he explains that I’m likely experiencing a “second wave.” He calls in an inhaler to help me breath, but other than that, all I can do is take Tylenol and drink plenty of water, trying to bring the fever down. Despite feeling so bad, I get up in the evening and do some light yoga w/focus on breathing exercises, but am completely exhausted afterwards. Still, I know movement is medicine and I won’t feel better if I continue to lie around. Day 10-11: I’m still pretty tired and running a low-grade fever, but able to breathe a little better with the inhaler. My appetite is back, but even after eating, I don’t feel like doing more than some hip mobility and light yoga with breathing exercises. I go for a short 1.5-mile run / walk at an easy pace on the 11th day. Day 12-13: No fever today finally, but still struggling to breathe a little. I run 3-4 miles each day with fewer walk breaks and not completely exhausted after; I can run only as fast as my lungs will allow. I add strength training and mobility work morning and evening and continue to work on the breathing exercises every day.
Day 14-15: All my symptoms have resolved other than still struggling to breathe while running. I continue to focus on keeping my runs easy and heart rate down and doing 30-60 minutes of strength and mobility per day. Day 16: My lungs feel 90% recovered today. I struggle much less to breathe and have increased mileage up to a 10K while still maintaining 30-60 minutes of strength and mobility training per day. In the following days, I continue to strength train daily and am able to consistently increase mileage up to a long run of 9 miles. On day 25-26, I run a 50k over the course of 24 hours (at least 5 miles every 4 hours – the Yeti Ultra 24-Hour Challenge). This ends up leaving me exhausted and somewhat immune compromised, but it forced me to really focus modifying my diet, adding more nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory foods, while building up my immune system. Every run is easy effort and I continue to strength train almost daily. By far, my case was much milder than most people experience based on the stories you hear about on the news. In the last few weeks, my doctor has cleared me to return to training for my next ultramarathon. My heart
I won't feel better if I ... lie around.
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