Have you talked with your doctor? Being 3-months out and still having issues seems like a long time, but the virus effects everyone differently.
I understand the depression. I was really bummed for the first two weeks. Once I just accepted my new fate I was able to just start training at the level I was currently at and eventually got back to normal. It was around 3-4 weeks for me to feel normal.
I was ending a polarized high volume plan and heading into a easy week when I got C19. I had both vaccines and no booster and my symptoms were very mild. My ftp was 311 prior and after an easy week of endurance rides I did a ramp test and I tested at 298. Needless to say I wasn’t happy with that number because I just did 6 weeks of polarized training and was expecting a boost. I then started HVSSBI did the first ramp test with the 298… The following week I did another ramp test I did another 298 ftp. I guess I will have to be happy with that for now.
I wouldn’t be able to get out of my neighbourhood without having to walk the hills right now, so I’d have to beg to differ on that one!
This isn’t about accepting a new, lower FTP. Basically any sort of training leaves me feeling like I’ve got the flu and if I really push I end up having to spend most of the next day doing nothing (like, barely able to get out of bed levels of energy).
Doctor of no use so far, waiting on (privately arranged) blood tests.
So sorry to hear this. I hope your blood tests help to find resolution.
Picked up this up as a late christmas present.
One week out from CX nationals 
Symptoms on 27th December. 9 days of very very rough and deteriorating health. Wild fevers. Incredible nervous pain. Towards the end my chest was tightening and it was hard to get a full breath, felt like a massive weight on my chest.
Started to come round and was just incredibly tired for a week. Started going for half hour walks and it was probably too soon, I was wrecked after them. Took some extra rest. Almost 4 weeks after the start I did Dans, took a day, did Taku. Took a few more days off and then upped to 45 min rides.
Feels hard, real hard, but its more like fitness is just way off where it was, heart rate is high for the power level, probably a mix of where I am with recovery and where I am with reduced fitness. Rode 90 minutes outside today, was only meant to be an hour. But it was great and enjoyable. Not experiencing any major fatigue now so hopefully no lasting effects and just a steady return to fitness over a nice long duration.
I’ve been paying a lot of attention to Heart rate during rides, while it is elevated for the effort, I am more interested in watching for any peculiar spikes or jumps. It is responding quickly to increases and decreases in effort which is encouraging.
What you are experiencing is called post-exertional malaise (PEM). In all likelihood, your blood tests won’t reveal much if anything, but it doesn’t hurt to have them done just to make sure there isn’t something else going on. As you are beginning to discover, many in the medical community are ignorant (some seem willingly so) about this sort of chronic illness and its causes, triggers and management.
Long covid has many ugly faces to it. Some aspects can be from damage to the body during acute infection. Others are re-activation of other, dormant viruses, such as EBV and herpes. Blood microclotting might be causing some problems. From what I can glean, the likely culprit is a persistent viral infection in parts of the body (gut, brain, elsewhere) likely triggering an autoimmune response. But so far, the root cause of the illness has not been uncovered, and perhaps our medical technology and understanding isn’t quite there yet for that to happen (much research is underway). Some terms/conditions you might want to get familiar with are ME/CFS, POTS, and MCAS. If you are showing some susceptibility to these conditions in your post-acute viral state, I’d caution that while you can’t exercise your way out of this sort of chronic illness, you can most definitely exercise your way into a more severe and long-lasting illness.
I’ve suggested some of these things previously in other posts and probably somewhere in this thread, but given that you are several months out from your infection and are experiencing malaise after exertion, you especially need to take them to heart. Rest. Convalesce for a period of time. As you eventually re-start some activity after weeks or perhaps months, revamp your activity set to avoid heavy exertion and oxidative stress. This excludes activities like running and the type of cycling to which you are accustomed. Consider things like yoga. Casual paced walking in limited amounts. Light-to-moderate effort swimming is another good one. All in limited doses, only when you are not feeling ill and/or fatigued, with ample recovery as needed. Research something called the “spoon theory” if you continue to relapse or experience PEM. Take a hard look at your diet. Avoid or minimize foods that are inflammatory. Look into pre/probiotics for your gut. If you begin experiencing MCAS symptoms, you might benefit from reducing or avoiding foods that are high in histamines.
