My experience with the Pfizer booster was also a very slightly sore arm for a day but absolutely no impact on training.
I haven’t gone too far back on the thread but my experience of my booster wasn’t great.
Dose 1 & 2 were the Astra Zeneca, my booster on Thursday afternoon was the Moderna. I got the usual sore arm that was no different to dose 1 & 2 but felt really awful on the Friday. Nearly as bad as full blown man-flu but not quite that bad ;). Full of the aches and pains and generally lethargic. That second night (Friday night) was really strange too. I was feeling slightly better from the deadly ‘man-flu’ symptoms but literally woke up in the middle of the night covered in sweat from head to toe. Like never before, it is no exaggeration to say it was literally as though I’d stepped out of the shower. Having said this, that was a sudden and remarkable end to the symptoms. Thankfully everything now seems ok but I’ve not took on anything of high intensity yet. Tomorrow, maybe .
From what I’ve heard from most other cyclists, runners, etc. the general plan is to workout hard the week before the vaccination, get the shot at the start of a recovery week where you’re doing easy workouts (week zero), move on to upper end of endurance or lower end of tempo the following week (week one), and get back to normal intensity the following week (week two). The general thought, as some have posted, you don’t want to overwhelm the immune system that’s going through an inflammatory response.
I had my booster at lunchtime and failed my workout tonight but I suspect that there was other factors behind that. I was hit by a driver last Tuesday so I’ve done no Training since last Sunday. I’ve been left with a stiff and sore leg but thankfully every day it has got better and its limited to the impact spot now. I also had a 5-6 hours drive yesterday for my first working day this year
I’ve had 3x pfizer shots. There are a few things worth noting.
Women tend to have a more serious reaction than men. I had almost no reaction, other than a sore arm and slight headache.
I did a hard workout (threshold or VO2) after each shot. I felt AMAZING after each workout, and I have a (completely unscientific) theory that the massive circulation of blood during a workout somehow deadens the side-effects. Whether it’s true, or placebo, I always feel better after a workout, so I’ll keep doing it.
After my 3rd shot, I had a slightly more significant reaction - very minor soreness under my armpits. Other than that, absolutely nothing of note. No ongoing fatigue, and just minor soreness around the injection site.
Yikes…glad you are OK.
Was very worried about the side-effects of the shots, based on what people wrote down here. Had Pfizer 2x but other than a sore arm, I was totally fine - lucky/happy me.
Got Pfizer booster on Tuesday after Johnson I had in May 2021. No side effects until today morning when I noticed swollen and painful lymph node just above collarbone. Visiting doctor tomorrow, first time in 13 years.
I had my booster on Monday my session that night wasn’t the best but I think it had more to do with getting hit by a car last week and it was pushing the anaerobic zone, my two works outs since (a SS and a Under Over session) have went OK as my leg eased off. In summary of my 3 shots:
- AZ - Morning after blackout and lingering mild hangover for a few days
- AZ - No reaction
- Pfizer - Maybe a slight rise in HR (but a car accident makes it hard to say for certain)
So my 2 cents into the discussion - based on the studies I saw that the best effect is achieved by a combination, after 2 Pfizer shots I went for a Moderna boost on Thursday 13 and here is what I am going through…
I was expecting 2-3 days of symptoms, after my 2nd vaccine I was in a bad spot, like a quite violent flu. So as I didn´t want to fall off my training completely, I did a gym session few hours before the booster…
Like previous shots, nothing felt immediately, but the first night was a hard one, I was freezing like crazy.
Friday I was completely dead, unable to get out of the bed, severe headache, dizziness, aches in the whole body, sore muscles and a bit of fewer - I expected that.
To my surprise my HRV values were pretty normal after that bad night, resting HR pretty normal too
Saturday, “slept” till midday, night was awful and HRV went completely down, HR jumped from usual values around 45 to 60, which was expected. During the day I started to feel a bit better, shoulder started to be really painful, but I started to be better overall
Sunday - HRV and HR values went almost back to normal and I felt almost like “normal”, with a big exception - huge red spot on the shoulder, still very hot and pronounced after 3 days Plus new bonus - really inflated lymph node in the armpit where I got the shot - in the size of a chestnut…and of course really painful
Monday - today, my arm is still red and lymph node is still as big, maybe a bit less sensitive (or I got used to it? That´s also possible …) I still feel a bit of a headache and the same feeling when your temperature is getting a bit higher when a flu is just about to hit you… Honestly after 4 days I am really frustrated about that and I really regret I went for a combination – everyone around me with 3 Pfizers had one bad day and nothing more, but I was hit really hard.
