MinnMan

I've got it now. I had a day and a half of fever (up to 101°F) and some very mild respiratory symptoms - mostly just a slightly drippy nose. I'm on day 3 after symptom onset and the fever is down to 99°F, with a drippy nose still. I haven't had a cough.

Guidance here says 10 days of full rest from onset of symptoms

https://exerciseright.com.au/athlete...post-covid-19/

Curious to hear of how everybody has approached this.

Daniel4

How many vaccines have you had?

A former coworker caught covid before his scheduled covid vaccine in November 2021. He is still suffering from long Covid.

My two sons who are in Asia recently caught Covid. One recovered fairly quickly and the other is taking the ten days to recover. Both had theur boosters.

It's like wearing a seatbelt. It won't stop you from getting into collisions but it'll reduce the severity.

Iride01 

I think you probably will know when you are ready to ride an easy ride or make a hard effort.

It didn't take long for me after I got over COVID and mine almost had me going to the hospital. After getting over it I stayed off the bike for about 2 weeks. I felt a little iffy about my heart so I went and saw a cardiologist. After some tests he said I was good to go.

Took a few months before I really felt normal again.

MinnMan

Five, including the bivalent booster in September.
Thanks for the perspective.

MinnMan

Of course, I could still take a turn for the worse, but it looks like I'm having a much less extreme experience than that.

Here's the part I didn't mention in the OP. In less than a week I'm scheduled to go to Girona for two weeks of riding. At the moment my plan is to go as scheduled (flight is past the window of CDC guidelines for isolation) and then see how I feel. The first few days, I likely won't ride - I'll just enjoy being in Spain. Then I'll try short easy Zone 1-2 rides with a close eye on my HR.

Clyde1820

I would say, in general, that everyone's different. Hard to know how a given person's experiences might be, even if nearly everyone else we hear of has a "typical" route to normalcy.

A good friend of mine was fully vaccinated. Then, early last year she caught a mild case of Covid. But it did a number on her blood's ability to carry oxygen. Blood O2 way down. Lungs are clear, and every other indicator (from numerous scans from her doc and specialists) seems fine. But, little to no "zip" anymore, due to the lack of O2.

So, even short stairs have been a problem. Cycling's been out. Hefting around boxes of stuff from the house to the trash has been a challenge. Bopping around town on errands has been a challenge. Singing in the choir, nearly impossible.

Except, after ~8mos of nastiness it now seems to be improving. O2's much better than it was and is gradually improving. Slowly, she's able to do more, with less huffing and puffing, with less need to sit down and rest. If this continues, she might well be more or less back to normal in another 4-6mos. Time will tell.

MinnMan

Very interesting. And sobering. I'm very early into this, and saying that I have only mild effects is perhaps premature.
If I feel fine, then after the nominal time-off, I'll get on the bike and see. If the HR or apparent exertion are strangely high, then I'll stop and wait longer....

terrymorse 

I had almost the same symptoms as you: 3 days of fever, no cough, pretty tired for 5 days.

I started doing some light exercises after the 5th day. Mostly strength exercises. I gradually started feeling better, but the fatigue lingered for a few weeks.

Clyde1820

That's roughly similar to what I had (cold+aches, or whatever it was). Two days of coughing and sniffles, with a bit of temperature and aches, followed by a week or more of general fatigue that cleared up soon after. No apparent lingering effects, thankfully. <-- This appears to be what most people I know experience, though occasionally a more-challenging recovery happens. Strange little pathogen, this one, wherever it originally came from.

MinnMan

Fever is gone. Just a drippy nose, and otherwise not feeling fatigued. So I"m going to go to Spain on Tuesday (2 more days from now), will pick up the rented bike on Wednesday, but I will likely do little. to no riding in the first few days. And then we'll see.