I’ve read accounts of people improving partially or even fully from autophagy which can apparently be induced by supplements and more typically periods of limited fasting. One thing for sure, what works for one person may not for another, or even be counterproductive for someone else. Everyone is unique and has their own set of issues, so you need to research these things and more, don’t be afraid to experiment some, confer with doctors when appropriate, and find what works for you. Many long haulers have their own mix of supplements they take. Many have prescriptions for symptoms. Some go the functional medicine route. Others swear by acupuncture. Some give up on the medical community and just focus on finding their own solutions, or giving it time and rest. I could probably list dozens of different approaches that I’ve seen discussed, and for each you’ll likely find some people who will attest to the benefit it brought them.
Don’t feel discouraged if you try but don’t immediately succeed at uncovering the magic formula to get yourself back to 100% pre-covid health, because you’ll have plenty of company – including me. I’m approaching 2 years post-acute infection, and while I am definitely doing better than when I was feeling at my worst, I am not back to being able to treat my body like a machine and put it through whatever exercise and training I want. I still have some lingering symptoms and am especially cautious about overdoing things and triggering another six-months-long fatigue relapse, which I did at one point. Good luck.
Another good clue. We may be getting closer to an explanation for the post acute covid-19 syndrome, as well as, those with similar long-haul symptoms triggered by the vaccine.
I got a positive test today. Two days ago I started to feel some discomfort in my throat but having a long flight, jet lagged and being in a totally different environment at altitude could be the answer to that so I did two hours of zone 2 on the trainer and it work really well. No signs whatsoever of illness. Case closed… Later that day I started to feel some discomfort in the muscles and some kind of signs to throat pain. This continued the day after but the throat pain which actually more was a discomfort went away. This morning, day three I went to take a test which was positive. Now it’s late afternoon and I feel nothing. I checked my pulse and it was at the same level as when I am healthy at sea level. I am now at 2500 meters non-acclimatized with a positive covid test. It makes me confused. Not sure where to go from here, I have a stage race in ten days.
Without more information I would say “No, you don’t”. Current guidelines from Norwegian and British authorities I have recently seen (since I also recently had covid) recommends at least 7 days without symptoms before starting very easy training, and then spending at least 7 more days getting back up to normal training volume, to avoid risk of long time effects. I would say a stage race is a huge risk.
I think I am leaning towards that. Taking a week of no matter how good I feel. I spoke to a fellow cyclist who got the virus at new years and he held up for a week with mild symptoms, he had a bit more and way longer symptoms than I but the season is long. I follow football (some call it soccer), hockey and handball and players there go back to training and playing immediately. What is that all about?
I think it’s a difficult thing to parse. Firstly, it’s their job to play and it’s a big championships on the line (recent Handball European championship, olympics etc) and that might very well lead to athletes saying “I’ll take the risk” when doctors say “you shouldn’t”. These kinds of nuance are rarely reported in the news. Secondly, you see them go back to training/playing after a week like it’s a cold. But we do not see how they feel three weeks later. Or how they perform five or six weeks later, after starting too soon, versus how they would have performed at that time after starting very slowly, as that obviously can’t be measured. And you might not notice a player that returned to play straight after covid getting benched some weeks later due to “not in shape” or something like that. Lastly, some are lucky and get no noticable effects, and some are not.
Summary: it’s hard to tell. Personally, as a 45 year old family man, with no races for 4 or 5 months, I’m going to err on the side of caution. I have some years back started too hard too soon after a viral infection, and it dragged on for several weeks with elevated heart rate and shitty feeling. Other times, I’ve “trained it away” over the course of a couple of days.
Just recovered from COVID myself. Had cold like symptoms for ten days (tested positive every day) with a nasty cough, have tested negative for the last two days.
My lungs still feel sore, and I have a very mild burning sensation in my lungs at the moment, cant see myself getting back on the trainer for another week. I do not want to risk causing any further damage, fingers crossed my lungs recover as soon as possible.
That very mild burning sensation in your lungs? I’ve had that nearly every, single day for almost two years now accompanied usually by a dry cough or wheezing. I decided to train anyway a couple weeks after it first started. My suggestion – be patient and wait until your symptoms are completely gone before you start doing any training. Focus now on an anti-inflammatory diet. Check into leaky gut, too. Covid can mess up your gut microbiome, and if you can re-establish good balance there early on, I think it will help you out in all aspects with your recovery.
