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I am well into my 50's. I've never been a fitness nut, preferring sitting in front of the computer or some other sitting project. In my childhood I had experienced a series of respiratory infections, scarring in my lungs, visible on x-rays. Most of my life I had a hard time with a 10-minute jog. For no good reason I can now run for hours.
I had toyed with running, but I had trouble breathing. Around the Central Park reservoir, I would wind up completely out of breath (way before finishing the 1.4-mile loop), heart pounding and lungs jumping out of my burning larynx as I would recover, bent over and dizzy. Every time -- in my twenties, thirties and forties.
As I got into my 30s, my knees started not feeling great, with connective tissues wacked to the point of dislocation events (self-resolving, but with a distinct popping and terrible pain). I learned to not rotate my body on my knees. In my 40s I developed a vitamin D deficiency, culminating in three episodes of ribs breaking with little provocation..
I always figured my running days were over.
In early 2021, just before the vaccines became available to my age group, I contracted COVID, most likely the Delta variant that was spreading rapidly. I knew I was heavily exposed (to a careless family member who lied a lot) and even though tested negative was pretty certain I would get sick. My daughter and I isolated (separately), hoping against hope, but started feeling the virus shortly. A few days later, my daughter and I wound up in the emergency room (she was a clotting risk) and I tried to get antivirals, but was just shy of the 55-year mark. The boomers had reserved drugs for their own use, and I was screwed. They sent me home in spite of my incredibly high blood pressure.
And so I got very, very sick. My partner was a week in by then, and isolation was no longer necessary, so I moved back in and we got down to being incredibly sick. Over the next few days my blood pressure elevated to ridiculous levels, my pulse was well over 100 -- constantly, and I had trouble sleeping because my heartbeat was waking me up. I fully expected to have a stroke or a heart attack, and when lucid, was trying to get my affairs in order.
Body aches, fever that weirdly jumped around my body (I measured significant differences with my infra-red thermometer - sometimes the left side of my head was way different from the right!), coughing my lungs out, unable to move. That's how I spent about a month.
As an aside, family members who did receive one dose of the vaccine, in spite of being in their 80s and 90s with heavy co-morbidities, who infected us with the same strain, had very light symptoms and were completely fine a few days later! Say what you will about the vaccines, but I am a believer.
gemini://gemini.ctrl-c.club/~stack/gemlog/2021-11-04-post-covid.gmi
Afterwards, it took me some months to feel normal, although somewhat stupid. But I noticed that I wasn't out of breath from aerobic tasks. Again, I am not an excercise fan, so it was walks that were fast and long, much longer that I could do before without getting tired or out of breath.
I remember at some point, getting pulled by my dog into a prolonged run -- I just went with it -- faster and longer than I could imagine, and not being out of breath. I noted that but kind of forgot about it.
Last summer after my 2nd booster I contracted Omicron -- the booster was not targeting Omicron (but no doubt reduced the symptoms). I knew I was sick before the test (tingling in the knees), and had very mild symptoms for a day or two - sore throat, tiredness. A few days later I tested negative and spent a total of 10 days isolated. No big deal.
More recently, in November, I started running on a treadmill -- I figured if I am watching TV I might as well excercise a bit. I am now in my later 50s, not in particularly great shape, so I did not push it -- or expect much. To my surprise, I had to cut my run short not because of breathing, knees or tiredness, but because it seemed wise to not go from zero to serious distances without a ramp-up.
Over the days and weeks that followed I continued walking and running daily, and for the last couple of weeks I've been running around 10k daily (in 2 or 3 separate runs as I am still concerned with my joints, and not that fast for all kinds of reasons).
I feel like a machine. I feel like I can run forever. I am not at all out of breath like I used to be -- it was painful and I had to count in and out breaths to keep from it spinning out of control. Now I am hardly winded. I hardly break out a sweat. My heart is steady (I keep track to not max out as I am no spring chicken). My resting heart rate is way down from what it used to be. My joints are strong and ache-free. I haven't had a back-ache in many months. Even my arthitic thumbs (from punching the space bar) are pain-free most of the time, after years of constant pain.
Now as I mentioned before I am in my late 50s, with a lifetime of sitting, a scary cardio overload event during COVID, various cartilage damage, etc... so I have to make a conscious decision to break up my runs into shorter chunks and not push myself to the point of failure. But I feel indestructable.
In short I feel like I am in the best shape I've ever been.
I don't know if COVID had anything to do with it, really. And I certainly don't recomment getting COVID to see if it makes you strong!
But I do know that it had radically changed my body. I recovered my taste and smell with some changes (Coca Cola tastes like death now). My sweat smells very different, suggesting a radical change in my biome. My digestive system is working much better. My vision deterioration has stabilized and I am using the same glasses for the last two years.
Is it possible that my body has mobilized and switched into a different regime after fighting off COVID?
Did COVID alter my nervous system, cutting of some 'governor' that limited my breathing or heart activity?
Is it psychological? Before getting sick I felt a bit more precious about my body, wussing out of things that were uncomfortable. Having faced a high probability of death made me less squeamish for sure. Perhaps I had some kind of a breakthrough and can push through pain and discomfort without the stress of worrying about hurting myself. Or even dying. Once you've lived through hell, small things like being out of breath seem less scary?
Although seems that physically I am different. I used to sweat like crazy from running, and now I often don't bother changing my t-shirt after a run. I used to get completely out of breath, now I don't at all - I never get off the treadmill out of breath (that could be psychological I suppose). Everything used to hurt after even a short run - now it doesn't.
One difference is that I am running barefoot (well, socks) and not running shoes. But it doesn't explain that much.
And so it's a mystery. I am very curious to hear your stories and ideas. Please post on Antenna -- or email me here, stack at ctrl-c.club.