I'm not a doctor, so I would wait for anyone with more knowledge to chime in, but even the flu can create heart complications if exercising too soon. https://www.dw.com/...the-heart/a-16309687

And since it looks like covid19 might affect heart as well, maybe your doctor is right.

Your doctor is right, in fact, why do you have to do any training right now anyway? Find another hobby for awhile, one that keeps your HR under 70..

I hope you plan to only run INDOORS.

Aren't there also suggestions that it can also aggravate and reduce lung function?

Dude, just chill out for a bit and kick the thing properly. There's going to be no racing for a while.

[caveat: I'm not a doctor or any sort of medical professional]f

https://elemental.medium.com/...rything-2c4032481ab2


First thing that popped up when I googled Covid and Blood.

Oh and run with a mask please, somewhere there's no people, I don't think you can pass it on to other animals except cats, stay away from the big ones.

I tend to agree with the hypothesis of the article (actually had sent this hypothesis to elder relatives in my network who have things like hypertension and diabetes), which is why you hear people saying that it felt like they went to altitude and were sucking wind constantly.

Best of luck to Renfrew. I am sure you will come out OK from all this.

I don't know how the medical system works in South Africa. But, here in the US...if I received medical advise from my Doctor that I wasn't sure about, I'd ask my doctor for a referral to get a second opinion...specifically to a "specialist" of some kind for the issue at hand. However, I would follow his/her advise until such time that I have a more informed opinion.

Thanks very much to everyone for the replies. I fully appreciate those comments that have urged caution and made the good point that there is nothing to train for now anyway. Funnily enough, I was actually training for the Quarantine Backyard Ultra, which is on 11 July. But that's out of the window now.

My problem is that I get very depressed when I don't run/cycle and so was hoping to hear some anecdotes from people who have managed to get back quite quickly. But I take the point that there is good reason to be hyper cautious with this virus and that there is no benefit in rushing things. I will just have to buck up and be patient.

And I did also want to take the opportunity to assure those of you who made comments on the question of social distancing: it would not have crossed my mind to leave my property to exercise while positive. What I had in mind was either running on a treadmill or using my Kickr/Zwift.

Slow down relax and smell the roses my friend. Tri will be there waiting.

Unless you're aiming for chronic fatigue syndrome you might want to take it easy for a while. You don't want to cause anymore unwanted long term symptoms. Best to take things very slow for a while.

I have a friend that had Covid-19 a month back. They took a week off and had some tightness in their chest, fever and coughing, but then went back to riding their mountain bike daily by the second week. They are now fine and fully recovered. I don't know if I would have ridden outside like they did simply because I wouldn't want to be a spreader of the virus like that.

Then again, you hear the horror stories where people feel fine one day and then their immune systems start going haywire and things go downhill quick. So it is all a bit of a gamble.

I managed it unsuccessfully, but am 54 not 42. From all accounts that I've seen, people's response to this virus is highly variable. You might be fine keeping some light exercise and only ramping up again once you've been symptom free for a couple weeks. I went through several cycles of taking a break, then starting up again. Here I am three months later with a cough still. Would it have been any different had I completely taken a break for a month or two at the outset? That I can't answer, unfortunately. But there are people that were more severely ill and have fully recovered and are back to where there were before becoming ill with it in a much shorter window of time. Best of luck to you.

Agree with the rest suggestion - no clue where your doctor got the 6 weeks of low HR so it would bear researching. Pulmonary symptoms may take up to 5-8 days to develop after onset of infection. AFAIK the clotting issues are with moderate/severe cases with most people being asymptomatic or mild eg self limited viral illness.

Good luck.

There could be something to continuing to exercise a little to regulate the immune system. I AM NOT A SCIENTIST OR DOCTOR. This is conjecture. The body likes consistency and stasis...so if you usually exercise daily, your body could be expecting that.

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

I've given some more thought to your inquiry about managing a Covid illness. And what I realize now, more than three months into my own battle with the virus, is that you don't manage a Covid infection. It manages you. I'm sure you can do things to make it worse. But you can't necessarily approach it in a way that you are assured to bounce back to your previous level of health in any given timeframe or even at all. There's a very real possibility that your mild condition could persist into the indefinite future, or at least for several months. And you may begin to experience cardiovascular, pulmonary or neurological impacts from this illness that you have yet to see. I've read of people having a mild illness for several months and then crashing with a severe case of it and ending up in the hospital.

