Passing fitness test this year was indeed not an easy feat. This is especially so when I was infected with the COVID virus on 23 May 2022, It took me 10 days to recover, but the recovery after that was not as smooth as many have claimed to be.
On 2 Jun 2022, I ran a 2.4km run to assess the damage done to my physical condition. Horror to say, I immediately felt breathless and was coughing right at the start of the run. I clocked an embarrassing timing 15:12min.
I knew that am not definitely not in the right condition to participate in a test in the near future. This left me with no choice but to postpone my fitness test from mid Jun to end Jun.
Meanwhile, I trained almost daily in hope to regain my endurance and speed. The effort put in did not commensurate with the gain.
End June came with a blink of an eye and the day to take my fitness test arrived. I remembered vividly that it was a sunny morning and I knew that I was still not ready for the test. I told myself that I should pass the test first and then tried for a better result in the future. But I was rather stubborn and overzealous and went all out. The run was painful as I was literally breathless at the mid distance and had to walk for a lap or two to catch my breath, I ended up clocking 12:32min but I obtained a marginal gold award . I was contended with the results but I was totally exhausted from the test. A day after the test, I remembered that I was so exhausted that I was unable to wake up on time to go for work. This was something rare was I have a habit to wake up very early in the morning.
3 days after my fitness test on 1 July 2022, I fell ill for Fever, Headache and Sore throat one more time. It is as if some virus is still residing in my body and took the opportunity to attack me when overly exerted my body. Thankfully that I was AG- this time round.
Thinking back, trying for the fitness test was totally not worth it as the recovery process from COVID for every individual are different. I guess I probably belong to the minority group who have difficulty getting back to their active life. Even till date, I can still feel that I have difficulty inhaling fully and my left chest seems to be tighter than usual. If I would give myself a score from 1 to 10 on my stamina before and after COVID, it should be a 3 or 4.
Enough excuses and I probably should do my rehab to regain my endurance back soon.
To those active runners out there, do cater sufficient time to regain your health before trying out something strenuous. Take care and stay safe.
