Should you run while sick?

Happy Monday, runners!

Being sick sucks, right? It pretty much ruins your whole day, or week - maybe even an entire month! Can’t get out of bed, you’re unsure if you’re feeling cold or hot, it’s a mess.

That’s exactly how I felt this past week and a half. It stinks.

The issue is, if it wasn’t for this thing called running, you’d be able to handle a bed-ridden week, for the most part, I guess? It all depends where you’re at and what your day-to-days look like. Unfortunately, 2 Sundays ago, I felt a sickness coming.

As I was preparing to kick off a productive week of morning runs and a solid 21K (13 miles) ahead of me on a Monday morning, I was feeling sorta weak Sunday evening. Hours pass and the night passes, and bam – I was dead in bed.

Nothing, no running, barely walking – should I just crawl everywhere? The flu had got to me. I even checked myself for COVID-19 since I still had a few personal kits in the pantry. Yup, I ended up getting COVID.

(Apparently there’s a rise in cases again, but don’t fear, it’s just part of the flu nowadays. I also blame my friend, he got myself and three others sick.)

So, back to the story. The entire week and a half was a write-off. Took a couple of days off from work, and forget about running, not even going for a walk around the neighborhood – I was out. It’s times like this when you’re dying to get some exercise in you at least, because there’s some sort of shadow looming over you, telling you to get at least 20 minutes of running in because you’re a lazy POS, right?

Wrong! Rest up, take it easy. No one is perfect, and if you need some time to yourself because you’ve got a sore throat or runny nose, take that time. It won’t kill you if you miss some runs during the week – it’s not like you’ll completely forget how it is to run.

I did feel that though, especially during the sickness. I thought to myself “now my running pace will be worse, I won’t be able to finish even a 5k run around the block, it’s over” – I’ll tell you that it’s all BS.

Of course you can still run, and you’ll always just jump back in to where you last left off. You might not be back to Kipchoge levels, but you’ll at least get back to the groove (once you’re ready!).

So, what can you get out of this story? Take your time, easy on the pace after getting hit with a flu or something else. Don’t rush, running is both a way to earn a new PR, but to also recover. If you’re coming back to normalcy and away from the tissues and coughs, just take it easy.

Update on my life: It’s been 2 weeks since getting hit with COVID, and I’m all better now! See you at the starting line.

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Lace up and enjoy 👟

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