I was very fortunate that my symptoms were mild. I didn’t suffer from any headaches or dizziness however, I did find that I was quite fatigued and my legs were achy. I would describe the ache as a mixture between growing pains and like I’d done 1000 squats the day before. It was never lost on me for a second about how lucky I was to be healthy before catching covid, have only mild symptoms, a safe place to isolate and the opportunity to rest while I recovered.

Once my isolation period was complete and my symptoms had passed, I had a yearning to run, but I knew I couldn’t just jump straight back in, I needed to gently ease my way back into exercise. To do this I did KIC yoga and Pilates flows and went on lots of walks once my isolation ended. I followed the advice of KIC’s incredible Women’s Health Physio, Ash who shared her tips on how to safety return to exercise after Covid. You can find her tips here.

It wasn’t until the end of January that I finally felt ready to start upping the ante which aligned perfectly with KIC’s 6 Week Challenge. The challenge was the motivation I needed because in all honesty, my motivation to get back into exercise was low. I had been out of my usual routine for a while and I was finding it so tricky to get myself into the mood to move. But despite my slump, I channeled my WHY, reminded myself of how lucky I am to be able to move my body and slowly but surely I started KIC’ing it, completing a mixture between the challenge workouts and runs from the 5-10km KICRUN program.

It wasn’t until this week that I ran my first 10km since getting Covid. It wasn’t easy, I had to battle with myself and my self doubt to push through it, but boy did I feel incredible afterwards. I am so proud of myself for doing it and for allowing myself the time I needed to recover and build back up my fitness before I attempted it.

Going through the process of returning to exercise post-covid made me realise just how hard it can be to get back into exercise – the mental struggle is so damn hard. It’s always easier to stop, to give up and to tell yourself that you can’t, but in proving to yourself that you can do hard things, you prove to yourself that you are strong, capable and can do anything you put your mind to.

No matter how fast or slow you progress, the most important thing is that you are actively doing what you set out to do. If you need a reminder that you can do it, and that you can believe in yourself, this is for you – you’ve got this.