So I feel like I’m pretty much back post Covid. When I say back, I can do 70% max heart rate for an hour with no ill effect, I could probably do more but going slowly. Here’s how I did it, YMMV. No exercise till end of symptoms, tried to come back but after end of main symptoms which took 2 weeks but got a bit of a relapse. Started looking at overnight HR, waiting for that to come down to pre Covid level, when it got back to that, 45 mins Z1 for 40 mins. Check overnight HR figures (on Fitbit) often it’d be elevated even after 45 mins Z1, when it was elevated, no riding, wait for it to get back down, when it was down again, 45 mins Z1, repeat. That approach has got me back to feeling pretty good on the bike. When you’re just watching the HR metric it saves you rushing the return. Strangely, and it seems to be the case with a lot of people HRV has stayed pretty normal throughout so totally relying on HR. Just my story, everyones will be different but thought I’d share.
Well I am 15 days out from first symptoms. Went out for first ride/activity today. Rode outdoors for natural cooling and just did not want to be on the trainer.
1:48 ride and 45.19 km.
Took it fairly easy except for a standing 2 minute climb close to the end. Just wanted to see how I could perform.
Overall I feel quite good. A little tired. A big difference from 5 days ago when 2 flights of stairs would bring my heart rate up to 98 and I would start sweating buckets.
Welp, knock me over with a feather. 17 days from first symptoms, and after at least a week of testing negative - rebound!
Tested positive this morning after feeling light chills and sore throat. Yesterday I felt the most normal since getting sick.
Already ruined 1 vacation and 2 business trips. About to ruin another rescheduled vacation.
Well it finally happened. I managed to avoid covid for the last 2+ years. We went to Costa Rica 12 days ago. I was fine until the last 2 days. I was surfing everyday and the weather there has been pretty wet which means iffy water conditions due to runoff. I developed what I thought was a sinus/ear infection on the next to last day. I wore a mask on all my flights and in the airport so didn’t think it was covid. When I got home I took a home test because I was going to go to an urgent care the next day for an antibiotic and wanted to be able to say it wasn’t covid related. Unfortunately the test results came back positive.
So far, I’m not feeling too bad. It just feels like a normal head cold, Some minor coughing, sneezing, runny nose, clogged ears. Taking decongestants and antihistamines to reduce the symptoms. No fever as of day three. I was in need of a training break and it looks like it may be extended for a little bit. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back at it pretty soon.
I went out of town on a trip and came back with a Covid present. It hit me two days after I got back in town with a sore throat and a little upper chest pain that felt like I went for a run in the cold and the cold air hits your lungs. It’s far from cold where I live with the ongoing heat wave. I felt like I had a bad flu for 5 days and now I’m getting back to normal. I’m able to train but I can certainly tell that I get tired faster and my upper end lung capacity isn’t there. Right now I’m taking it easy to get back my to normal and not pushing any VO2 max efforts. Sweet spot feels okay but but spikes are terrible. It’s a good time for me to do some endurance and sweet spot training.
I missed my final Crit race of the year and that was a bummer but that’s how it goes.
Getting frustrated. My garmin indicated VO2max dropped by 10 points since April. My RHR is still in the 60s. The only time it dropped in the usual low 40s was after a wisdom tooth extraction recently (which was probably due to the shock). Had also a couple of days off (3 to be exact) after the extraction. It helped in the sense that legs felt fresh afterwards but I still can’t push the watts and my HR is quite high. Overall, my volume is less than 50% of average for the last two weeks and my legs don’t feel tired but I am regressing still.
I’ve also forgot to mention I had a bloodwork done twice recently (regular checkup and annual check for platelets donation) and the blood count numbers look great as far as I can tell and nothing out of the normal ranges in the rest of the tested markers (except HDL).
Had a slight itchy throat already on Monday but went to work Tuesday like I do usually on my road bike and just couldn’t produce power at all and my heart rate was already approaching z3 for no power at all. Got a test, tested positive, cycled back even slower and was very tired but today I feel fine again not completely recovered yet but almost, cycled to the testing center to get a recovery certificate and felt good again. Omega is even less impressive than the already mild delta which I caught late October last year…fortunately no loss of smell, taste and chemosensing either this time like last time
Finally got it too 3 weeks ago.
Symptoms were extreme headache and feeling really cold, which lasted around 48 hours. Then some fatigue and sore muscles for the rest of the week.
Restarted training - only easy endurance sessions a week after first symptoms - muscles were okay, but very strange feeling in the lungs and breathing unusually heavy - I don’t think I would last any hard session and got the feeling it would be dangerous. Increased the load progressively and after 2 it was almost gone - now it’s all back to normal.
Good luck you all !
Well Raced last night for the first time. I was dropped at the 20km mark and rode the last 40 km by myself. Power was decent and I didn’t quit. Funny thing was just loading my bike 40 minutes before the race my heart rate hit 103. lol
My 700 km bike packing race is Saturday. We received an update last night. There is a forest fire on the route of the 700. They have re-routed to a 680 km course that goes out of the mountains onto the flats and back that I really don’t like as there is some highway riding. There is a shorter 500 km course as well that I have switched to. If it does not work out at least its shorter.
I am 23 days out from the start.
