Running And Corona

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, causing running races – and many other large events – to be postponed or cancelled, you might bewonderingwhat you should be doing for your own health, and how this could affect your training. By Jordan Smith

- Jordan Smith

To help answer our runners’ most frequently asked questions, we tapped Dr David Nieman, a health professor at Appalachian State University and director of the Human Performance Lab at the North Carolina Research Campus, Brian Labus, PhD, assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and Matt Ferrari, Ph.D., associate professor of biology in the Eberly College of Science and a researcher with the Centre for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Penn State University.

Is it safe to run outside once the lockdown is lifted?

Yes – as long as you’re alone, and if you follow the regulations in place then. When people congregate together and someone sneezes or coughs, Nieman explains, droplets get onto objects that people touch, and then people touch their faces.

The best plan for running once lockdown is lifted is to go out solo, and enjoy the outdoors in a non-crowded area. Try timing your trail run for when you know the trails will be less crowded.

Additionally, people might be afraid to run in colder weather for fear of illness, but there’s no truth to that; there is no data that shows you will get sick from any respiratory pathogen when running in cold weather, Nieman says.

In fact, getting in 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to brisk activity can help your immune system keep viruses at bay.

But be sure you know what’s going on in your area and whether there are any restrictions or mandatory self-quarantines. And if you’re sick, or at risk of spreading the virus, you shouldn’t go out – the bigger concern is that you may spread it to those who are at high risk, such as the elderly or immunocompromised.