I have an interesting theory about that.
It might be the mitochondria in your muscles.
As my brain ruminates to my days as an undergrad as a biology major, I shudder to think of the number of times I had to regurgitate the Kreb’s cycle on exams. This is the metabolic process your mitochondria use to make energy, and it’s pretty important.
But what does it mean when your mitochondria aren’t working effectively? Well, it means that you can’t make energy as efficiently.
The latest research shows a correlation between COVID infections and mitochondrial damage. It’s not the first time research has linked continuing health problems to damage to these most precious organelles. Some studies show that traumatic brain injuries can cause damage at the mitochondrial level as well.
So what does mitochondrial damage mean for running?
The talk among my friends who run is fairly unanimous: running paces can slow by as much as a minute or more post-COVID. This is my reality following two bouts of the disease myself, despite being vaccinated and boosted. For some of my friends, the speed returned, while often, it didn’t. It happens frequently enough to take notice.
You may think this phenomenon has more to do with lingering damage to your lungs, as COVID is largely known as a respiratory disease, but that’s not the only havoc it can wreak in the human body.
In my practice as a physical therapist and treating patients recovering from COVID, I’ve noted a variety of impairments connected with the disease besides difficulty breathing. Patients with acute infection are often tachycardic, a fancy word for having a fast heart rate. And people who are already frail can be pushed into organ failure. COVID also affects your vascular system, causing blood clots that can lead to an amputation, heart attack, or stroke. Some people also suffer from benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, or BBPV, post-COVID. (Yes, I won this lottery, too.)
COVID is a multi-system disease, not just a respiratory illness. So if that’s not the reason why your runs are slower after recovering from the acute phase of the disease, what’s going on?
You aren’t lazy. It’s not just in your head. You don’t need to blame yourself. Blame your COVID-damaged mitochondria in your muscles.
Mitochondria are the powerhouses of your cells, creating the energy we need to do things like run marathons. With these cell components not firing on all cylinders, the result is that we fatigue more quickly. This is the reason for the phenomenon of long-COVID fatigue and brain fog.
A study in Amsterdam published in the journal on January 4, 2024, in Nature Communications seems to prove this theory.
This was determined with muscle biopsies taken before and after exercise in post-COVID and control groups. This work showed the decreased activity in the mitochondria.
Please note that the study sample size was small, so these findings will require further investigation to prove this correlation, but the results are intriguing, nonetheless.
Finally, we may have some real scientific evidence as to why some runners struggle post-COVID despite seeming to make a full recovery from the respiratory symptoms.
Even if you don’t meet the criteria of disabling long-COVID, you can still suffer long-term consequences from the disease. My evidence is circumstantial, but I think this warrants future study. It’s frustrating as a runner to experience this phenomenon, but maybe we only notice because we ask so much from our bodies.
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If you exercise regularly and have recovered from COVID, have you experienced greater difficulty in exercise performance and ease of recovery from your workouts? I’d love to hear about your experiences.
As always, I hope you all are safe and healthy.
Anne the Vegan 