Date: 11/28/21

Since Tuesday I have been taking it super easy because I started feeling sick again. Friday night I grabbed my lavender essential oil to help me sleep. When I opened it and stuck it under my nose I didn’t smell anything. Uh oh.

Saturday morning I tried a few more essential oils and couldn’t smell them. My gummy vitamins didn’t taste like anything but chalk. All I could taste of my homemade cranberry sauce was a hint of sweet. I promptly made an appointment to get a COVID test. Good thing I’m vaccinated?

A few hours after my brain swab at Walgreens the results came back positive. After losing my sense of smell and taste I knew it would be positive, but I needed to know for sure because of work. Now I get another whole week off to quarantine! Yay…

Quarantining is not my idea of fun. This past week my husband and I have done jack shit, and it’s killing me. We sit on the couch and watch movies all day. I’ve gone on a couple of walks, and by the time I get back I’m out of breath and my heart is racing. Today I even got lightheaded!

Thinking of the 50k I should be training for instead of sitting on my ass, I turned to the Bad ultrarunning advice (BUA) Facebook group for guidance. They, I mean, we, are a crude bunch, and for the most part we just make fun of ourselves as runners and give bad advice. But this time many put the bad advice aside and gave me wonderful suggestions and encouragement.

Most of the folks who responded had suffered from COVID as well. They all said to get back into running and working out slooooowly. And contrary to what most of runners do, they emphasized that I need to listen to my body and not push myself. I also go a whole list of things to take to help my recovery:

• Vitamin D
• Zinc
• Cordyceps
• Lingzhi (reishi mushroom)
• Turmeric
• Vitamin NAC
• Quercetin

An article in Trail Runner magazine said to use the 50/30/20/10 rule. When you start back up, reduce training load by 50%. If that’s alright, then the next week reduce it by only 30%, and so on.

While this is a good starting point, some of the BUA folks said it took them months to get back to their normal training. A couple of folks said that even months later they still aren’t quite back to normal yet.

What does this all mean for me?

Well, it means that I’ve deferred my registration for the Zion 50k in April. As much as I would love to charge through this and train, I don’t want to delay a full recovery or cause permanent damage to my lungs and heart. It means this winter I won’t be hiking or snowshoeing as much as I’d hoped. It means I’ll be taking things slow.

In a way, I think this is all for the best. When I first started running again last year I did smart. I started out heavy on the strength training and eased into the running. And I felt fantastic. After a slug-like summer I dove back into running with little preparation and have suffered aches and pains because of it.

This “setback” gives me the chance to do it right this time. I’ll start with strength training, walking and some cross training on the bike until my heart and lungs feel good enough for a run. Then I’ll ease into it. With any luck whatsoever I’ll be ready in time for the Beaverhead 55k in July.

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