Working out with covid mild symptoms

My girlfriend tested positive for Covid 19 and I tested negative, although i was definitely
very exposed. I’m self quarantining now and starting to have mild symptoms. I’m going to assume I got it now and will not go back to get retested again. Saturday is usually my big cycling day of the week for a 60 mile+ ride with my group. Obviously that’s out of the question now. What’s anybody’s experience doing TR workouts under these circumstances? I was thinking just doing an hour of endurance workout.

Here are some existing discussions worthy of review:
https://www.trainerroad.com/forum/search?q=covid%20%23training

Generally speaking, I’d suggest full rest and time off until you are free from symptoms for at least 1-2 days. IMO, there’s nothing worse than prolonging an illness from applying more stress to a body trying to heal from a sickness.

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Take a few days off to see how you feel. COVID can ramp up and hit people in all sorts of different ways. Just tell yourself “it’s January in the middle of a pandemic. A few days to a week off won’t kill me”.

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Waste of time. It’s not going to do anything positive for you.

Go back to bed.

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That’s easier said than done for me! I had 341 active days in 2020. I was going to follow the rule of if there’s no pain below the neck, plus no fever, diarrhea or respiratory issues, back it off a notch and do an easy 1 hr recovery ride to spin legs and keep the blood running. I guess if I’m feeling like doing it, I’m well enough. Of course, If i was feeling bad, I’d probably would not even think about it. Its more of mental sanity issue at this point. Your advise makes perfect sense as well. I deserve to take time off as well and it definitely won’t kill me! Thanks for your reply

yeah, from a training fitness perspective it won’t do anything. For me it would be just mental/physical therapy while keeping my legs spinning. Laying around doing nothing is driving me nuts!

I understand how you feel.

I don’t think it’ll be physically therapeutic though.

Use this unique situation as an opportunity to score a mental win by beating your subconscious and letting yourself chill.

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Ride an hour and see how you feel. My wife and I know couples where one got infected and the other didn’t. I see very commonly people thinking their loss of taste or smell is covid and while it could be, those symptoms are synonymous with dozens of other respiratory infections, even the most common. I’d def avoid the group either way for a while

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Yeah, group rides are out for at least 10 days.
I did Taku-1, just an easy 30 min spin after my core workout and felt just fine.

Thanks. Nothing wrong with that approach either.

I get where you’re coming from. I’m exactly the same way. Was on track to be over 620 hours for 2020. Was exposed to Covid mid December and thought I was okay to ride when experiencing the first symptoms.

A few days later I was laid up. Brutal back pain, fatigue, headache, etc. Thankfully no breathing issues nor need to go to the hospital. Was lucky for sure but wished I hadn’t ridden the times I tired in the beginning.

Finally feel like getting better after about three weeks. Will be a bit till back to normal for sure. I think a lot of people underestimate this but there really hasn’t been something like this in our lifetime.

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I tested positive on the 18th Dec and did Taku yesterday as my first session back. I had very mild symptoms during the disease (less than I normally get for a bad winter cold) but toward the end of the interval at 70% I certainly felt like my lungs were working harder than normal.

I realise that is most likely because I’ve trained so little since the summer (life / work stuff keeping me away from sport) but I had a conversation with my doctor a few days after my positive test who informed me research has show people who suffered from only mild symptoms were seen to still have lung / heart inflammation when the organs were imaged six week post-“recovery”. The Dr said light exercise should be fine but I’ll be taking it very easy for the foreseeable until I’m happy my body is back to 100%.

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Obviously covid varies from person to person, asymptomatic to very severe but a common feature of it is for things to deteriorate around ten days after the first symptoms. In that respect it is unlike other respiratory viruses.

I would be very very careful about doing anything that would give you physical fatigue until you are very sure it is gone. Any fitness you lose in two weeks will be easy to get back.

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There have been cases of people with positive Covid-19 test results who are totally asymptomatic. If they do any significant exercise, there is a risk for the development of myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle.
As a physician, if I tested positive, regardless of my symptoms, I would shut it down for at least 2 weeks!
Life is too short. You’ll ride again.

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Take it very seriously. I had a relatively mild case but I did nothing but rest for a week and tested negative 7 days after the positive test. A month later I am still dealing with lingering fatigue. My suggestion would be to not ride at all and rest as much as possible. When you feel better start really slowly and see how you feel. Its a serious virus.

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American college of cardiology currently recommends 2 weeks off exercise if you’re asymptomatic. And additional cardiac clearance scaled up from there. I wouldn’t risk the myocarditis.

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If you are listening to the advice offered so far you probably don’t need me to chime in, but my wife is a cardiac nurse and is seeing cases from the myocarditis. She gave me the speech when I was ready to get back on the bike after my bout with COVID. She was right (don’t tell her though).

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