Ever Had Mono??

I actually went down the Mono path twice, once my Frosh year of college and once my fifth year. In both instances, I was able to resume training withing 5 weeks of the peak of the illness, but by "resume training" I mean jogging very, very easy with nothing faster than 7:00 pace. Although you think you are falling behind by not running (and you are), you risk prolonging the illness, and your time on the shelf, by not FORCING yourself to rest a bit more than you might even think necessary. Good luck.

Dude, mono SUCKS.

I had a pretty bad case last summer, along with pnuemonia (sp?). It took me forever to get back to normal.

You cant take any specific time off...you have to follow your body. Basically, if you feel like you're getting better and want to start running, DONT.

Your immune system will already be weakened, and if you start running, its just going to open you up to more infections. If I had to give a guideline, take at least 2 weeks off after you start to feel "ok" and even then, do no more than 2-3 miles every other day, REAL SLOW, to see how you feel.

I only took a 5-7 days after I started to feel "better," and I ended up right back on the couch. Play it safe and take it easy.

After a week of 2-3 mile slow runs every other day, I went to running that every day, and then I moved on to 3-4 mile runs the following week, then 4-5 mile runs, etc. The slower (the timetable) the better.

You might have a more severe/less severe case than I did, so the main thing is to listen your body (not your boredom), and play it safe.

Best of luck.

elguapo is right on. even after you start feeling better, your legs will be complete junk. don't rush into anything, as a relapse is always a possibility. i was out nearly all of last summer with it. after a month or two of easy running, though, you should start feeling pretty good again.

KM - Interesting that you had it twice - this is rare. Usually it is like Chicken Pox and you don't get it more than once although for both some people do get it more than once.

I had Mono in college which was discovered after a cross country race which I ran awfully slow for me (27:54) and I complained of severe pain in my side. Turns out that I was close to having my spleen burst as a result of the mono. Once the illness really set in though, it was a bitch. Sore throat like nothing else, extreme tiredness. I left school for two weeks, came back and did not run for another 3 weeks and missed the rest of the cross country season that year (freshman year). Indoor track started off slowly as a result of lost training and my indoor 2-mile that year was significantly slower than my 3200 time in high school as a senior. Wasn't until outdoor track that I was beyond my high school times again.

Before the rush to judgement, I'll admit this isn't a highly used Western practice...Have you looked into fasting/juicing at all? Apart from 'civilized' humans, it is used by nearly every living thing in times of illness/injury. Anyways, there is no need for me to state my case further, but two things should be noted. One, you obviously will have a lot of time on your hands because of the resting. Two, not many people's intellects degenerate by reading something that is totally new to them. Lots of resources about fasting on rawfood.com if it piques your interest