. and if I achieve better consistency, maybe I won't keep getting sick. And I'm walking more at least. Average daily mileage (walk/run) in 2024 was 5.6 miles/day. So far, it's 5.5 miles/day in 2025. 

So maybe things are going well :) 

feels like a long time!

 It's been a while

I'm still running somewhat, usually 2-3 times a week. And I've been increasing my daily distance on foot (walking and running), so things are going well even though I never got that COVacation (still bitter). Instead I was granted yet more crud that wasn't COVID; I had to postpone a dental visit this spring...twice. Hey, I'm doing ok now! Too bad I'm extra slow too, but I'm trying to practice detachment and just enjoy running. 

Fortunately, prolonging some employment-related stress paid off: I held fast for a more suitable option and I will be able to walk to my new job! Yes, I can walk to my old job, but that takes an hour, so guess how often that occurs.

!!?! kinda spicy, kinda salty

I'm still running, though! Maybe one day I won't be able to try, and some days it's a bit too much. To be honest, my fitness has dwindled to the point that almost every run sucks and it's appalling how high my heart rate goes up even when my effort is minimal, but it's still going on.  I'm still hopeful, I suppose.

Anyway, let me sum up the last year and a half.  After that 10 mile run in April of 2022, I caught some sort of non-COVID thing that made me cough a lot for a few weeks (my money is on human metapneumovirus (read why below)), and THEN I caught COVID just before a vacation.  I'm still and increasingly more bitter about this.  At least I found out before I spread it to the other participants of the race I was going to run.

Unfortunately, I caught it early enough that I was out of quarantine early enough to not extend my vacation.  Even more unfortunately, I then had a particularly grueling month with persistent nausea. Fortunately, also anosmia. Meanwhile, it turns out that the test I was then ordering multiple times a day costs a couple of thousand bucks--it changed practically nothing in terms of management, but at least it identified an apparent human metapneumovirus surge. What is this virus? Who knows? Maybe I'm the only one who cares because I got fingers to point--maybe I would've fought off COVID without a preceding nasty cough that necessitated sleeping propped up for three weeks and then I could've run that race and actually enjoyed my vacation. While I'm at it, let me ***REDACTED, it wasn't just kinda salty!!! I was quite angry***

Because, to sum up my life after COVID...I've learned a ton and made some really good friends and my family is doing great too, and I'm kinda tired and really want those 5 days off before those are phased out too. In the meantime, I'll stay hopeful and I'll keep trying to run. 

 

Ten miles!

Ok, 9.7. Close enough!

My planned route fell through due to flooding by the river, so I detoured, but then I ran out of interesting roads (definitely not the worst problem, mind you!) so I turned another way, bought and chugged a Vietnamese coffee around mile 8, which hit my GI tract kind of hard shortly before mile 9. That surprised me because I've been having Korean coffees before long runs, including this one, without issue. Both have milk, both have 30-odd grams of sugar and at least some caffeine. Maybe it was a cumulative effect. At any rate, I'm finding it hard to eat much supper afterwards, but fortunately I also bought this lychee coconut drink and that's going down fine. Lesson learned!

asdfjkl;

 Typing from my new keyboard! yeah, I finally installed it. Did you know that there are 51 screws securing it into place? I found out today!

But it all rocks because because I have the day off!!! I got comped for working on holidays. So instead of working, I was at home dropping screws inside my laptop.

And outside running too. Only 3 miles today, but I did 8 on Tuesday and I'm hoping to attempt 9 or 10 tomorrow, weather permitting.  And maybe another decent run on Sunday.

 Props: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAHtxNVOXZI

! It's back!

Amazing, I have time for sleeping, eating, studying for that 14?16? hour exam in about a week, and this...and running too.

I've actually had a decent normal humane schedule this whole month, plus I've been on vacation this week.  So I've been running again! Not much, but almost every day. Today, I ran 5 km and it went really well. I'm even feeling exercised-induced endorphins for the first time in a while.

Maybe I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel? Can I keep this up?

edit: I hadn't realized I haven't posted since last July! I've been jogging on and off throughout...some months have been too rough though.