The first half of 2020 has been a bit of a roller coaster for all of us.
In my case, I’ve gone from planning a 100 km in July to wondering whether I’ll actually achieve even one of my major running goals for the year. I’m sure I’m not alone.
I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination
Jimmy Dean
I spent most of Sunday 15 March in A&E after experiencing a tight chest, shortness of breath, racing heart rate, and wooziness. I’d been feeling quite out of sorts for a couple of days beforehand but this was on a whole different level and, aside from how I felt, I knew from my Garmin stats that something was wrong. I was told to present there straight away by the out of hours doctor following a call to 111 and after various checks including a chest X-ray, several blood tests and an ECG I was informed that I had a virus and discharged with instructions to self-isolate in one room of our house for seven days.
The start of that week I was absolutely wiped out with brain fog and horrific headache, an insane thirst and a brutal sore throat; my sense of smell and taste also went and eventually I was left a horrid metallic taste in my mouth. In all it took a fortnight before the persistent headache, fatigue and burning feeling in my lungs started to pass and I could finally say that I was starting to get back to my normal self.
I cannot be certain that I had Covid-19 as you were only tested if you were actually admitted to hospital but from what I’ve read about confirmed cases it seems more than likely. If that is so, I consider myself lucky – my running means that I’m pretty fit and aside from my asthma I don’t sit within any of the known risk categories. I can however say that I’ve never felt so ill in my life and that the whole experience was pretty frightening and not something I would ever wish to repeat. Had I been old, out of shape or with an underlying health condition this could have been a very different story and for that I’m grateful.
During the time that I was ill the country went into a complete lock-down; I have to say, in my opinion, rather belatedly. Although it had been widely expected for some time it was as though, suddenly, we went from 100 mph to a standstill. As a result, coming out of quarantine it was like stepping into a whole different world from the one that I had left behind.
With events and races suddenly being cancelled left, right and centre, and social distancing preventing any kind of group run or training, it was a shock to the system for everyone but the running community did what it does best and rallied together with a series of virtual challenges, events, quizzes, races, and webinars to keep everyone amused and out of mischief.
My first few runs after coming out of quarantine were horrific – my legs felt like lead and my breathing was shot to pieces – but persistence paid off and gradually I began to get back to where I was before all this happened both in terms of distance and pace.
After a month I was starting to feel strong and had discovered a whole load of new routes and trails on my doorstep that I previously didn’t know existed and over the early May bank holiday weekend I had a couple of virtual relay races booked – each being a half hour slot to cover as much distance as you could during that time. Taking on the second of these, I succeeded in rolling my ankle in a pothole in the road (ironic when you consider that the bulk of the run had been on trails).
Although the pain was bad I was able to complete the run; I then took it easy for a good few days during which time I iced my ankle and kept it mobilised by walking. After a week it was feeling much better so I went out for an exploratory run, which ended up being rather pacier than I had envisaged.
There’s a saying in the law that he who acts for himself has a fool for a client and the same could be said for coaching. Despite a friend and fellow coach expressing some reservation about the pace with which I completed that first run back after injury, and blatantly failing to heed the advice I would give to my athletes about slowly building things back up again, that week I knocked out nearly 32 km and nearly 34 km the week after.
The result of my folly was fairly predictable. The Runspire virtual 5K on 1 June was hard work, which I’d like to say that was because I did double the distance in stupidly hot weather, but another 6 km the following day confirmed that it was injury rather than anything else causing my lacklustre and painful performance.
So my stupidity means that I sit here now with a screwed ankle and aching calf muscles. The Serpent Trail 100 km, which I’d been planning for in July, is a Covid casualty and injury means that I’ve now given up my plans for Chester Marathon in October which I’d been targeting as my 2020 A-race (although I suspect it will be cancelled too); my focus instead will be the Portsmouth Coastal Marathon just before Christmas.
The one positive (although you may disagree) is that my enforced leave of absence has led to a degree of creativity in the form of this website – something that I’d been meaning to do for a while but had never quite got round to doing.
Having now made the initial investment of time and effort to set this up I will do my best to continue it even once I’m able to start running again. Until then, if you have any tips for coping with the frustration of injury then do please comment below or send me a message.
