How Quarantine is Helping Me Become a Better Runner
By: Maria Maddox
Tags: Running, Fitness, Inspiration, Covid 19, Health

Photo by Morgan Sarkissian on Unsplash

In mid-March, I got a notification that the New York City Half Marathon was cancelled. That was the race I was looking forward to running for many reasons. It was hard for me to believe that my efforts and months of rigorous training, despite frigid temperatures, lack of time, and health issues that I overcame to be a part of it were not going to come to fruition. Although they did — I ran my own 13.1 miles on a local trail, following every precaution measure as I was coming across fellow runners and cyclists that day. While I didn’t set my PR as originally planned, conquering that solo race gave me an opportunity to look at running during quarantine from a different perspective.

Running has become a big part of my lifestyle over the past few years. Training has been giving me energy to not only run races but also dream big and accomplish other things in my personal and professional lives. As the growing concern over COVID-19 and stay at home orders became stricter, frequent outdoor runs or taking part in races were no longer possible. However, I decided to take advantage of this downtime to build for the future and continue training, mostly for myself and my personal health.

Cross Training Helps Build Strength and Improve Results: When you enjoy running, it’s easy to overlook cross-training and spend less time on it. However, it’s absolutely necessary to prepare your body for long-distance races and build the muscle strength. When I first got into running, I was only focusing on logging in the miles, and, as a result, I got a stress fracture that put me in a lot of pain and on the sidelines for a few months. Being quarantined allowed me to focus more on cross-training, whether it’s virtual cycling with my beloved Peloton instructors or using resistance bands and my own body weight for a quick 20–30-minute workout. When I trained for the New York City Marathon last year, my plan put cross-training front and center, sometimes favoring it over actual running. And it paid off! I felt strong and not intimidated by the long course ahead of me. This is why I’ve been using the time during quarantine to continue building my muscle strength, improving my future performance when we all can run races again.

Running Smart and Safe: While the authorities urged everyone to stay at home and group events have been put on hold, solo runs have not been cancelled. Actually, many experts agree that a daily dose of exercise and fresh air is beneficial to our physical and emotional well being. In the current circumstances, this daily dose needs to come in with safety measures. I’m used to running solo and I’m also lucky to live in a suburban area with plenty of open areas in the vicinity that don’t get too crowded. Regardless, on every outdoor run, I’m trying to be as cautious as possible, staying all the way to the side of the trail to allow more distance between myself and other people running or cycling in the opposite direction. It’s hard for me to breathe in a mask, so if I pass by a person who is not wearing a mask, I cover my mouth and nose with a sleeve until I create a safe distance between us. I’m also trying to go for outdoor runs during less popular times of the day — first thing in the morning or right before sunset, so that I can encounter fewer people and my health (as well as the health of others) doesn’t get compromised.

Setting Goals: Quarantine has brought a lot of uncertainty into many areas of our lives. It’s tempting not to follow our usual schedules, to postpone tasks until tomorrow or even next week, not to dress up or do our regular grooming routines. We don’t know when we’ll be allowed to run again in groups or take part in races, but we can use this time to prepare, evaluate our strengths and weaknesses and set goals for the future. Our lifestyles may have changed and it may feel unsettling, but it may have also helped us find the extra time we’ve been missing in the past. I’ve been always struggling with creating time for training — even for my marathon training, I could only carve out four days a week. I’m on a streak of 50+ days since the beginning of the quarantine. I may still not be ready to run a marathon if it came tomorrow, but I am confident that this level of training and consistency will set me up for success when we, hopefully, hit the streets of New York running in November.