Life moves pretty fast on the Omicron wave. (If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss the one part of the press conference you actually needed to hear.)

Nearly two years into the pandemic, we’ve circled back around to unprecedented times and Keeping Up With The Covid cases, lights, and phases takes a village.

So each weekday, we’ll bring you Omichronicles, tales from the lighter side of the O-surge and advice to keep you on track.

Elite CrossFitter’s 6 minutes of ‘absolutely sending it’ one day after isolation ends

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Elite CrossFitter Madelline Shelling competing in the CrossFit Open, just before testing positive for Covid.

Most people would take things pretty easy straight after a bout of Covid-19. But 28-year-old CrossFit athlete Madelline Shelling had to complete a gruelling competition workout within one day of coming out of isolation, or lose her entire season.

Shelling’s dream is to represent New Zealand at the CrossFit Games. It’s the sport’s version of the world champs, and the qualifiers start with a global online competition called The Open.

There are three workouts and athletes have to complete all of them. Shelling struggled through the second a little over a week ago, then two days later tested positive for Covid-19.

READ MORE:
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* Omichronicles March 11: ‘Mild’ Omicron floored me
* Omichronicles March 10: How Leigh Hart and his beagle are beating iso-boredom

She finished her isolation on Monday and the deadline for the final workout was 2pm on Tuesday.

“We had to do this Open … otherwise that’s our whole season done.”

So, after a week of being too sick to train, she spent six minutes “absolutely sending it”, before “going into shock” immediately after her session.

“I was shaking, I didn’t know if I was going to throw up or pass out,” she said.

Shelling, who is fully vaccinated, was surprised and frustrated at how hard Covid hit her. As an elite-level athlete, she eats well, recovers well and trains hard.

“It wiped me out for about a week,” she said, adding she had headaches and flu-like symptoms and no energy.

“I tried to train on day three and [my body was] like, ‘Nope’. I just had to do nothing.”

Even with a week of Covid isolation in the middle of the competition, Shelling placed in the top 20 of more than 8000 Oceania competitors, which means she has 10 days before the quarter finals start.

She is desperate to get back to training, but plans to play this one carefully.

“I’ll be easing back in really slowly. You get pretty quick feedback about whether [working out] was good for the body. If it was too much, then back to the couch.”

Shelling has won the New Zealand Nationals once and come second twice, and her team won the Oceania 2021 semi-finals, earning them a spot at the Crossfit Games last year.

Do you have a real life Omicron story to share? A question you’d like to pitch? Seen a lighter take that brought you joy? Email us at [email protected].

Something for future generations to look forward to…

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Tales from the lighter side of the O-surge and advice to keep you on track.

Keeping the virus out in a house of 26

When you have 25 flatmates, there is a pretty good chance Covid will find its way into your home.

Although Terry Barrie, a long-term tenant of a West Auckland boarding house, says it hasn’t happened yet.

“We [figure] even Covid has standards,” he laughs, adding that the tenants aren’t being too cautious.

“I don’t go out as much, like the rest of New Zealand, but if it’s going to get in [we won’t be able to stop it].”

“We’re just living normally.”

The house has an upstairs and downstairs shared bathroom and one communal kitchen. Three of the tenants are being tested regularly for work and Barrie says if one tests positive, then the house will go into isolation as close contacts.

They have a plan, he says, and it basically involved staying in bedrooms, keeping away from the kitchen if possible and only having one person in bathrooms at a time.

Although Barrie suggests that if Covid arrives at the house, there is not much they will be able to do to stop it spreading.

“We’re not really worrying. We know if it gets here it’s going to spread,” he says.

“The guys are still passing [smokes] around.”

Tell us honestly

Happy birthday Quentin Quarantino!

This viral meme page popped up when Covid first arrived in the world back in 2020, and got a lot of us through the first half of that year.

The creator expected the joke page to last a couple of weeks, but Covid wasn’t backing down that easily.

Does my house need to be deep cleaned after we all have Covid?

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You don’t need to go overboard with a deep house clean after having Covid.

It’s always a good idea to clean your house, but don’t go overboard with it just because you’ve had Covid.

Covid is mostly transmitted through direct or close contact with an infected person when they cough or sneeze. Infection is not likely if someone touches a contaminated object or surface, and re-infection is essentially impossible.

If you’ve had Covid and have then fully recovered, it’s likely that any fragments of the virus that you have spread around the house are lying dead and incapable of infecting any visitors you have around once your isolation period is over.

The Ministry of Health recommends opening windows and doing some “appropriate” cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces.

“In general, routine cleaning performed effectively with detergent (not disinfectant) at least once per day substantially reduces viral levels on surfaces,” the ministry says.

“Surfaces that are touched more frequently throughout the day such as door handles, light switches, computers and tabletops should be cleaned more frequently.”

Remember that one of the worst things you can do after catching Covid is to over-exert yourself – research shows it will only increase your chances of developing long Covid.

Empty snack aisles getting you down? Here’s how to make your own

Robert Charles/Stuff

Lacking a good snack supply at home? We’ve found you the best ones to make at home.

Whether you’re after a healthy post-dinner snack or a more indulgent late-night dessert, we’ve got you covered.

We’ve collated some great home-made snack ideas, from hot chips to full grazing platters.

You’ll be snacking through Omicron like a pro in no time.

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Originally Appeared Here