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)
  • Ormeau 18:08 (fast course)
  • Goffert 18:34 (undulating course)
I had hit an HM pb at the GNR in September.

Then performance after the flu were:
  • Day 8 - Chopwell - 19:57
  • Day 9 - Herrington - 19:19
  • Day 15 - Caferalla - 19:00
Chopwell was 61s slower than earlier in the year. Herrington was 110s slower.

Obviously this made me feel pretty gutted as it looked I'd taken a huge step backwards after training so consistently over a number of years.

However, a week later I took part in the Sherman Cup Cross Country - I finished, roughly speaking, in the same place in the field as I would normally finish. I then did our club handicap - 4km - but on a windy evening.

November 2022 - course PB


January 2023 - coming back to fitness
I was pleased to see the difference had now dropped to only 22s. And the January effort was on a quite windy night.

So, on reflection, if you have bad flu - I think you can expect to lose 60-90s off your 5K time over the first four weeks when recovering. But then this should quickly return to only 30-45s if you can get back into the training routine.

The big test will be tomorrow. I'm doing the Brass Monkey Half Marathon. It's flatter than the Great North Run which I did in 79:36 in September. If my theory is correct, I will probably have lost two minutes over the HM distance. But with the route being flatter, I think I have a chance of sub 81.

We'll see - sub-81 I'll be delighted - over-81 I'll be miserable all of the way home :)

...update (15/1)...

Sneaked under 81 - didn't quite manage negative splits - but hung on over the second half. Pretty happy with that. 37:47 first 10km. 38:21 second 10km.

1:20:34


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