Tested positive today, did a couple hundred kms over the weekend in hot weather and then Monday was feeling a bit run down, most were suggesting I probably had a bit of heat exhaustion. Headache at first then a bit of a sore throat. Nose started running yesterday, today nose is still running but headache and throat easing off. Haven’t really had much of a cough aside from when my runny nose seems to get phlegm down in my airway through my sinuses.
Have an anaerobic workout scheduled for tomorrow, thinking I might substitute Recess -5 for it just to see how it feels, if I feel okay. Not 100% how to approach things. Was double vaxxed and had the booster but its been a long time since the last booster, in my area they never released 2nd boosters to the general public.
Tested positive 23rd July but looking at RHR and start of symptoms, I guess it goes back to 14th July. I’ve still got stuff on my chest. Have to odd coughing fit in the mornings.
Been 14 days since first of many negative tests. Can run 5, 10 and up to 20km before legs give up. That’s entirely give up. As for doing workouts on bike, I last about 30 minutes. It’s almost as if the Glycogen stores in the muscles empty and aren’t at all replaced/maintained/fuelled during my workouts… Take last night, I was doing sweetspot intervals, all going fine, third interval felt good, came to forth, no signs of struggling, HR at 140 (80% of max) breathing normal. Got a minute into interval and then bang… legs completely empty, found it hard then just to do 40% of my FTP. Never had anything like it. Got to be an issue of my body passing fuel across to muscles. Covid is a strange one 
Guess for now I’ll just dial workouts back to 30 minutes duration on bike and probably just hour max runs and see how that goes and take it from there…
Have also noticed many more dips in my SpO2 at night shown below, dropping fairly low for some time periods. Another metric to monitor and see if that improves in the months ahead, back to my normal baselines.
My wife has long covid now for 5 months. I could not imagine it. I could barely handle the bad 3 days I had. I have done a lot of reading on it. Seems covid messes up the mitochondria of a lot of people!
Got Covid about 14 days ago.
Double jabbed with booster. Was completely bedridden for 7 days. Fever, difficulty breathing, sore throat, lost voice, etc. The only thing I didn’t have was a loss of taste.
I was dieting prior to COVID. During the illness I didn’t eat much and wasn’t hungry. My weight plummeted 2 kilos in the span of week and has been still declining.
This is the first week I’ve felt “normal”. That is to say, I’m not feverish all day and can actually speak. I have a nasty cough that is slowly getting better by the day. However, I have extremely awful coughing fits that last roughly 30 minutes and I get flashes of fever randomly.
Was off the bike prior to this due to a focus on weight loss but will likely need to be off still as hard exercise is still difficult. I’ve taken to long walks to make up for this inability which has been good but, admittedly, not as fun.
Anyone have advice or thoughts on easing back into things once your symptoms are gone? Can’t find much for research on “returning to exercise post covid”. Wondering about anecdotal experiences.
If you search this thread there are several posts that provide some medical professional advice or guidelines.
I found them to be a bit conservative, but more than anything I can relate to, your mileage will vary so it’s hard to say. For me I was doing recovery rides in 4 days and hitting sweetspot on day 10. Most, if not everyone else on here has needed more time, some significantly more time.
My understanding and also experiencing Covid within the last month is to take it very conservatively otherwise you prolong your recovery in the long run. I was told once there’s no symptoms in or below the neck give yourself 3 days off then slowly start riding again. 3 days of short very easy rides, 4th day off. If symptoms return, start the process over again. It’s tough…
Today I feel like is probably my first day clear of the main symptoms I had (headache, runny nose, sore throat) went on a ~40min walk with my fiance today and made sure I nose breathed the whole time. Not really sure if I had any HR elevation with that but felt fine.
Was thinking of trying Recess -5 on Sunday to see what my HR does as I have done it in the past and can compare.
I did a 60 test race last Tuesday and it went well so I thought I was ok.
I did my 500 km Rockies Back Country Race. Big mistake. Did 230 km the first day. Lungs filled up with phlegm that night. Rested for 2 hours and woke up every 15 minutes unable to breath until I hacked it all out. Also dropped to 5 degrees celcius so we froze. Next day did 134 km including a 10 hike a bike up to the top of a mountain. It took most people 4-6 hours for the hike a bike. Rested that night in a motel propped up so had a much better sleep. In the morning hit the local health center but they were under staffed. Only option they had was to ambulance me to another town about 45 minutes away. Left at 11 Am that day and rode 150 km 24 hours through the night to the end. Packed up and started driving home and almost fell asleep so slept in my truck in the drivers seat elevated for 4 hours. Once rested called 811 and they said I better get to emerge.
Lungs are now shot… (doctors words). I am on albuterol and cortisol inhalers. Lungs are very inflamed and I am all of a sudden testing anemic.
I almost feel like I have covid again. Doctor has no idea how long it will take to recover. I have to sleep elevated or phlegm builds up too quickly.
Nice that the ER doctor is a triathlete that used to be a member of our road racing club. She had me in and out in a few hours.
Take it easy or play it dumb like me… Its not worth it.
Thanks for your candor. Tough lesson eh?
take care of yourself and heal up soon!
For me, I am a month into it. Had a rebound as mentioned above. Still testing positive this week! Which has brought on complications in terms of masking/distancing in my house, ability to attend certain events requiring negative test, and diving into the lack of guidance on what to do and whether or not I would be contagious. That is the biggest issue. I still have some nagging respiratory issues. All of this has still kept me off the bike and super frustrated.