My biggest question mark is wheter I could start to move again, I hate to see my CTL nose dive like that … but I am affraid to only stimulate inflammation response of my body in this fight situation under my skin, even by a light aerobic work. That really sucks
Man, sorry for you. I just had Covid and my symptoms weren’t as bad as yours from the Booster. Wow…just wow!
I hope you are are on the road to recovery. I went for a different type of booster as I had seen similar reports (although AZ, AZ, Pfizer). I had no reaction other than a little sensitivity in the arm. My power was down that night after a noon injection but that was probably because it was my first workout in a bit after getting hit with a car the week before and it had anaerobic stuff which I hadn’t done in ages. The SS session the night after was back to normal (and the u/o session a few days later).
Exactly the same experience here (I too had the Moderna booster after 2 x Pfizer)
I had my shot last Wednesday and although I’m not feeling 100%, I’ve just started training again.
The lingering headache is the worse…
Got my third jab on Tuesday (Moderna, after having had Pfizer for the first two). Crashed my bike on the way home on a patch of ice… Which means my right arm is sore from the jab, but the whole left side of my body is sore from the crash. And now I don’t know if my muscle aches in my back and neck are from the crash or the jab. Frustrating. The bike was ok though
- Sore arm.
- Felt very lethargic and struggled with training for 2 weeks.
- Impossible to know.
RHR Tuesday: 40 bpm, RHR yesterday: 54 bpm, RHR today: 40 bpm.
So, I think I might try my VO2 session later (Gawler -2). We’ll see how it goes, but I’ve been struggling with my asthma a lot lately so the sessions have been harder than normal anyway. So if it feels bad, a week of tempo/endurance might not be a bad thing, to help recover from everything.
Yeah, same here covid was just feeling a bit tired for a few days and loss of smell and taste for a week or two
Thought I would share how I’m feeling 6 days post jab: pretty good.
Tuesday: 3rd vaccine and bike crash
Thursday: Did a VO2 session that felt good until my asthma caught up with me in the second set, decided to skip the third set.
Saturday: 1 hr sweetspot session (Geiger) felt good, needed a 1 min backpedal in the final 12 min interval as I lost control of my breathing and started to get asthmatic. Otherwise, legs and body were fine. (Meant to do it Friday, but: life.)
Sunday: 1 hr endurance felt very easy. Had a threshold workout on the schedule, but because I had to move my other workouts to later in the week and my asthma was a little problematic, I opted to skip it.
Seems my asthma is a bigger problem than the covid jab or a bike crash, or the two combined!
Holy hell. Got my booster yesterday and it’s absolutely wrecking me. Shivers and chills, throbbing headache, feel like every limb weighs a thousand pounds and I’m too weak to move them. First and second shots I had no issues whatsoever. My guess is that I got Covid sometime since then but didn’t know, because it sounds like having Covid and getting the shot correlates with a bad reaction. Definitely won’t be riding today. Hopefully doesn’t derail my whole week.
There is no proof that a prior covid infection affects or doesn’t affect a vaccine dose. My son had covid in between his two doses and had zero side effects. I had no covid and both second and third doses affected me. I don’t think we should be saying prior covid causes bad reactions to vaccinations.
Same.
Take it easy if you don’t feel good in the next few days, it’s better to “lose” a week to fully recover than to start normal training too soon.
I’m not saying it for sure does, just anecdotal that every coworker I talk to that had bad reactions or symptoms had Covid. Maybe they changed the formula a bit I don’t know. Pfizer for all three, I was on the bike the same day after the first 2. This one is destroying me. No idea if I’ve even had Covid, so I could have just had a bad reaction for other reasons. Needless to say I’m still in bed for the day. Get to catch up on races at least.
For sure. Maybe should have timed it with a rest week but was hoping to continue training like I did for the first 2.