50PlusCycling

I got the bug while in Hawaii, a bit of sore throat and runny nose, followed by a mild fever and a couple restless nights. The test at the clinic came back positive, so I hunkered down at home until I felt better and two antigen tests came back negative. A side effect of my infection was an elevated heart rate, which has been hovering in round in the 90’s (70’s is usual), and a much higher resting pulse. My sense of smell went away, but has mostly come back.

But staying indoors and not going out at all weakened me a fair bit, and I have been working to get back into better shape, and try to get my heart rate down. Last week I began with some easy rides around my neighborhood and Waikiki. Yesterday I rode to Diamond Head, and then hiked to the top. It was a pretty good workout, but I paced myself and after riding home I found I felt pretty good. Today I went on a 25km ride with some minor climbs, and though my heart rate was higher than usual, I did better on the hills than I expected, and felt pretty good after the ride.

Though my antigen tests are negative, I can’t return home to Japan until I get a negative PCR test, which the doctor says may be as long as a few weeks. So, plenty of time to ride. Hopefully I’ll be doing some 50km rides next week. It seems like I can’t come to Hawaii without having some problem which gets me stuck here longer than I had planned. But there are worse places to be stuck.

BTinNYC 

Glad you're better and riding.
This damn virus.

masi61

My resting heart rate stayed elevated for 4 or 5 months after I had COVID in January. Somebody at the hospital where I work said he saw a YouTube video by a physician where they discussed how COVID damages red blood cells in a way that diminishes their oxygen carrying capacity somewhat. I’d like to see an article or link to a video that explains this.

He went on to tell me that when the bone marrow manufactures fresh RBC’s, subsequent generations are also damaged slightly but over time they improve each time and eventually normal o2 carrying is back to normal levels.

Lucky you - recovering in Hawaii - sounds therapeutic!

Iride01 

If your heart is bothering you at all, then go to a cardiologist or at least consult your primary care doctor. After my COVID I went to one and they did a echocardiogram. They said I was good to go.

Riding a bike was a little slow going at first for me. However riding fairly hard for exercise definitely made me feel better.

BlazingPedals

Glad to hear you only had a mild case. As for recovery, do what feels comfortable and don't over-do it. The blood cell explanation sounds about right, at least in my case. I never had any lung congestion but I passed out just from standing up too long, and was on oxygen for 8 days after my fever broke. I needed 6 weeks of recovery after being discharged before I could make the 5-block walk from my car to the office.

50PlusCycling

I suffered from palpitations and an elevated heart rate after my second COVID vaccination last year (Moderna). I had to wear a portable EKG for a couple days, no fun. A couple weeks of beta blockers and things returned to normal.

Today I rode the same 25km route, it was hotter than yesterday, but the ride was easier. My pulse was lower, and I was able to get over the climbs using a higher gear. I’ll see the doc on Monday, and get a PCR test while I am there. As nice as it is in Hawaii, I have to get home. I’ll ride a much as I can while I am here, riding in Tokyo is not so fun.

metalheart44

I had a mild case of Covid, some congestion, cough, and a bit tired, but no fever. I also noticed my resting heart rate was elevated 8-10 bpm. I'm two weeks past a negative test and I have been riding but I don't feel as strong as before testing positive, but then I was off the bike for two. weeks and it may be just reconditioning. I was curious if the elevated resting heart rate was a known Covid symptom.

50PlusCycling

My pulse is still elevated, but my energy level seems to be near normal. It seems that elevated heart rate is not uncommon with COVID.

MoAlpha

Post-COVID tachycardia

Return to sports after COVID

50PlusCycling

So today I rode out to Hanauma Bay. The park was closed today, but I had hoped to be able to sneak onto the hiking trail and ride to Kaihuokapua’A. Unfortunately they were doing maintenance on the gates so I couldn’t get in. But I got a good 43km ride. My average was a little over 10 mph, which wasn’t terrible as I’m old, was riding a 9 speed freeride MTB with oversize knobby tires, and 2 weeks ago I was in bed with COVID.

My PCR test came back negative yesterday, so later this week I will return to Japan. I hope to get in a ride to Kailua before I leave.

BlazingPedals

My HR was elevated for a while after Covid - a month or two? But it eventually returned to normal.

50PlusCycling

Finally going back to Japan today (knocks on wood). My preflight PCR test came back negative, and after a ton of filling out online forms and submitting documents, I am finally (hopefully) on my way. It was nice to spend a month in Hawaii, I am not looking forward to Tokyo in August, which is hotter, more humid, and the sound of cicadas is deafening. I boxed up my bike with a free box from the Bike Factory near Ala Moana Park (thanks guys), and will play with it when I get home. I haven’t done any mountain biking since the Spin Doctors were on the top of the charts, so I am looking forward to taking my new-old MTB around Japan.

