Brandon Rawlings poses with his wife after the race. He relies on running to stay fit, and after being infected with COVID-19 last fall, his ability to run was limited, so he finds other ways to stay healthy. He says he was forced to do that. (Family photo)
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Eagle Mountain — Hundreds of thousands of Utines are now infected with COVID-19, and many amateur athletes may want to train like Olympic athletes, but doctors say it’s not the time. .. A Utah runner shared his experience after signing a Delta variant last fall.
Eagle Mountain’s Brandon Rawlings loves to run. He ran over 2,000 miles last year and competed in over 30 races.
“I always run more than 10 miles a few times a week. I run a lot of half marathons,” Rawlings said.
He was scheduled to run for the St. George Marathon last October, but was infected with COVID-19 about a week ago.
“I was very boring,” he said. “I was really excited to do it. For about 6 months I was preparing for it.”
They believe that one of his five children brought COVID-19 home from school, and he was fully vaccinated and did his best to quarantine, but inevitably. I got sick.
“I was still hit hard. I had 103 fever for a few days,” he said.
Rawlings decided not to slip his progress and actually laced his shoes while he was still ill. He had just run 24 miles just a week ago and was hoping to still be able to compete as the quarantine was in time.
“I went and ran a mile, but to be honest, I thought I’d die, that is, I came back and thought,’That was the stupidest thing I could do,'” he said. Said.
To his great disappointment, Rawlings had to withdraw from the race.
Dr. Dixie Harris, a pulmonologist at Intermountain Healthcare, says the first thing — wait until the illness is gone and then start exercising again. For most people with mild cases of COVID-19, she says it is at least 7 days with very minimal activity from the time you get sick.
“Even if most of your symptoms are gone, it can still have some protracted effects, so we really need to be cautious back in exercise,” she said. “But if you still have serious symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, or / or heartbeat, you have to wait until those symptoms actually slow down.”
She encourages athletes to actually monitor their symptoms according to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ protocol back to play like this. She says that even asymptomatic people should refrain from playing sports for at least 14 days.
“People really need to listen to their bodies,” she said, admitting that the reaction to COVID-19 varies from person to person.
According to Harris, 10% to 30% of patients have symptoms that last for more than 3 months, such as coughing, chest tightness, elevated resting heart rate, fatigue, and shortness of breath. She says there is a safe way to get back to her physical activity.
She encourages people to start with something as simple as a walk and then slowly increase their training intensity.
“If you just walk at a slow pace, your heart rate will be 120-130 beats per minute, but that’s too fast,” Harris said, people asking them to spend more time recovering first. I recommend it to you.
Harris says it’s important to get proper rest and fuel. She says this can usually be counter-intuitive to those who push themselves harder and harder during training.
“The best treatments are rest and self-care, health and sleep and hydration, and (a) a good diet,” Harris said.
She states that many post-acute COVID-19 patients employ an anti-inflammatory diet to aid recovery. Don’t overdo it, Harris adds.
“In fact, they are too strong and you can delay recovery by pushing too fast,” Harris said. “They really need to listen and make sure they aren’t overstressing their heart.”
Then change your goals, she says.
“I’m very realistic and not the end of the world.’OK, this year I’ve been infected with COVID and I have had some pretty bad cases so I don’t run a marathon. I went to the hospital most of the time. Faster than a walk. I still feel short of breath when I go, “she said.
Rawlings is familiar with this feeling. It was an adjustment, but he tried to set a reasonable goal.
“It’s very frustrating, that is, I can’t even start talking to you … (it) seems like I had to start over,” Rawlings said. “If I could go 3 miles, I would say,’OK, you know, in this next run, I’ll try to go 4 miles.'”
He hopes to recover completely and be able to run the marathon again soon, but Rawlings takes it every day. He said his training now includes more walking than ever before. Until recently, he couldn’t start running long distances again.
“What I didn’t realize was that after COVID, there was a stage where I was always tired just because of an absolute lack of energy,” he said. “I think I can come back again if I do my best, but it took much longer than I expected.”
Rawlings says he relies on running to stay fit and his limited ability to run forces him to find other ways to stay healthy.
Most importantly, Rawlings encourages others to be positive.
“You can’t rush into things, so you have to pay attention to your body,” he said. “But don’t give up. If you just keep working, you’ll be there again soon.”
Harris tells strength trainers to start with 10% to 20% of the weight they were lifting before they got sick. She also encourages people who are physically demanding to be really careful about getting back to work.
She also invites patients to maintain a journal that helps them track and measure their progress. “Patients get better over time,” Harris said.
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