How much running fitness is lost after flu?
I pretty much ran every day through 2022. Typical week would be Mon-maintenance, Tue-effort, Wed-maintenance, Thu-effort, Fri-easy, Sat-parkrun, Sun-long-run. However, before Christmas I was absolutely knocked out with the flu. Terrible cough, shivering, having to wear 4-5 layers and waking up damp with sweat. There was no way I could run for nine days! My weight went from 78 to 73kg also. Xmas (lack of) runs I then had to consider two things (a) when do I start to run again? and (b) what amount of fitness I had lost? The first five days back I simply ran 8km slow runs. I still had a cough and when I stopped half-way through and at the end I found myself having to cough for 20-30s because of the cold air. Day six I tried to do 3x1km efforts keeping the pace below 4:00/km and just about managed this. Again coughing at the end. Day eight I decided it was time to return to the normal training schedule. My three parkruns leading up to having the flu were: Riverside 17:48 (fast course) Orme