50PlusCycling

Well, I made it back. The trip was surprisingly pain-free. No delays at the airports, and with uploading my COVID and vaccination documents to a Japanese government app before I departed, I was fast-tracked through immigration. Oddly, it was one of the easiest flights I have ever experienced. Tokyo is hot as a concrete-and-steel oven, I haven’t felt such nasty heat since I lived in Ludlow, California as a kid. It’t not actually any hotter than usual, but after getting used to the climate in Hawaii, it’s going to take some time to adjust.

I feel more fit, and took my new-old freeride MTB on a 20km spin this morning. I wanted to ride more, but I had to take my daughter to her summer school class. My heart rate continues to come down, though it is oddly elevated after eating a meal. On a more positive note, I no longer have to get out of bed at night to use the toilet, which is something I had been doing for the past couple of years.

andrewclaus

Cycling in the Front Range hills was definitely more difficult after my COVID infection last spring. It took two full months to feel "normal" again. But I only felt the recovery time when on the bike--all other activities felt fine within a week after acute symptoms. Those were mild--I was very surprised to get a positive antigen test result afterwards, just a precaution before joining friends for an indoor event.

Breathing and heart rate weren't alarming during recovery. I just didn't feel much energy, so I cycled slowly. I don't have monitors, and don't have any baseline data, just empirical observation.

Calsun

Best places to get Covid is in an airport or in a passenger jet or in a karoke bar. The Veterans Administration released its findings that those who have had a Covid infection are twice as likely to die from all causes as those who have not been infected. Not unexpected considering Covid viruses affect every organ in the body.

Biker395 

Not good news, considering that when it’s all said and done, virtually everyone will be infected. It’s outrageously contagious.

That bike tour I was on for 2 weeks? COVID ripped through the group with about half of the group testing positive. Imagine being a tour director and having to deal with that!

I joined in about 5 weeks after the start. Not happy about it, but I didn’t want to sit off all by myself for the entire trip. I also reasoned that dice COVID ripped through the group, it was actually rather safe, as everyone at that point either was immune or had acquired immunity.

in any case, I spent the 2 weeks in close contact with everyone in the group, did my share of saloon hopping and the like and just hoped for the best.

I was also in Quebec shortly before that at a convention, including a dinner with 300 people shouting at each other to be heard for several hours. I’ve also flown at least 6 times in the last few months (wearing a mask).

I was also at a dinner with some skiing friends back in March and I was the only one among 6 at the table that didn’t get COVID.

I don’t think anyone is that lucky, so I’ve concluded that I probably was infected at some point and just didn’t realize it.

Strange stuff.

Calsun

This post repeats the mistaken belief that getting infected results in immunity from future infections which it does not. Being vaccinated also does not result in immunity only a less severe reaction that is less likely to require hospitalization or result in death. The Covid viruses are not like measles or polio or tuberculosis where a vacination can confer immunity to infection.

We have been brain washed by the drug and medical industry to believe that there are cure-alls for disease and yet more than 100,000 Americans die each year from the side effects of the drugs they were prescibed and in the recommended doses by their doctors. Add in the 100,000 plus deaths that are nosocomial infections (HAI or healthcare-acquired infections) aquired while in a hospital, it is prudent to avoid risking hospitalization as much as possible. Getting infected with the mistaken belief it confers immunity is needlessly putting ones life at risk as those of family and friends.

I have been on three group tours in the past 10 years and on each of them a participant arrived with an infection as they did not want to miss the trip or lose their deposits. I got exposed and got their virus on each of these trips. After the third time this happened I decided to never go to travel with a group. I would never go on a cruise ship but air travel is nearly as hazardous. Flying to a destination and then being with a group puts on doubly at risk and I cannot see the possible gain as being worth the potential loss.

zandoval 

So glad you are back home and feeling better. Remember that Covid type infections are Endothelial infections. That is they inflame the linings of your organs including the Peri-Cardial sack and plural linings of your lungs. The older you are the longer it takes to recover regardless of how healthy you may be. To be on the safe side treat yourself as someone who is recovering from heart surgery. That means a six month plan to full recovery. Here is a link on Endothelial publications. If you can stand it, its worth the read...

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32882706/

This virus and virus type is not really following many of our established rules. We are years away from understanding its potential. That's what makes it so easy to politicize. Us Vets have an easier method of understanding its nature. We just consider it weaponized...

Biker395 

Not so fast. The post described a situation where people were infected with the COVID virus and presumably the predominant virus not more than 5 weeks before my arrival. The studies I've read make it clear that those people who have had and recover from the infection are immune for at least 5 weeks afterward. A minimum of 12 weeks is the number I recall. After that, it appears that you can be infected by even the same variant and certainly new or different variants.

