Runners' help...recovering from pneumonia...

Pangea250

A little background...I'm a 47 year old gal, 72 lbs into my weight loss, I have 32 lbs to go to reach my goal. I currently weigh 162 lbs. I was sidelined for a year recently following a car accident & spinal surgery to fuse 2 levels in my neck with screws & plates. I was cleared for exercise a few months ago and began the C25K program, which I successfully completely prior to the car accident. I was up to running for 28-ish minutes recently.

And then BOOM, I got hit with pneumonia. I've never been so sick in my life. It started about 11 or 12 days ago. Obviously, I have been unable to exercise. I've been under my doctor's care, on some heavy duty antibiotics. But my doctor does caution me that this can take 3 to 4 weeks to clear up. I am still coughing a LOT, which I am assured is normal. But there is a lot of gunk in there, and I'm unable to take a deep breath in still without having a coughing fit. I'm short of breath (was prescribed an albuterol inhaler for that too). I was back at work yesterday after being out for a week, but I am exhausted by the end of the day.

How might I expect to get back into running as my recovery from pneumonia progresses? Should I wait another week before trying anything? Should I bump myself back down to week 1 of C25K and push through it yet a 3rd time?

My doctor did recommend walking when I saw him on Friday, but the weather in my area (Jersey shore) has been beyond horrendous here - very hot, very humid, bad thunderstorms. And I'm also just so exhausted at the end of the day that I couldn't imagine even walking.

I need a plan and a goal. I need help formulating this. Thanks!

BrianSharpe

You should make sure you're fully recovered before getting back to any vigorous exercise.

Start back slowly, your Dr's advice to start walking again sounds right. When you feel like your lungs are back to normal function (no coughing or shortness of breath) I'd say try dialing the C25K back a couple of weeks to gently reintroduce running. It's more important that you're feeling good and running injury free than worrying about being on this week or that. With any luck you've got years and years of running ahead of you, take the time to enjoy the journey.

a1wonder

Wow this is perfectly timed. Hi there I'm another person who is also currently suffering from pneumonia and also runs but I've got a little bit of a twist.
A bit of a backstory, when I was younger I had two batches of server whooping coughing which caused a lot of damage to my lungs since then I'm prone to upper reps. infections and pneumonia. Like right now, I usually get pneumonia or walking pneumonia once or twice a year, every year; it’s very annoying and frustrating.
Over the numerous episodes over the years my doctor and I have come up with a plan so that I don't fall as far back in my exercises. If you feel the pressure just walk, and walk often. If you’re feeling ok that day jog lightly and or cycle. If you’re coughing and feel pressure no walking just lift and keep your heart rate down. For the first week definitely DO NOT run. But you can slowly add jogging and eventually running back into your work out over the next two to four weeks.
The key thing to do is not to bother your lungs, let them heal and get all that junk out. There are a lot of things you can do that will keep you active and continue to build while you’re recovering.
Also gradually work back into an AC environment, nothing is worse than going from intense summer heat to cold AC room.
And lastly finish all your meds, all of them exactly when or as close to when they are supposed to be taken.
Feel free to add me if you like or if you have any questions shoot them over. I hope you feel better real soon.

RunnerElizabeth

Are you done with your antibiotics? Definitely don't start back until you are. Then the gradual approach is best.

I had pneumonia back in March. I am a little younger than you, I'm 35 and I have asthma. So I have albuterol but I take a daily preventative steroid inhaler as well which helped my recovery a bit.

Anyway I finished my antibiotics and waited a week after that before trying any excercise. I also have a peak flow meter so I was able to measure my breathing, if my numbers weren't at least in the 300s, I wouldn't attempt any excercise on that day. When I first went out, I went for a 15 minute walk. The next time a couple of days later I tried running at a slow pace (5mph) on the treadmill and was able to do about 1.5 miles before the coughing came back. I was taking my albuterol 20 minutes before starting, helps some.


I was very gradual about my approach for the first 2 weeks, but then I started to feel normal. Granted my normal feeling was backed up by numbers, my peak flow went back to 400+ so I took this as a sign to go back to my normal run training. Six weeks out from when I finished my antibiotics I ran the half marathon I had been training for and beat my previous half marathon pr (with my doc's permission of course, she had me in for a follow up the week before the race to give me her opinion).

So I'm not saying you should run a half marathon in 6 weeks. You should finish your antibiotics, wait about a week to continue to allow everything to clear up, my doc advised me to wait the week and had me in for a visit when I was done with the meds. Then try walking first and build up from there. Listen to your body, go back to c25k and if it's too easy increase your intensity a little at a time. For me the first 2 weeks were difficult then all the sudden I felt a lot better. So hang in there! It is a temporary setback!

Pangea250

I *really* appreciate the info and advice. From this, I will be able to formulate a plan. (I'm big on plans!)

I got sick on 6/21/13. Started 1st antibiotics from an urgent care on 6/23/13, but my dr said those were not going to help pneumonia. He started me on the appropriate antibiotics on 6/25/13, and I finished those yesterday.

So my plan will be to wait another week, then go for a walk for 45 minutes to an hour & see how I feel. If I'm winded or coughing, I'll stick to walking. If I feel good, then I think I'll start back at week 1 day 1 of C25K. If that goes well, I can skip through days of C25K as I can. But that's my plan!

Thank you to everyone for the advice!