By no means one to waste a spare second, Matt Fitzgerald clambered into the second one row of his Mazda CX-90 on a up to date weekday morning and cracked open his MacBook in order that he may paintings on every other e book.

Mr. Fitzgerald, 52, is many stuff — author, public speaker, trainer — however most commonly he’s prolific. He has written or co-written 34 books, maximum of them about operating, staying power sports activities and diet. He writes early. He writes frequently. He writes so much.

“Once in a while I do really feel like I’m doing B-plus paintings on a dozen issues as opposed to A-plus paintings on 3 or 4,” he mentioned. “However I’m who I’m. There’s all the time a few issues the place I attempt to give the best possible of myself at any given time, and I assume that’s sufficient.”

Mr. Fitzgerald has such a narrow, athletic construct that hints at every other a part of his identification: distance runner. He has been prolific in that space, too, completing 50 marathons — his quickest in 2 hours 39 mins 30 seconds. And, as soon as upon a time, he would had been jogging at the quiet, snow-dusted street in Flagstaff, Ariz., the place he had parked his sport-utility car.

As a substitute, Mr. Fitzgerald was once looking forward to John Gietzel, a 48-year-old trade marketing consultant from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to complete loosening up in order that he may shut his computer and trainer him thru a chain of hill sprints. As for himself, Mr. Fitzgerald has slightly exercised in 3 years.

“I almost definitely wouldn’t be doing this if I hadn’t gotten ill,” Mr. Fitzgerald mentioned. “However I’ve discovered it unusually rewarding.”

Mr. Fitzgerald’s bout with lengthy Covid has, in vital techniques, compelled him to reshape who he’s and what he does. Within the procedure, he has discovered vicarious pleasure by way of beginning a trade referred to as Dream Run Camp out of his domestic in Flagstaff, the place he lives along with his spouse, Nataki, and a rotating forged of leisure runners who pay between $45 and $115 an afternoon to stick in considered one of 4 visitor bedrooms and be coached by way of him.

“I’m seeking to create a going down,” mentioned Mr. Fitzgerald, who shared his long-term imaginative and prescient: “Rapid ahead a couple of years, and everybody on the planet has heard of Dream Run Camp, and there’s this mystique about it and it’s all excellent vibes.”

He organizes crew runs each morning. He has “trainer’s place of job hours” each afternoon when he emerges from his writing lair to provide PowerPoint displays on subjects like “Disrupting Complacency” and “Onerous A laugh.” Mr. Fitzgerald’s campers, whom he calls “dream runners,” can keep for on the other hand lengthy they prefer, as much as 12 weeks.

Mr. Gietzel, who has a role that permits him to paintings remotely, is staying for roughly a month in order that he can teach for the Mesa Marathon on Feb. 10. Mr. Fitzgerald plans to be on the end line.

“There’s some more or less magic right here,” Mr. Gietzel mentioned. “I’m already feeling it.”

Mr. Fitzgerald had no approach of understanding it on the time, however he now believes that the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February 2020 modified his existence. He had traveled to Atlanta to make some promotional appearances forward of the development after which race within the Publix Atlanta Marathon the day after the pains. “That weekend was once a lot amusing,” he mentioned.

After returning domestic, Mr. Fitzgerald fell sick. His spouse quickly were given ill, too. They each consider that they had reduced in size Covid, even though all of this came about ahead of the provision of at-home assessments and ahead of in style govt shutdowns.

“We each stayed domestic and recovered, as a result of hospitals had been packed,” Nataki Fitzgerald mentioned.

Mr. Fitzgerald felt terrible for roughly a month — “It was once by way of a ways the sickest I’d ever been,” he mentioned — ahead of he slowly resumed his previous way of living. Actually, he was once operating and exercising with out factor in the course of the summer time of 2020.

“After which it began to get to the bottom of in mysterious techniques,” he mentioned. “My neurological signs simply was showstopping. I couldn’t do anything else. I couldn’t write. I couldn’t create a coaching plan. I didn’t need to engage with other people.”

