!!!

 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. 

:)

This past month has been a bit rough, and not entirely in a constructive way.  

Pro: I've learned a LOT. 

Con: I've been glutened. Mix in stress-induced nausea = eating has been hit or miss.

Pro: I've dropped approx 10 pounds of extra weight, and so running this morning felt almost like old times again. 5 easy miles. EASY! 

I have tomorrow off too and will see what happens!

!!

I'm still barely running these days: a few short runs a week, and usually one or two 15-20 min tempo runs per week too. Long run tho...hahaha.

It is what it is, right? I'm just forcing myself out there these days, but sometimes running is like this.

!

 Happy New Year!

Amid everything that went down this year, I've resumed recovery jogs and tempo runs: I've found a decent route without hills by our new place. It's not the most convenient option because it crosses a busy road, and so it took me a few months to find it, but flat terrain really makes a difference. I jogged it yesterday, and actually felt that it was restorative, not just easy.

Meanwhile, my stamina has been crap so I've put one particularly long hill to use too: I've also found a short tempo route that goes up and down it twice (and more if I repeat the loop but I'm not quite there yet). It's also mentally easier to get to the top of the hill if I run it clockwise; it's brutal counterclockwise. Funny how that works. It doesn't seem that visually misleading. Anyway, I've been doing this at least once a week for a month and I think I'm starting to feel less out of shape. It's been a long haul, and I can't be too hard on myself because I've still been running fairly regularly, but it would be nice to enjoy it more sometimes. And have "long" runs that are longer than 5-6 miles.

On the plus side, I ran 5.5 miles two days ago and have NOT gotten sick since.  I'm thrilled, knock wood. After my last "long" run a month ago, I got a cough and slight fever and other symptoms. It was probably just allergies again, but this year is special. I subsequently missed half of my clinic make up time (for a rotation that went online thanks to COVID), felt q-tips probe the depths of what I presume was my sphenoid sinus (seriously, it goes way back), and quarantined myself as best as I could with a small child whom I also kept from school until my results were negative, yay. And I had to re-remake up that clinic time during my holiday, super yay. 

Here's hoping for a better 2021 for everyone!

what

back in the groove

After posting about my insouciance over the uncertainty of my future runs, I've been running regularly. Old news by this point, actually.

However, yesterday, my legs were not sore during my run, which made me realize that they are (almost) always sore and/or heavy.  It's been like this for so long, maybe since my son was born, I don't even really notice it except as a barrier to push through to get to endorphins. I remember better runs in the past, but it seems like they happened to a different person.

Yesterday, though, my legs felt fresh, even after I pushed the pace and my breathing picked up. 

Naturally, I'm now analyzing this, particularly since my run this morning was back to crappy. Yesterday I ran in the afternoon because it was only 25 C. I almost never run in the afternoon, but perhaps lower humidity was a major player. I'd strolled for a couple of hours with my family earlier that day, but my legs weren't tired from that despite my expectation. Perhaps the key is diminished hope!

It really felt amazing at any rate.

*and I scored well on my board exam thankfully, but COVID-19 cancelled the rotation I'm supposed to be on right now--this year has been a ride.

!!!!!!!!!!!

 almost almost there

I knew this month would be tough, and it's going out with a bang (it's 42 C right now!), but it's almost over, but I'm still on edge.

I wrote boards on Wednesday, and because I've been preparing since March, and didn't take the customary month off to cram, it felt weird. It's been a big shark circling in the shadows for so long, I got used to it, and still have to accept that it's now gone.  I guess the exam went well?! hard to say. I was tired by the last section, though...after about seven hours, I was slowing down a lot.  Fortunately, each half is four hours/four sections, and I'd banked a fair bit of time. Still left 1.5 hours ahead of schedule. If I stay too long, I start changing answers injuriously. Nothing good happens after "midnight" (okay, 3ish pm). 

Oh, and moving? ....well

I tried to relax with a book I picked up this morning from a local Little Free Library: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/438-Days/Jonathan-Franklin/9781501116308. Highly recommend it, especially for putting things into perspective.

Running? Uh, it's 42 C right now and I just had my first solid poop in about a month today (funnily enough, the dog had her first morning walk poop in a few weeks too--she's been spayed so we have to sync colons instead of uteruses (And period syncing seems like a myth anyway)). So, no.

I've been jogging

I'm getting slower and slower, even though the last few mornings have been ~24ish C and not ~26. It's still too warm for me but I'll take what I can get.

1 hour today
1/2 hour yesterday
1 hour Friday (and Thurs?)
1/2 hour Wednesday...I think. Can't remember.

I'm already tired and August is going to be heavy, but sadly not in terms of mileage. But maybe it'll be my last month of truly Southern summer. Now that I've typed that, probably not.

touch and go

At least I'm running more than July last year (70-75 hours/week at the hospital and still too hot to run when I got home = 0 miles). I keep telling myself, the humidex never goes below 30, it's okay to take a break.

And then Hanna came along. Hopefully it wasn't too much to handle along the coast, but it broke the heat here.

I jogged for an hour this morning. Maybe tomorrow morning will be as nice. If not, I'll relax until it is. I'll be ok.

.

Didn't run today but discovered this.

~summer~

I'm still running, here and there, 1/2 hour mostly. It's summer.

Should have run yesterday--after a few days of 40+ C highs, much of the humidity had burned off and it was overcast too. But I'd gotten only about 4 hours of sleep and felt like death. "Oh, well it should be like this tomorrow." WTF, why would I ever think that?

This morning, the humidity and sun are back.