Every act has risks and rewards. While drugs have the risk of side effects, they also can cure or reduce suffering from disease. My understanding is that the standard for FDA approval is that the benefits outweigh the risks. So long as those risks are understood, I am OK with a system where they can be voluntarily assumed (or rejected, as in your case).

I don't remember suggesting or even implying that anyone do that.

To each their own. I've toured with lots of people, flown a lot of plane flights, and done a lot of cruises (but no cruises since the pandemic).

I saw a recent study that suggests of those infected, some 58% are asymptomatic to the point where they don't even realize it. And the infectiousness of the virus leads to some bizarre outcomes. I know a guy (unvaccinated, which puts him at extreme risk, IMHO), who DROVE to his mother's funeral to avoid flying. The service was small ... with only 10 people or so. And of those 10, all but him got COVID. Pretty bizarre stuff ...

Calsun

A lot of assumptions based on what is convenient and not the current reality. I have neighbors with the wife in her sizties and her husband in his eighties and both have been vaccinated twice and they managed to get infected twice when taking part in what were for them essential gatherings.

The studies that come up with numbers like 58% are inherently flawed with poor methodology and small study groups and not controls. Stating 58% are asymptomatic assumes that a large population has been tracked and tested and monitored and this is not being done anywhere in the United States. Even basic tracking has been avoided by our politicians who think that it is better to keep the public in the dark.

When xrays of post Covid people have been examined there is permanent scaring of the tissue in the lungs. This is not something I would want to have occur if I had a way to avoid exposure. Miners and bakers and concrete workers and ex-military often develop scaring and emphysema that does not go away - ever. The idea that one can get back in shape after a Covid infection is wishful thinking.

Iride01 

So you mean I could be better than I was before I had COVID if I never had COVID? I was in bed for three weeks and almost sent to the hospital. Yet I seem to be doing everything I did cycling wise before I had COVID. A few more rides and I think I'll have that PR for a climb that's been eluding me this year.

It's only scare tactics to point out the worst and ignore the norm.

Biker395 

Eh?

For sure, being vaccinated does not prevent infection ... at least not with the variants today. How is that relevant to whether someone infected only a few weeks ago and since recovered is likely immune to that same variant? Back in 2021, immune persistence existed even 1 year after exposure. Omicron has changed that to a lesser figure, but I have read nothing that indicates it is less than 12 weeks.

Here is a link to the study about asymptomatic infections ... you are correct in that the number of participants is small, but even with that small a number, it is clear that many infections involve asymptomatic disease: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...tm_term=081722

Unless you've had an antibody test, you might be surprised to learn that even you were infected at some point. Its not really controversial ... it has been known for a long time that a very large proportion of infections are asymptomatic. My 94 year old mother tested positive and had no symptoms whatsoever.

At this point, I think we all know people who have had COVID and have fully recovered. I certainly do. Lots.

COVID is no joke and with the risk of long term damage and long COVID, it makes sense to avoid infection if reasonably possible. But as infectious as it is, that may not be possible for a lot of people ... at least not if they live their lives as they want to. Everything I have read indicates that just about everyone will become infected at some point, and many who think they have never been infected probably have.

And that was the point of my post really. I wasn't suggesting anyone follow my example (we all get to make our own choices) ... just musing that perhaps I already have been infected and did not know it.

bikehoco

Ditto

MoAlpha

Oh, stop. Have you observed the number of World Tour cyclists, to name one group, who have had symptomatic infections and come back to place highly or in or win races?

rsbob 

Interesting reading. Have been twice vaccinated and twice boosted and avoided the bug, as well as international travel, for two years. Decided it was time to get out in the world again and flew masked to Norway. Their daily infection rate is 2 per 100,00. Sounded pretty safe. We flew masked up above the arctic circle to some beautiful fjords and islands. Virtually no one ☝️ n Norway was wearing a mask anywhere. We decided to drop our guard and forego masks on the flights back (prop-jets). After loading there were two preteens directly behind us. One had a horrible loose cough. My wife and I looked at one another and grabbed our masks. Three days later we both tested positive. That was in week one of a three week trip including Ireland where we are now driving ourselves around, eating outside, in the car, or in our rooms. My wife got Paxlovid before the trip which she just finished her full course. I am without and taking all sorts of drugs to suppress symptoms.

my symptoms are typical, low fever, congestion, cough and low energy. The usual mental fog I get with a standard cold I have now, which isn’t exactly helping me drive a 5 speed Opel on the left side of the road through roads with no center lines that are typically 25% smaller than in the US.

should be home in another week and hope to be feeling better. On Paxlovid, my wife has already tested negative where my gray line only gets more dark. First world problems.

will report on recovery and cycling when back

wear your masks on planes!