Bret

AM - 1 mile very easy with Finn.

AM - 1 mile with Finn - very careful yesterday with zero activity and NSAIDS every 4 hours, got 8 hours of sleep and felt remarkably improved.  Ran at a pace 70 seconds faster per mile today at the same HR and felt much more normal.  I have my Garmin set with an alert should my HR go above 130 and today my avg was 124 with a pace of 10:40.  Would love to see similar progress over the next few days.  

AM - same as yesterday about the same time and HR. 

AM - 1.75 miles with Finn on the trail.  Got a course of prednisone yesterday for the hip and because it was late in the day, and the pack said to take the full day's dosage all at once if you do not get it in the morning - I took it, which resulted in a spike in my BP and HR which resulted in a collective decision in my house that I should go to the ER just in case it is something more serious...so 3 hours later they released me finding no major concerns and telling me to have fun on my trip to Japan tomorrow.  

AM - 1 mile with Finn before heading to the airport to go to Japan for the marathon.   

AM - 2 miles around the city of Tokyo near the hotel after a long flight.   The post viral recalibration of my heart rate is depressing - so my effort on Sunday will be just to make it through to the finish regardless of how slow.   

AM - chilly 2 miles looping around the area where the start of the race will be tomorrow.  Lots of people in town from the states for the race.  Coincental meeting with a couple of runners, one of whom has a son who lives right near my neighborhood in Milton.  Small world.   

Found this article in Runner's World regarding running post-Covid - which although I tested negative 4 times and not just home tests...Here's what I am experiencing:

For many, a slightly elevated resting heart rate might not even be noticeable. But runners who use their heart rate for training may start to recognise what has become an extremely common pattern: while they may feel well enough to run, their heart rate is higher than they would expect when doing so. Everything is suddenly recalibrated: running at a pace that previously might have peaked at 80% of your max, now starts at that level. Easy efforts suddenly become steady, steady efforts become hard and hard becomes impossible. It can feel – depressingly – like you’re considerably less fit and have less stamina than before. 

Why does this happen? ‘It seems likely that this goes back to some sort of inflammation, and also to the impact of the autonomic nervous system that has been found in many Covid study participants and patients, where they have trouble regulating their heart rate,’ says Dr Radin.