Kai Winters

I'm currently recovering from a bout with Covid. I've had the double vaccine last year but I got it anyway. I had fever of 101, sinus congestion and general malaise for the first 3 days which then lessened every day. I also have quite a cough which I've been told is a great way to "cough up", pun intended, the phlegm in my lungs from the virus. It is now day 21ish and I just have a bit of a cough left...it comes on after harder efforts while zwifting...not during the effort but after when recovering from the effort. It is similar to "exercise induced asthma" which I also have but not often. Still some general weakness but it seems I'm about 85% recovered...just a guess.
I stopped riding just for the first 3 days as I felt like crap and spent most of the time sleeping.
Covid sucks but I guess I'm lucky in that the effect wasn't too bad.

MinnMan

Interesting. So after the 101°F diminished to something less, you were back on the bike right away? I think I'll be more conservative than that.

Best of luck for your imminent return to 100%

I know about exercise-induced asthma - I've had bouts of it for years.

zandoval 

Nice to know of your recovery. Please try to remember that COVID and COVID type infections cause Endothelial inflammation. That includes the limning of your heart, lungs, intestines and other organs including your brain. Even if you are not having outright symptoms you may still have critical inflammation in your body. Its hard to tell when that inflammation is under control even when your temperature returns to normal. We do know that there is a full 21 day window for that inflammation to calm during recovery in healthy people. So... Take it easy stud.

Do everything you can to reduce Stress and Inflammation during your recovery. Of course... You know this so I am just a preaching to the choir...


slideserve.com

MinnMan

Yeah, thanks for the reminder

More here

There's.a reason I was so cautious all this time. I did not want covid. But a 4 hour holiday flight sitting next to an unmasked guy with a terrible cough, and neither my many boosters nor my N-95 were up to it I guess. And 3 days later, there it was and here I am...

MinnMan

Well, I was about to declare myself symptom-free, as I no longer have a running nose. But tonight at dinner I realized that I've lost my sense of smell. This wasn't true yesterday.

So I'm living what everybody else has already told me -this is a weird and unpredictable virus.

one step at a time.

canklecat

Fully vaxxed here: two initial full dose Moderna jabs in 2021. Continued taking precautions including masking. But by late 2021 most people in my area weren't taking any precautions, including city bus passengers, some Uber and Lyft drivers, etc.

I still caught the Super Cooties in late 2021, hitting me hard the beginning of October that year. At first I thought it was just bronchitis or upper respiratory/nasal inflammation. But it dragged on and on, with symptoms more akin to COVID. Not bad enough for an ER visit or hospitalization, but I needed two course of Prednisone to knock back the inflammation to a tolerable level.

And it completely zapped my energy for months. I had vertigo and had to quit riding my bike outdoors for most of 2022. I took up jogging more often, walking when I didn't have energy for that. Some indoor bike trainer sessions. But I never regained my pre-COVID strength and energy. Similar reports from friends my age who had the same experience, and these guys were even stronger riders than I was. We've lost about 10%-25% of our former physical stamina.

I got my half-dose Moderna boosters on schedule, December 2021, June 2022, and a couple of weeks ago mid-Dec 2022. Ditto, flu, shingles, etc. I've seen younger, stronger people who decided against the COVID vaccine and ended up in the hospital ICU or morgue, including some friends and distant relatives. While the current mutations appear to be more virulent but less deadly, I'm going to continue getting the boosters as long as it takes and the vaccines are updated to keep up. Nothing new there. Most of us who were infants and little kids in the 1950s-'60s got multiple doses of vaccines for polio, DPT and others. I still have my childhood shot card that shows I received four and sometimes five doses over a period of a few years in early childhood. We've just forgotten what it took to rein in formerly widespread communicable diseases. I've wrangled with an auto-immune disorder for about 20-25 years, so I don't take it lightly.

