recovery from norovirus

Hi,

Am running a half marathon 3 weeks yesterday. Was doing fine in my training and had done a good 11 mile run last weekend. Unfortunately last Tuesday I had to leave work at lunchtime after being struck down with an extremely quick attack of the dreaded norovirus. Am sure I don't need to describe the finer details of the next few days, but I ate pretty much nothing at all until Friday and only ate a normal day's food on Saturday. Lost a lot of weight that I couldn't aford to lose.

Against all advice, I thought I would be OK if I tried a really short run yesterday morning, so did a very slow and careful 2.5k just to see how it felt. It actually felt OK but when I got home I felt very sick and weak again, wasn't actually sick but it affected me for the whole day. Managed to eat an evening meal though.

Am now really torn between just wanting to let my body recover and get some weight and strength back but also being aware that the race is 2 weeks on Sunday and feeling the need to do at least some running.

Anyone have any advice or experience of this?

Cheers,

Gary

If a short run sets you back so much then you know the answer - rest.  Training in your present state will do more harm than good and will have a worse effect on your race attempt than missing a few runs during what should be your taper.

Gary it's a very nasty virus - short and sharp but it can leave you very weak, particularly as you can't eat.  I had it last Christmas and didn't run for a week.

With regard to your training - if it helps, I was injured with 3 weeks to go before a HM in October.  I didn't run at all for 2 weeks then only did one 5k before the race. I still managed to hit my target time, although it possibly took a little more effort.  The main point was that I was fully recovered.

What I'm saying, in a very long winded way, is that in a few days you'll probably be feeling significantly better.  Rest, drink lots of fluids, eat normally and when you do start running you'll probably be fine.  You'll have lost very little fitness, whatever the voices in your head tell you to the contrary!

Thanks for the replies. Tried to run this morning but felt completely awful so gave up, going to rest completely for a couple of days now and hope that helps.

So yesterday you ran and you felt awful after. 

You tried it again today ?  You don't learn do you ?

You'll do more harm than good by trying to come back too soon - you'll only prolong the recovery period. Definitely rest up completely. 

heh! I felt awful WHILE I was running today and gave up pretty quickly so yesterday obviously had a detrimental effect. I've learnt my lesson...for a couple of days at least