Longtime runner that has been fighting injuries the last few years. I became frustrated and let a bad day become a bad week, which became a bad month, which turned into a bad year. I barely ran and hardly ever rode my bike. I bought a mountain bike which got me back in the swing in early 2020, but with trails being an hour+ away finding the time to consistently ride was difficult, so my fitness continued to suffer --in a bad way–.

So that laziness brings me Nov 23, where I get this fever out of nowhere during the afternoon. I wake the next morning with a cough, fever, and feeling terrible. A few days later a phone call confirms that I am Covid-19 positive. Overall, I don’t feel too horrible, and after a week it appears I should be back to normal in no time. But it lingers. Some days are ok, others are from hell. A month goes by and I’m still sick. Christmas passes, I’m still sick. I end up going to the hospital with extremely high blood pressure and chest pains near the end of December. I stay four days. Non-stop tests find nothing wrong.

Skip ahead to late January and I wake up feeling better. Been here before, won’t get my hopes up again. But this time it just feels different. I’m sure I’m better. A week later I go for a mile walk. Silly high HR but I do ok. I jump on Zwift and do an easy ride. Eventually I start working my way back to where I feel strong enough to hit the MTB trails and some road biking.

Now I’m trying to get back my fitness and health, realizing now that it can be taken away so fast. I hope I never have to wonder if I’ll ever get to do the things I love to do again.