Training after COVID Vaccine
 

What are your experiences with training after the COVID vaccine?

Did you take time off?
Did you notice differences in your performance?
Did you notice differences in your recovery?

I did not ride the day after the 2nd (Pzifer), had a slight headache and a little tired. No issues getting back on the bike two days later and did not notice any performance changes. It seems reactions to the vaccines, regardless of which one, are all over the place from almost nothing to in bed for a day or two. Go by what your body tells you.

I got the Moderna. No noticeable effects from the 1st shot. I didn't ride my rollers the day after the second shot. I felt tired, like I'd ridden hard the day before. After that, no effect on performance or recovery, except that I've trained for 2 months since then, so of course my performance and recovery are better. The most noticeable thing is that I'm happier!

I got the first Moderna jab a couple of weeks ago. Felt fine for the first few hours, then suddenly felt achy and sleepy. That lasted about four hours while I napped. I woke feeling fine, but was a bit tired the next few days. Arm was a bit sore at the injection site, but less sore than my injections for prednisone the last couple of times I had bronchitis. Prednisone injections sting like a wasp for about 15-20 minutes.

I took the day off when I got the vaccine. I walked a leisurely 3 miles the next day, and jogged 4 miles the second day, no problems. Back to my usual jogging and other activities a couple of days post-jab. I haven't done much cycling this year but that's due to neck pain from old injuries, nothing to do with the coronavirus or vaccine. I've done more jogging since last November and I haven't noticed any significant changes since two or three days post-vaccine.

I check my heart rate and HRV daily, and BP fairly often. No changes there either.

This was the first vaccine I've had any reaction to in years. Usually I feel no reaction to flu and pneumonia vaccines.

Really since there aren't live viruses or pathogens in the covid vaccines, they shouldn't warrant the same kind of caution in terms of exercise as the actual disease or even a flu or other milder respiratory illness. Just because one might feel sick after a vaccine doesn't mean one actually is.

That being said I was completely wiped out after my vaccine. In a few hours after the jab I had gotten a high fever and felt like I'd contracted a bad case of influenza. Took me the night and whole next day to recover so wouldn't have been able to exercise even had I wanted to. Once the symptoms started tapering off they went away in a couple of hours leaving only fatigue from the restless feverish night.

First Moderna shot, felt normal - did a 45 mile ride the next day, felt normal.

Second Moderna shot, next day felt very fatigued, skipped riding. Second day after shot felt normal, did a 48 mile ride with my normal speed, etc.

I think YMMV really applies - I have friends that range from no effect to they were puking all day after the second shot!

I don't know that it's made any difference. I got the Janssen one-shot. Although I do sort of feel like super man now that the weather has gotten so nice.

Don't think that's the vaccine though.

I did a 60min trainer session the morning before getting the J&J. Took the next day off -- felt mildly lousy: headache, fatigue, a little shaky. The day after that I went on a super mellow ride around the neighborhood with my wife. Third day, went back on my schedule and felt fine.

rode both days (1st and 2nd shot)

no effects

I tried a run the 2nd day after my first Pfizer shot. I felt low energy, lacking in stamina, and wound up cutting the run short. The second shot, I waited a day longer and felt no impact. Part of it is age (I'm 61) but I'd say regardless to take it easy for a day and if it feels ok (no obvious side effects) there should be no problem with a bike ride the day after.

I had no noticeable side effects from Pfizer except when trying to push hard after my second dose. Messed up 2 weeks of my training. Easy was fine; anything threshold or above just wasn't happening

After my first Pfizer (Bio-NTech) shot, did my monthly metric the next day with no ill effects. Second shot I had to cut the ride short to do some yard work, but I can't blame the vaccine for that. (Well, to be honest, I didn't try!)

My experience notwithstanding, it's probably a good idea to plan for a day or two after each shot where you don't have any big/important workouts, rides, or races.

I had a bizarre experience after my first Pfizer shot. I still don't know if it was the shot or something else. After the seccond shot I had the normal mild reaction - half a day of serious fatigue and a modest fever. I was back to riding the next day.