A lot stays unknown about lengthy Covid. Whilst there’s no take a look at that determines whether or not signs like fatigue, mind fog and chronic complications are a results of the virus, lengthy Covid can persist for weeks, months and even years, in keeping with the Facilities for Illness Regulate and Prevention.

Whilst Mr. Fitzgerald mentioned his neurological problems had stepped forward in contemporary months, he nonetheless reviews persistent fatigue and “post-exertional malaise,” which means that anything else involving bodily effort leaves him feeling terrible.

“Precisely the illness you wish to have for those who’re an staying power athlete,” he mentioned.

Early closing 12 months, he felt excellent sufficient to take a look at to ease again into operating. After six weeks of step by step development his workload, he was once in a position to jog for half-hour.

“After which the ground dropped out once more,” mentioned Mr. Fitzgerald, who has now not jogged past quick distances since.

It’s been disorienting for any person whose whole existence revolved sports activities. He recalled considered one of his fondest reviews as a runner, when he spent 13 weeks coaching for the 2017 Chicago Marathon as a self-described “faux skilled runner” with HOKA NAZ Elite, a Flagstaff-based staff of world-class distance runners. Mr. Fitzgerald concluded his time with the staff by way of operating a personal-best time for the marathon at age 46, and by way of writing a e book about it referred to as “Working the Dream.”

As Mr. Fitzgerald struggled with the results of lengthy Covid, he mirrored on that have in Flagstaff. He knew he may not run — a minimum of, now not anytime quickly — however he may envision a approach to keep concerned, by way of the usage of his experience to train others.

After convincing his spouse that they must uproot their lives in California and transfer to Flagstaff, which is a high-altitude mecca for runners, Mr. Fitzgerald welcomed his first campers — sorry, dream runners — closing Might. He has hosted about 30 to this point.

“I’ve recognized him to be any person who delivers on his concepts,” mentioned Ben Rosario, the chief director of HOKA NAZ Elite.

Working camps aren’t precisely a singular thought. Steph Bruce, an elite distance runner, and her husband, Ben, have a weeklong camp for runners in Flagstaff every summer time. There are numerous others around the nation.

The adaptation with Dream Run Camp is that Mr. Fitzgerald’s dream runners are living in his space.

The partitions are decorated with paintings of best runners. There’s a communal restoration space with a hyperbaric chamber and a contraption referred to as a vibroacoustic remedy mattress. His storage is geared up with high-end health apparatus. The yard includes a sauna and a small pool for workout swimming. Mr. Fitzgerald and his spouse are living in an connected guesthouse.

“It’s a tricky factor to advertise,” he mentioned. “‘Come to Dream Camp, and be slightly bored! It’ll be nice on your operating!’

“However there’s some fact to it. I see individuals who come right here who’re more or less clenched from their standard lives, and once they’ve been right here for a couple of days, they’re liquid.”

Whilst Mr. Fitzgerald turns out to have made peace with a few of his boundaries, he can not settle for being a bystander eternally.

Simply after nighttime on New 12 months’s Day, he padded downstairs to his laptop in order that he may join the Javelina Jundred, a 100-kilometer ultramarathon in Fountain Hills, Ariz., in overdue October. Mr. Fitzgerald said how incongruous it sounded.

“I actually can not run one step at this time,” he mentioned.

By the use of clarification, Mr. Fitzgerald cited Charles Barkley’s ultimate season within the N.B.A. After Mr. Barkley ruptured his quadriceps tendon in an early-season sport, he vowed that he could be again.

Positive sufficient, about 4 months after maintaining his damage, Mr. Barkley returned to play in a single ultimate sport, scoring a basket on a putback. He left the courtroom to a status ovation.

In his personal approach, Mr. Fitzgerald mentioned, he needs to do the similar. He even has a operating name for a e book that he needs to write down: “Demise to Run: An Ill Athlete’s Quest for One Closing End Line.”

“I’m now not doing this as a result of I’m getting better,” he mentioned. “I’m doing this as a result of I’m now not getting better.”

Mr. Fitzgerald does now not be expecting to race, in step with se. He handiest needs to complete throughout the match’s 29-hour cutoff, despite the fact that that implies strolling the path.

“I will be able to simply live to tell the tale,” he mentioned.