mr b's comeback

[noel]

Fair enough - that's good to hear (that you can normally train through winter). But worrying to hear that things aren't going well for the last 3 months. I guess blood tests is the first step.

I know there are a few doctors on here. Anyone care to suggest tests that might be more useful to request?

[mr brightside]

The NHS probably won't want me bothering them. As soon as they know i'm not dying they'll be heading me out of the door. The first question they ask you at our practice is, "is it urgent?" The virologist has come back to me with awkward questions like what is my blood oxygen saturation level, which i don't know. She is considering my sorry state carefully, but has suggested i use the 'Huff technique' to shift the phlegm off my lungs. I've given it a try and it makes you dizzy, but seems to get you bringing the crap up.

10k last night with horsforth harriers, during which i drowned in my own mucus most of the way round. Accupuncturist is needling lung points at my monthly visit.

[mr brightside]

I didn't want to go out tonight, just felt very deflated about my lack of performance. Dragged myself out anyway, 6 laps of Southway followed by 3 Carr Bridge Drive reps, so:

6x 450m (88s,88,92,92,95,95)
I know i said Southway was 400m, but i've measured its diameter on the map and its circumference is 450m. This works out to a 400 time of about 78s assuming constant speed, a bit slower than i thought i might be going.

3x 0.25m/110' (1.50,1.56,1.55)
Pretty steady times really.

My chest was rattling away like a tin of marbles on the first 3 450m. This Huff Technique is quite good at getting the phlegm moving, but you go bright red and feel like you're about to die. It would be nice to go sub 85s for 450, that's the target.

28.09 was my time for KWL Giggleswick last year, wonder what's going to happen...

[Travs]

78secs for 400 is decent. If i'm knocking 12 x 400 off with a minute rest, and keeping them consistent at 78, i'm very happy indeed.

[mr brightside]

The decay suggests i couldn't do it consistently, probably 2 at the most.

Some feedback from the virologist i've asked for help:

Generally speaking, it is very common for 100% recovery from Covid to take a long time. I have a good friend who has a PhD in exercise physiology and works with team GB athletes and she said several of their athletes have had long Covid like symptoms that have affected their fitness and particularly their ability to recover. I know that their approach to managing training is to give more recovery time between sessions and to limit the frequency of high intensity training, instead focussing of lots of steady state, zone 2 type training. I know it's sometimes hard to train less when you just want to make progress, but in this situation, I think you might be wise to drop the intensity for a few weeks to give your system more time to recover. In addition to this, I would really prioritise recovery. I'm not an expert in that side of things, but if it were me I'd be increasing calories and eating lots of nutrient dense foods, particularly those high in iron, zinc and B12. There are some papers suggesting that vitamin D is important for Covid recovery, but it's not the best data, might be worth a shot though and certainly won't do you any harm in the middle of January!

[dangilbert]

That's interesting, thanks for sharing. I've had Covid over Christmas and have been back running for 10 days now, all at a fairly easy pace. I feel ok so far apart from a slight tightness in my chest and a bit of a cough after running. Will find out how I'm really doing at xc tomorrow.

[mr brightside]

28.09 was my time for KWL Giggleswick last year, wonder what's going to happen...

Well, results are up, and it's 30.40 for me, a solid 2.30 slower than last year so still around 10% slower. It was torturous being so lethargic and drained, a complete struggle from start to finish. I had to sprint to the funnel to hold onto my place, and ended up on the deck on my hands and knees for over a minute afterwards, i just couldn't stand, i was pretty dizzy and incoherent. My recovery time was about 2 full minutes!

Interesting chat with the virologist today. She took a few notes and said she'd send me a .pdf of some breathing exercises that feature in a book called 'The Oxygen Advantage'. Some of these exercises trigger your body to produce more EPO and mimic altitude training; it won't cure my problem, but might make running a bit more comfortable and enable me to string a flipping race together once in a while. She says my lungs are coating themselves in mucus in response to viral infection, and this mucus membrane makes gas transfer inefficient, and you cough it all up constantly. I'll recover in the end, but full recovery is dependant on the person and with Nile Fever etc. it can take years. She's offered to lend me a blood oxymeter so we can get some data.

[noel]

Interesting chat with the virologist today. She took a few notes and said she'd send me a .pdf of some breathing exercises that feature in a book called 'The Oxygen Advantage'. Some of these exercises trigger your body to produce more EPO and mimic altitude training

That sounds interesting. I'll have to look into that. With false altitude training and beetroot, I'll be unstoppable.

I hope you're running better soon. But don't forget to take it easy and allow time to get over your virus.

[mr brightside]

That sounds interesting. I'll have to look into that. With false altitude training andbeetroot, I'll be unstoppable.

According to ebay, my order for the book is in. All these Loughborough racing snakes better make way, our winning streak will be unstoppable.

[mr brightside]

It's a shame CL no longer frequents these backwaters. We could discuss whether or not it's still doping if your own body is producing the EPO.