On the plus side I seem to be getting back to where I was pre-Super Cooties. I had to postpone a planned half-marathon run in 2021. I finally did it on the last day of December 2022, this past Saturday, running a solo 13.3 miles. And a warmup and cooldown indoor trainer spin of 30-45 minutes each. And walked a mile and a half home from the store carrying about 10 lbs of groceries after my run. I wasn't fast, but I finished. So I'm finally encouraged after a year of struggling to regain my former fitness.

mschwett 

i am not sure how much use the broad range of experiences of others will be here! listen to your body and your doctors, if relevant.

personally, i had it about a year ago, fully vaxxed, was very tired for a few days but didn’t actually skip any rides, including the day i tested positive, the day after, etc. the only noticeable effect on riding for me after the very tired days was a 10% higher heart rate.

Daniel4

It is to give a sense of comfort that everything will be ok because back in 2020 and 2021, Covid was the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer. Even in 2022, there are still a lot of Covid cases but the media has stopped reporting them.

canklecat

The mainstream and pop media aren't reporting much on COVID anymore, but I follow a couple of epidemiologists on FB and at least glance at their links to medical journal updates on COVID. It still seems relevant to me. Especially because I caught the Super Cooties despite the vaccines, and had lingering after effects for almost a year.

There was a sorta mainstream media report this week on the latest variant causing different symptoms than the familiar upper respiratory, lung, loss of sense of smell and taste stuff. The current variant seems to be causing more myalgia -- widespread muscle pain. I've had that for years anyway, due to an auto-immune disorder. It got worse after my bout with COVID in late 2021, and has become a daily thing. My muscle aches are around 5 out of 10 pretty much every day. It's background noise now. I toss back an acetaminophen, aspirin or, occasionally, ibuprofen, and exercise almost every day anyway. I feel better after walking, cycling or running.

China is getting hit hard. They finally abandoned their restrictive "zero COVID" policy that basically turned the entire nation into at-home confinement, a virtual prison state. But after escalating public protests the most severe restrictions were lifted. Almost immediately COVID hospitalizations and deaths skyrocketed. So the lockdown was working... in a way. It also gutted the economy and manufacturing sector, and was risking government instability.

But China didn't take advantage of the two-year lockdown to develop an effective vaccine, or nurture a better trade policy with the US to import Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, or manufacture them in China under license. So they're at the crisis point where the rest of the world was in early 2020.

It'll impact the US economy in many ways, including availability of some cheap consumer goods. Dollar stores rely heavily on Chinese made goods. It's already getting harder to find fully stocked shelves of health related items in the dollar stores. They're often out of generic acetaminophen, aspirin and ibuprofen, and cough and cold and allergy meds.

The bicycle industry is already in the process of shifting away from Shimano as a primary source of components, and even next tier stuff like FSA, MicroShift, even SunRace, may be displaced soon by components and groups from manufacturers whose names I haven't even been able to memorize yet. But some YouTubers were quick to spot and predict this shift a couple of years ago, even before the pandemic.

MinnMan

I went for a short ride today - 12 miles. I took it nice and easy and kept the HR low.

I was on the lookout for high HR, fatigue, and muscle cramps or spasms. None of the above.

So call it.a success.

I'll ride again tomorrow. Maybe up to 20 miles. Still taking it super-easy.

Daniel4

Five days. Congratulations.

How's your tasting and smelling?

MinnMan

sense of smell is only partially back. It's a surprisingly annoying effect. Am hoping it won't last too much longer.

Still antigen positive, though the "T" line on the lateral flow test has become quite faint.
I'm wearing an N95 mask when I go out where there are people or into stores.

rumrunn6

selfish morons. good luck, hang in there

rumrunn6

our (fully vaxxed) 26 yr old Daughter tested positive 12/27. haven't seen her since 12/25. Wifey & I have both been testing negative several times since then. she's coming home for a visit for 2 nites today. looking forward to seeing her in person & finding out how she is feeling. she doesn't exercise much & has been complaining of general "inflammation" (fibromyalgia) for years

Daniel4

I think my son was testing postive for ten days even though his coughing had been subsiding. Take it easy. Maybe you shouldn't be so anxious to go riding.

(When I had appendicitis, my surgeon insisted I don't ride for 30 days.)