I caught Covid a week before my A race

ugh, so frustrating. sorry to hear that. you’re smart to skip it, not worth the long term risk! And you’ll be super hungry for the next event, and this one in 2023!! Defer the reg and hope you are back to 100% soon.

Good luck!

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I’ve been back training for about 2 weeks after Covid mk.2. This second bout was pretty mild - slight headache, fatigue, moderate sore throat. I tried a z1 ride on day 2 after testing negative and my HR hit 150 during the warm up and it felt like sweetspot, so I stopped 3-4 minutes in and had another 2 days off.

After that, I had a more successful Z1 ride, and have slowly built it back up; my first sweetspot intervals were 2 days ago and actually went fine. My Z2 HR is still 4-6 beats higher than it was pre-Covid, as is my resting HR, but that may also be a loss of fitness after 7 days off the bike followed by 7 days very easy training.

My guess is that if most people attempted a race a week after Covid (even assuming that was a good idea, and it’s not), their bodies probably just wouldn’t let them perform at anywhere near their best. With that in mind, and given the risks associated with it, why do it?

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Bumping this because I find myself in the same spot… positive Covid test and fever 9 days before my A event. I avoided Covid for 3.5 years and it caught me at the worst time. As I have no first hand experience with recovery from it, I assume recommendations here haven’t changed. Bummer! My last workout before the positive test and fever was a struggle even though it was during the taper so I am guessing I already had it then.

I think the same principles apply regardless of the type of respiratory infection.

If you’re sick, you’re probably going to get a shitty result anyway, so just skip it. If you know you’re going to be sneezing in everyone’s faces, skip it.

Otherwise, race.

I find it odd that anybody would need a test kit to gage how shitty they feel.

You have my complete sympathy. All the physical, emotional, mental, and financial investments you made to prepare for this event just to get thrown this bummer of a curve ball. I think dropping out is the right call. If it is any consolation thiss happen at every level including the pros. The example currently in my head is Carapaz crashing out in the first stage of the TdF this year. Imagine doing multiple months of training, dieting, and being away from family just for that to happen.

Rest up and get 'em next year!

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The CDC recommendations are posted on their website (I think you are in USA out west but am not certain). However, you need to go with how you feel and how you test and with appropriate care for others around you. We isolated for a week and masked up for a week after that and kept contact with others to absolute minimum for about three weeks. Anyone we were going to be close to while we might have been infectious (just a couple friends) we made aware of our status.

Definite bummer on your timing near an event.

I can share our recent experience, but talking to friends having symptoms and positive tests in the last 6-8 weeks (so the newer variants most likely), the extent and severity of symptoms, and recovery time after the main symptoms (fever and aches) break is anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

Wife and I had mild to moderate cases. Never any danger of serious complications but we felt like absolute crap. She was infected in a location where people should know better. An employee came in sick and infected several co-workers and several clients. At least 15 people had symptoms and could be traced back to the individual of questionable judgement.

My spouse was obviously sick about two days after the exposure, but didn’t test positive for four days. She infected me and I tested positive as well. We didn’t need the tests as the symptoms were obvious. As an aside, neither of us used paxlovid. In discussion with our physician, felt that with our age and no health issues that we’d gut it out and avoid the possibility of “paxlovid rebound”.

Our courses of covid and recovery were similar. Early symptoms were scratchy throat, then the fever plus joint and muscle and head ache and worsening cough and nasal draining. Normal covid stuff. I ‘enjoyed’ an extra bonus of GI involvement plus nausea and food taste was significantly affected. About 14 days of weird taste then back to normal. I also had somewhat significant covid fatigue and brain fog. Was very tired and couldn’t concentrate on anything that required real thought. You wouldn’t have wanted me driving a truck or operating heavy machinery in that state!! Wife had the fatigue and some fog but was less severe.

It took both of us about 7-8 days post-symptoms to start feeling decent and then another 5-7 days to feel mostly normal. I would have been total crap trying to race during that two week period. I went for an easy ride when I started feeling better and had zero power and was gasping for breath on any effort. Am certain HR was elevated but didn’t measure it.

It is now three weeks since our first exposure and about a week since everything seemed decent again. Based on RPE and power, first few rides back were mediocre, but now after a week of decent riding everything is back where it was pre-covid.

Good luck with recovery and hope it goes well. Many folks have gotten used to living with Covid, but it’s no joke and having experienced it, will definitely take reasonable steps to not get it again.

-Darth

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I know it’s not going to help but I can tell you what happened to my case (topic starter).

I had a very very mild case and followed the official Dutch covid guidelines at the time which were you could come out of quarantine after 5 days without any symptoms which I was in time for my event. I ended up riding my event, which was not a race (for me) but a 200km (125mile) mid winter mud fest grind. I never had to come close to anyone else, so I didn’t endanger anyone else either. I felt perfectly fine and normal BUT my power numbers were about 10% down from what I would expect at the RPE I was riding at. When I would ride harder to try and ride my planned pace it would feel way harder than it should so I ended up riding RPE and let go the idea of a new PR and opted for just enjoying my event and finishing.

I haven’t had any health problems during or afterwards, but I wouldn’t have tried so soon if it were a race. I had a very mild case and the option to go as easy as I wanted and ride by RPE and just see what happened. Not medical advice in any way.

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Man, I feel this….I was symptomatic the week leading up to SBT GRVL and tested positive on the Thursday before the race ( as a taxi was literally sitting in the driveway to take me to the airport).

I was lucky and my case was pretty mild….low grade fever for a day or so, but of chest tightness, etc. two days of a pretty bad sore throat was thew worst symptom (it was the sore throat which made me test before I left the house as it was a new symptom).

It sucks but just accept that you can’t do your A race……even if you feel better, it is not worth the risk of causing a flare up of the symptoms.

Sorry to hear about it….unfortunately, this is probably gonna be the new normal moving forward. Thankfully the virus appears to not be as virulent as previous variants, but it still needs to be taken seriously.