But the first shot.....hmm.

For 1 1/2 days I felt fine, and then the next morning I could...not....walk. Any muscle activity in my legs resulted in severe cramps - the kind you might get after a bad century that you did under-trained and under-hydrated. But these kicked in after 5 minutes of walking or 10 minutes of spinning in the small ring at 80 watts. Either would be close-to-tears cramps in quads, hamstrings, etc. After they subsided, there were no problems if I sat on the couch, but returned with any exercise. Symptoms took about a week to subside.

Medical consultation was inconclusive. My creatine kinase (if you know what that is) went through the roof, but nothing else seemed wrong and then a week later I was back to normal.

needless to say, I lost a week of training and then the week after, I took it very easy on the bike out of caution.

I don't know of any other similar account and I really don't know if it was a vaccine reaction or not.

1) No - did a Zwift race the day after the 1st shot. Slight upset stomach and maybe a slight fever for 24h but that was about it. Sweated like crazy on the trainer.
2) No, I sucked about the same amount as usual. I was hoping for superpowers or at least an FTP>4.0 but nothing.
3) No noticeable side effects from the 2nd shot, but the next day was an intentional rest day anyway. Now +8 days after the 2nd shot... still no superpowers.

But how is your 5G reception? :)

But if you have a fever, I'd still lay off exercise.

Fever is a systemic inflammatory response, whether from an infection or a vaccine, and strenuous exercise while you have systemic inflammation has been shown to produce scar tissue in your heart. That can lead to a bunch of problems like arrythmia (or worse).

I wouldn't take the chance.

I had the Pfizer vaccine earlier this year. First shot I just had a mild headache the next day, second day I felt fine and rode 1/2 of what I usually would and felt fine after it. Second shot I felt kind of 'flush' all over the next day; it was something like when you start to get the regular flu, but it didn't progress any farther that that and no headache, body aches, or nausea. The second day I felt great and did a shortened ride with no problems. I haven't had any issues since then.

Co-workers and friends who have had the Moderna vaccine seem to have a more aggressive reactions than the Pfizer, some even getting a mild fever and nausea, but its usually just 1-2 days of taking it easy and they were back to normal. Those who had the J&J single dose have only had mild issues like I did with the pfizer vaccine.

I had no ill effects directly after Moderna 1. 10 days out I had top-end issues with my legs - lactate wasn't being cleared
as quickly as usual. This cleared up at 14 days.

I rode the day of Moderna 2. Got the shot in the morning and judging from friends and family, figured I had about
8 hours until I started feeling bad. This worked, got in about 30 miles, better then nothing.

The next day I was out of it. 2 days post Moderna 2 I was fine again.

Varies from person to person, I took 4 days off after the first shot (Moderna), just now after the second, had the worst headache of my life (I usually don't even get them) the day after, but already better in the evening and 2nd day after was already pretty normal. What seems common for Moderna at least is feeling tired and sluggish the day after.

i got the covishield, had some tiredness and feel headache on the next day. on the vaccination day i didn't feel anything and did my all day job, ride bike, play some game and the all day was just like another. nut on the next morning i start feeling laziness and didn't like to get up from the bed for 3-4 hours. these vaccination dose effects differently person to person.

I had a much stronger reaction to the second Moderna jab in mid-May, which some other folks have reported for the mRNA vaccines.

With the first shot I felt some aching and fatigue starting about four hours after the shot, and it lasted for about four hours. I just napped through it and felt fine. It was a bit worse than most of my reactions to annual flu shots, which usually don't cause much reaction.

With the follow up shot the side effects didn't hit until 12 hours later. And the next 12 hours were absolutely miserable. I could understand why some folks swear some vaccines "made them sick." Body aches, headache, dizziness, nausea, etc.

And for the next few weeks I had intermittent days of feeling pretty good and pretty miserable. It was around the second week of June before I began to feel more or less normal. I had continued jogging and cycling throughout, but felt sluggish, like my legs and body refused to respond.

If a stronger reaction is any indication of the quality of the immune response, I must be bulletproof after that mess.