In search of another song, I found this--not really my jam but the shots of the crowd are provoking so much nostalgia.

Found it!

!

Typing with one hand because I'm icing the other side so that I can get my wedding ring off. The heat has made me somewhat edematous (I've acclimatized enough that ~34 C in the shade was comfortable yesterday,at least), plus I got two fire ant bites on my left wrist that has puffed things up further.

My ring finger is fine; I was going to take the ring off to do some kettleball stuff. serves me right for x-training!

Anyway, I'm midway thru my plan: ice, benadryl, massage thoracic inlet area to remove lymphatic restriction, elevate extremity, cold shower, more coffee/diuresis, and then soap.

Hey--update--just got it off pre-shower, so I could possibly go into the hot garage and sling some iron....maybe. I'm definitely taking the extra cup of coffee though!

running has been meh because of summer, plus the Sahara dust killed my momentum earlier this week, but I did just jog 2 miles.

~

It was only 17 C this morning! I ran 8 miles

and I heard some new tunes! sorry in advance for ads :/

time to commit?

Once again, the weather cooperated for my long run! Yeah, it was about 31 C by the time I finished, but it was shady/overcast for the first two hours, and then it was sometimes cloudy, with a slight breeze here and there. Can't beat that during summer! I also ran the sprinkler during hour three.

Total: 16 miles solid jogging, no walking.

I'm so happy with that because it was supposed to be just sunny, which means almost full sun by 9 or so. Also, to minimize sun exposure, I'd planned to start running at 6:30 am, but because I stayed up until about 11:30 pm watching UHF last night, I barely made it out before 7 (6:57 hahaha). During the first hour or so, I wasn't sure how long this run would be. However, I was feeling good and my husband was home to help our son, and make coffee for me...it was my day.

So, what are my goals? I'm still not sure how long many more weeks we'll be down here, and thus what my longest run will be before I move back to where running conditions won't be as suitable for really slow but reeeeaaally relaxed jogging. Can I commit to a marathon distance? Or beyond? I think I can pull off a 20 miler at least, at any rate.

Meanwhile, 16 miles is my longest run since having my son in 2015!!! what?!! Yeah, I got back up to 14-ish miles by about 14 months postpartum, at which point I got pneumonia (!!!) and it's been one struggle and/or illness since then, until March when I started social distancing (I think I've been sick only one week since then). So I'm hoping to push the miles until I have to go back.

I'm also trying to get back into posting music tracks; I'm listening to ah/fm right now, and I've also been enjoying Delta Notch, but I'm not dealing with "Track ID??" these days :( Oh, well, something has got to give.

Admittedly, I've been listening to podcasts and not music while running: Office Ladies, Fake Doctors--two of my favorite shows discussed by some of their main cast, with various guests! It would be amazing if Peri Gilpin and Jane Leeves did a similar podcast about Frasier btw.

Also, it's Trump and his administration/supporters, and not Obama, who is/are "the Great Divider." I could write loads about what is happening in this country right now, but I'm going to try to incorporate something, anything, as much as possible, off this list in Real Life because this seems to be a good resource for us white people who want to help make things safer for people of colour. I've lived in various parts of "Trump country" even pre-Trump, if that makes sense, because that's where military bases tend to be--and I've had a few awkward convos, but that's it. I could be doing more.

!

I jogged 12.7 miles in the backyard yesterday. Yeah, we're still here. Anyway, I wasn't planning to run so long, not after such a lackluster month. Since my last "long" run in April, my longest run had been 3-5 miles, something like that. I was sick for about a week (not COVID-19), the weather didn't cooperate, I didn't get up early enough so had lots of interruptions especially early on which wrecks my warm up and thus makes the entire run a struggle, etc.

But, yesterday, everything went right. I got up early enough to get a good 1/2 hour in before the first interruption, and clouds came. The temp got up to 29 but it was overcast by then, plus I turned on a sprinkler. If I had planned ahead and put my fuel on the patio, and thus not had to go into the house and get waylaid by something for a few minutes (long enough for my legs to decide "that's a no, dawg"), I think I could've kept going, but I'm still really happy with the run. I'm still really slow in the backyard, particularly since I am trying to avoid the 3 tracks I've worn in the yard so far, so it took me almost 3 hours (!). Yeah, 9:30/mile is like tempo effort. Whatever, these are strange times.

However, I managed a lovely ~3 mile recovery run out there today, and that might be the true turning point. I've gotten into this habit of running 2-3 times a week (okay, sometimes closer to 1) that whenever I do manage a "long-ish" run, I don't do a recovery run the day after. But recovery runs really help!

I think we'll be down here for another month at least--I'm still figuring things out. well, everyone is! To document my present real-life knot of knots would take more time than I have, but these days I'm applying and cold-emailing to find places to rotate at for the next year, and meanwhile my school decided to change my email address this past weekend. I think stuff is migrating where it should now, but ehhh, timing sucks. Also, the testing centre where I'm supposed to write my board exam in August had a major fire and is supposed to reopen in June, no July 1st, no, July 31st....and writing in August was already kind of messing my timeline, but now my August school-mandated rotation is no longer mandatory, but I haven't heard if I'm still going or if I was even accepted in the first place (it's complicated) so I've applied to a couple of virtual rotations because since my son's school is reopening now (he's not going back yet, no way), they'll probably take the usual first week off in August and I'm SOL with childcare. Yeah, I could pay someone, with maybe a little extra virus on the side? So every month is kind of like this, but August smells the worst. However, I think it'll all pan out. A while back, I was freaking out because I couldn't get a seat for my boards in July, but then the place caught fire.