saddlesniffer

Hello all. I thought I would post this in the 50+ section since I am a member of this great club (50 years old). I caught the Covid bug around January 10 and now I test negative for that nasty bug. I was laid out for about 3 weeks. No energy whatsoever. Just incredible exhaustion, major headaches, and intense lower back pain. I am feeling better now but the exhaustion still lingers on a daily basis. My question is if any of you caught Covid and how did you return to cycling. I really miss riding and I don't want to make the call of shame to the wife if I hop back on the bike. Thanks.

GlennR

Glad you're better...

Everyone is different, I know 4 people that all had different reactions. I would suggest start slow with shorter rides to build up your endurance.

Chad991

I got it the second week in January, the physical exhaustion was no joke. Im still recovering and I still have a cough. I am now a believer as it kicked my ass, im 51. My wife of 40 had a little easier time. Im still not on a bike-it is 12 degrees here so......

TiHabanero

It sure is a weird virus. My whole family got it on the same day before Christmas. 87 yr old granny, 58 yr old wife 20 something kids, and me, the 61 yr old man. The kids and I thought nothing of it. We worked out as normal pushing past the lack of energy at times. My wife and her mother had it worse. Granny went to the hospital and they put her on that stuff that President Trump was on and she was fine 7 days later. My wife got hit in the lungs with a lot of coughing and some wheezing. Just this week she is feeling better. She really had a lack of energy and took the month of January off.
I have to wonder if the heavy workouts myself and the kids do made a difference.

Chad991

Hopefully the workouts help, im hitting the Y for laps in the pool tomorrow and a workout. It got into my lungs too, they just gave me prednisone...

Kabuki12

I am 66 and I don’t take chances. I have heard varying degrees of intensity from this thing. My brother got it and it kicked his butt for a couple of weeks. A close friend in Boston got it and was in the hospital for six days, critical. That was a month and half ago and he is struggling. It seems random at best and not to be taken lightly. There can be nerve damage , lung damage , and overall loss of energy for weeks or in some cases permanent.

John E

I finally got my wife a vaccination appointment on Sunday afternoon at a new superstation about 12 miles from home. Other than the 40-minute wait, everything went well, and she reports only arm soreness typical with a flu shot.

I have an appointment on campus in two hours. They are taking UCSD hospital patients and UCSD faculty/staff over 65 in a 2:1 ratio. Our younger son is still trying to get vaccinated, since he is a health care provider (Doctor of Physical Therapy) who works directly with patients.

Iride01 

I got it the week after Xmas. Thankfully what I think was mild since I didn't have continuous fever or have to go to hospital. I'd just recommend that anyone that gets it no matter how mild see their doctor and/or maybe their heart doctor prior to getting back on the bike. Even though a person has recovered from COVID, for a period or so after it can mess with many things, heart, lungs, GI tract and even has caused secondary infections in internal organs.

Heart doctor said that all was well after doing an echocardiogram and electrocardiogram. So I'm back cycling as of a couple weeks ago. Though I do have an annoyance or slight pain in my lower left abdominal quadrant that started while I have fever with COVID. Hasn't gone away since and I'm on a second round of antibiotics just incase there is some secondary infection going on inside. Thought maybe it was diverticulosis but nothing showed up on a CAT scan I had to look for it.

So again, my recommendation for anyone that recovered from COVID no matter how mild is to get your heart and lungs checked out before doing any hard efforts while cycling. They are too important to cycling to risk damaging them . Being done with COVID symptoms doesn't mean all your body has fully recovered.

GeezyRider 

I tested positive on 2/1 after a weekend of horrible coughing and chills. Except for the extreme fatigue, I've been symptom free for about 5 days now. Between the fatigue and crappy weather, I haven't thought much about riding. I did set up a bike on an indoor trainer and I try to get on for a least a few minutes a couple of times a day.

Hondo Gravel

I think I will stay in my cave. Glad all of you have recovered.

cloud

I am 60 got it about 3 months ago. I kept telling myself to get out of bed.Thought I read somewhere it was good to exercise your lungs no matter how much it hurt. Finally on day 3 I made it out of bed and made it to my garage and went for a bicycle ride.Only made 10 miles thought I was going to die it was very painful As painful as the bike ride was I always felt better after the ride. The next day I made 12.5 miles and again the ride was painful but when it was over I felt good.The 3rd ride I went 15 miles hurt a little less and felt good after the ride. Maybe I got lucky and had a real mild case but I think the bike rides helped me out.

bikefriday

My spouse and I were diagnosed Covid positive on Dec 28th, with our isolation freedom date set at Jan 6th. Thankfully, we both had very mild cases with some leg cramps, headaches, dry raspy cough, minor body aches, and temps hovering around 99 - 100. So not too bad at all. Took me a while to get back onto my trainer in the garage as I was feeling lethargic, and bodily tired. Now that I'm back to regular "cycling" on my trainer (weather is too bad to go out right now) I find that my power numbers are lower than pre-covid, BUT my stamina is better. In other words I can't ride as hard, but I can ride for longer. I am lucky, I have never had any troubles breathing, or with my lungs - pre or post covid.

jadocs

I never got it....no idea if I was asymptomatic or not, but I got Part II of the vaccine last week and it knocked me on my azz for two days.

deacon mark

Did you get the Pfizer or Moderna ? Seems from most I here the Moderna has more side effects. I get my 2nd shot on thursday. The first was not issue slight sore arm but I had the Pfizer..

jadocs

It was Moderna...I've never had that kind of a reaction to a vaccine. On the plus side, I should have developed a lot of anti-bodies. lol

Yep, I had zero effects after the first shot.

Ald1 

Infected on the 28th of Dec. Tested positive on Jan 4th. Was a tough 10 days. Got the Regenerone cocktail also. I started doing the recovery rides, on my trainer, in the sufferfest program at 30% less. Stayed on that and gradually increased to 100% only the recovery rides which limits your exertion to about 50% of FTP. Had an Echo and stress test, came back normal. Although I like Sufferfest more I use Trainer Road as you can push workout to outside. As I winter in FL, I started back to formal training two days ago after a 15 day lay off due to a construction project I was on in Seattle. I set my FTP 40 watts lower and have two workouts in. Feels like I did not lower FTP! So far so good. Here's how I've been affected. Estimate I lost at least 30 watts off my FTP. VO2 down 5 points. After I do my workout I take my wife out for a ride. Shes a beginner so we do about 9-10 MPH on flat terrain. This has been post my workout and I noticed a lot of Heart Rate drift as my HR climbs to 70 80 % of max averaging only 40 watts riding with her! Have a consult with my Cardo doc about that. Don't know what will come back as I'm 68 years old. From all the experts I've researched and talked to, the common thread is start back VERY slowly never exceeding Zone 2 HR. If your HR shoots up past that, you are not ready to resume exercising. Gradually increase duration BUT NOT INTENSITY. Do not exceed Zone 2 or a very short trip in Zone 3 until you are medically cleared, which was, in my case an echo and stress test. In my qurantine I read too many stories of fit athletes (some dropped dead) after resuming workouts after being fever free for a couplke of days. As pointed out the risk of Myocarditis etc is very real was C-19.