Originally Posted by nlerner

I got COVID for the first time (I'm vaccinated and fully boosted) back in March. I started taking Paxlovid right away (I'm 63, so getting a prescription wasn't hard) and even felt well enough after about 4 or 5 days to go for a 30-mile bike ride. But then i got a nasty rebound case and managed to test positive for 17 straight days. This was a particular problem because I had an ambitious bike tour planned with a bunch of friends starting early April. Two days before I would need to fly cross country, I finally tested negative, and a follow-up test the next day was also negative, so I figured I was good to go.

This tour was planned for five days, from Redwood City to Atascadero, CA. I wasn't at all sure how I would feel or if I'd have to bale, but figured I'd only know if I tried. First day was up and over the coastal range to route 1, about 45 miles and nearly 5k feet of climbing. I'm normally a pretty good climber, but I had to go quite slow and take frequent breaks to bring my heart rate down, but I made it to the summit without barfing and enjoyed the twisty descent. The next day was about 75 miles along the coast, and I felt pretty cooked after 50 miles, but managed to gut out the last 25. Each day thereafter, I started to feel stronger, and ended up riding 7 day in a row and generally feeling strongest on the final day. It was helpful that this group on the whole had a range of riding abilities, so I didn't have the demoralizing effect of trailing way off the back of the pack, and it also helped that we had great weather and an incredible view of California wildflowers as a result of all the rain that fell over the winter.

My plan at this point is not to get COVID again! But that might be a challenge given new variants.