If you've caught coronavirus in the past two years you may have noticed varying levels of impact on your running. In particular, many runners have seen their performance dip during recovery from Covid-19 due to severe fatigue and respiratory and/or cardiac issues.
To investigate exactly how Covid-19 and pandemic-related factors have affected runners, Nottingham University has begun a global research project into the impact of Covid-19 on running, training and recovery.
Supported by Garmin, the 'Running Through' study will leverage wearable device data to examine how factors such as illness, lockdown restrictions and vaccination programmes have affected runners and their running habits.
It will also use runners’ data to look at the effects of long Covid symptoms on running performance, as well as how a lack of races has affected runners’ injury rates.
Researchers will then combine and interpret participants’ data and survey responses, with the result being data-based recommendations regarding training load, training intensity and post-Covid recovery.
‘Health and fitness data from Garmin wearables will help us understand the impact Covid-19 is having on runners, their training and their overall injuries,’ said Stefan Kluzek, University of Nottingham’s clinical associate professor of sports medicine.
‘The more data we have, the more specific we can get with training and recovery recommendations – letting runners know how they can safely get back to training in the future.’
If you’re a Garmin user and would like to sign up to participate in the study by providing your Garmin Connect running and walking data, visit RunningThrough.org to sign up.