Yep, I’m on day 7 now of C-19 and still positive.
Double-jabbed and boosted, and my first dose of The 'Vid.
In my opinion, I’ve had very mild symptoms similar to a regular mild cold. I only tested myself after my daughter tested positive.
I did try a very easy pedal on the turbo a few days ago. It was meant to be nothing more than turning the legs over and trying to keep the HR way down with low RPM in Z1/2 . Managed 30 mins before climbing off- mainly due to not feeling it, and my HR was beginning to creep up a bit towards 100 BPM which is more than I wanted.
I guess the virus has affected me more than I thought, so I won’t be attempting even light work til after at least a couple of negatives.
My experience is very similar to yours. I am at day 8 and still testing positive but generally just have mild cold like symptoms. Ordinarily I would train feeling like this, just dialled down. It’s going to be interesting to see how quickly I can get back into ‘normal’ training
Sharing my recent experience. I’m double-jabbed and boosted, no prior infections.
On 1/22 I did Columbine in the morning and really struggled through it. That evening it hit me; severe body aches. I woke up on 1/23 and tested positive. I spent the next 36 hours in bed. My temperature stayed around 102 degrees, even with taking Tylenol every 6 hours. I was just laid out. No appetite, horrible body aches, in and out of sleep.
Three days later, on 1/25, the symptoms started to lift. Every day thereafter I felt better than the previous day, but I didn’t feel well enough to train until day 7, and I did a light endurance workout (Giraud). On day 8 I tested negative, and did a VO2 workout (Saddle Mountain). My heart rate looks fine and with the exception of some light congestion I have no more symptoms.
So, it was a full week off the bike, but I don’t think I lost much in that week. I’m grateful my experience was more similar to a bad cold/flu. Take care of yourselves and prioritize rest!
I don’t know about handball, but most of your professional athletes on professional teams have a battery of doctors that they can talk to, see, etc., before returning to play. Most of us don’t have that, so additional caution is required for us IMO.
I just went by how I felt and was very conservative with it. If I were you, I’d skip the stage race. That’s a lot of stress to put your body under when it’s likely trying (and maybe doing a great job of it) to fight off an infection where some people are fighting it still six months later, and we don’t know anything about possible long term effects. As you said, it’s a long season. The races will be there.
FWIW, I’m fully back to where I was pre-COVID, now about six weeks after my positive test. I’ve been trending well the last four weeks, steadily increasing intensity. I just wrapped up a three week aerobic build block, culimating in 40 min threshold effort last week and some intense over-unders yesterday. Did well with both of those. Threshold effort was just a hair lower than my last long effort like that, but it was also at the end of the block and I was carrying fatigue.
HR response seems to have been restored. RHR is regularly back in the mid-40s, and training HR response is normal again vs. RPE and power. (Five days of heavy fatigue was my only symptom, took 10 days off and about five more days to get back in the swing of riding).
I contracted covid earlier this month, conveniently during a VO2 block that I had just started. My response was a bit delayed compared to my gf, who gave it to me. She was positive and I was negative after a test early in the week. I knew it was coming, though and sure enough, a few days later it hit me like a freight train. Had all the flu symptoms for a week. Then it was nearly a seamless transition into head cold symptoms for another week. Just brutal.
Nearly two weeks from contraction, I started to feel better and started doing some easy rides on the trainer and outside if the weather was nice. HR was a little higher than normal and the lungs gradually started coming back to me.
It’s been about a month since I got it and while it’s out of my system, I’m still dealing with flem. My leg stamina is gone. I have a normal cadence around 90, but now I struggle to stay in the 80s. Z2 is still a struggle in comparison to the great base phase I had during the Fall. It feels like I lost everything, but I know that isn’t the case. I was going to race this spring, but that’s probably not going to happen. I think I’ll focus on another base period until Summer and see where I’m at from there.
Nice to hear you are recovering well 
I’m gonna skip the stage race next week. I might need to show up at the start line due to some foreigner rules in the country I’m racing in but I’m not gonna race. It’s not like I enjoy showing up to tough races with no fitness or form anyway so I’m reliefed and happy with the decision. I contacted a doctor yesterday and got some guidelines, avoid sugar was one of them. I’m gonna see her early next week to check lungs and heart.