{"id":161260,"date":"2020-05-21T09:35:29","date_gmt":"2020-05-21T13:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=161260"},"modified":"2020-05-21T16:58:13","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T20:58:13","slug":"running-age-contagion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2020\/05\/running-age-contagion\/","title":{"rendered":"Running in the Age of Contagion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even though the 2020 running of the UConn Health Half Marathon, 10K and 5K<\/a> is taking a nontraditional route, runners will cover distances that, for many of them, require some training.<\/p>\n

Instead of a single time and place to for the participants to run together, they\u2019ll run on their own at a time and place of their choosing between June 4 and June 7, and record their times on an online platform the Hartford Marathon Foundation is providing.<\/p>\n

But no matter when and where, 13.1 miles is still 13.1 miles. And preparing for that run during a pandemic comes with some new precautions to take.<\/p>\n

Not the least of which is the continuation of the mantra we\u2019ve been hearing for months now: social distancing. While it\u2019s reasonable to run without facial covering to maintain breathing efficiency, it\u2019s only responsible to do so when keeping a safe distance.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. David Banach is UConn Health’s hospital epidemiologist. (Photo by Janine Gelineau)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI tell people, adding a little extra distance than 6 feet from other people would be the way to go, maybe doubling that, 12 feet, giving yourself a little extra gap between people is an added safety measure,\u201d says Dr. David Banach<\/a>, UConn Health\u2019s hospital epidemiologist. \u201cAnd if you\u2019re going to be in an area where you\u2019re going to be close to others, if there\u2019s traffic or you\u2019re running up to an intersection, then having a mask you can flip up if needed is an extra layer of caution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The extra distance is less about the risk of perspiration landing on a passer-by and more about the heavy breathing during exercise that possibly could propel our droplets beyond the 6-foot radius.<\/p>\n

Absent a consensus set of exercise-induced symptoms associated with COVID-19, and with much still not understood about this coronavirus, the practice of listening to your body perhaps has added importance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s helpful to know what level of fatigue you\u2019d expect after a long run, what level of joint pain you\u2019d expect to have,\u201d Banach says. \u201cAnd then if you start to see things that are unusual or beyond expectation, that would raise a red flag that there\u2019s something else going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perspiration on clothing has not been shown to make someone more likely to expose others to infection. But if while on your run you want to stop at a convenience store for a drink, that\u2019s the time to put the mask on again. That recommendation applies globally, whether you\u2019re training for a competitive race, exercising at a more casual pace, or not exercising at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re sick, try to avoid any sort of contact,\u201d Banach says. \u201cFor asymptomatic people, wear that mask or face covering when in the proximity of other people. That\u2019s the best way to prevent the spread of infection.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you have a running partner you don\u2019t live with, the best approach is to find a path where you can distance yourselves from each other, such on opposite sides of streets that don\u2019t get much traffic. Otherwise, running solo is safest.<\/p>\n

Pandemic or not, other best practices for training for a distance running event would apply.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Matthew Hall is an injury prevention specialist at UConn Health’s orthopedics and sports medicine practice in Storrs. (Photo by Peter Morenus)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMake sure that there\u2019s at least some medical clearance, are they cardiovascularly fit enough to do what they intend to do,\u201d says Dr. Matthew Hall<\/a>, an injury prevention expert with UConn Health\u2019s Orthopedics and Sports Medicine practice in Storrs. \u201cDepending on their medical history, they may need further cardiac testing workups to be sure they can safely return to whatever level of exercise they\u2019re planning on doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

When training or getting back into shape, Hall recommends having realistic expectations, going at a safe pace, and giving yourself enough time to slowly build up your fitness.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of patients say, \u2018I\u2019m going to run this half marathon on this date or this 10K on this date,\u2019 and they maybe haven\u2019t even started to jog or run at all,\u201d Hall says. \u201cSo they have a very specific timeline, and if they fall off that timeline a little bit, their tendency is to push things too fast and they end up with overuse problems, tendonitis, stress fracture, or a flare-up of some underlying degenerative problem like arthritis.\u201d<\/p>\n

But you don\u2019t have to be in training for competitive distance running to benefit from regular exercise, and both Hall and Banach encourage their patients to break a sweat.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting outside, exercising \u2013 whether it\u2019s inside or whether it\u2019s outside \u2013 I think is even more important, obviously for physical health and cardiovascular health, but really from a mental health standpoint, because I think all of us struggle with how our daily lives have been disrupted,\u201d Hall says.<\/p>\n

Banach, himself a runner who plans to run the 10K in the UConn Health event, says outdoor exercising has always been his preference. That\u2019s the case even more so this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaintaining your nutrition and overall health is important in preventing illness, and physical activity\u2019s going to be a part of that,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s more difficult to do that indoors, being constricted by space limitations. But now that you can get outside, I tell my patients that outdoor activity is the way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more about the UConn Health Half Marathon, 10K and 5K, June 4-7.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Learn more about UConn Health Orthopedics and Sports Medicine.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether training for the UConn Health Half Marathon, 10K and 5K or simply resuming an exercise routine, injury prevention now includes infection prevention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":161254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2193,1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-161260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hartford-county","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 04:40:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/161254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161260"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=161260"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=161260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}