Sooo, that said, don't push it. Don't push it at all. If you want to do some light activity, okay, do that. I'd recommend walking, perhaps 10-15 minutes to start, with maybe a minute of jogging mixed in here or there. Take way more rest days than you'd ordinarily take. Way more. Do some light activity. If you feel good, do some the next day. Then take a day off. Take another day off. Watch your eating, eat as healthfully as you can. Avoid alcohol. Get plenty of rest. If you need naps take them. As much sleep as your body wants. Be kind to your body.

If in a few weeks, you have no lingering symptoms, then by all means, consider gradually working your way back into the training. But definitely don't push it yet.

F(&ck sake, do we really have to say this?? Stay indoors.

You have a highly contagious disease, that may not affect you, but will certainly affect others.

Stay indoors.

If have a treadmill, cool, otherwise...

Stay indoors.

Oakie, you clearly have an insatiable desire to virtue signal on the internet. Either that, or you have somehow managed to learn to write (admittedly imperfectly) without learning to read. In my first post, I mentioned my treadmill. In my second post, I expressly dealt with the issue of social distancing. This thread has nothing to do with the question of whether it is desirable for me to exercise outdoors with Covid 19. Clearly it is not.

This is excellent advice. Thanks so much!

This comment, and the one above from nightfriend, really sum it up for me. I could be fine if I start again next week, or I could unleash something unexpected. So, the best advice seems to be to be conservative in the short/medium term and then only ramp it up in a couple of weeks, once enough time has passed.

This is an odd conclusion - I'd suggest the best advice is probably the advice given by your Doctor as opposed to an assimilation of a limited number of personal experiences from strangers on the Internet.

I feel your pain, if I had to take an enforced break for 6 weeks it would drive me mad.... however, it is the right thing to do. The simple fact is that like many of us here, you are adicted to exercise, giving up exercise is probably as hard as a smoker stopping smoking. However, we know that smoking is bad for us and we believe that exercise is good for us.... except in this case it is not, continuing to exercise may be bad for your recovery and long term health.

A triathlete I know had Covid in March, in one of the first outbreaks in Europe. He was not seriously ill, and recovered at home, however, he was only able to return to exercise very gradually. 4 months on and he looks great, we did a fun triathlon last weekend, and it was clear that he is fully back to speed. You are just 42, Covid is going to knock you back for 3 or 4 months, but its a blip, you will have recovered any lost fitness easily by the end of the year

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis.
I am a doctor, am one of our COVID leads at my major tertiary hospital and also on our national COVID taskforce.
COVID-19 is a highly variable disease. It sounds like you have been fortunate enough to so far be at the much more milder end of the spectrum, in fact there are probably a fair few on this forum with similar symptoms who by virtue of either not having access to testing or there not being concern for COVID in their area, do not actually realise they are also COVID +ve.
I think your approach is very sensible at this point in time. With your current symptomatology I would also agree with the advice to avoid any form of high intensity exercise. I get what it is like to be an injured or sick triathlete, we have all trained through the flu and various other disorders before and overall if your symptoms are mild with COVID then you can probably take the same approach. You may find yourself obviously a lot more tired than normal and unable to maintain a pre-COVID level of exercise intensity for the same relative heart rate. I would advise a cautious approach, keep the intensity low, keep the duration low (runs between 30-45 mins, rides less than 60-75 mins). You will lose fitness over this period but the mental health benefits from some exercise are generally underrated.
Listen to your body, if it does not feel right, if it feels too hard etc then just stop and rest for another day. Sick patients with COVID tend to behave in certain ways, it sounds like you will almost certainly avoid being very sick with it, but you don't want to add much in the way additional stress on your immune system at present.
Good luck and let us know how you go. Feel free to DM me if needed.

Below is a link to what the american college of cardiology currently recommends and why. Basically in hospitalized patients they see significant cardiac effects in about 25% of people. There’s concerns about what this could mean in asymptomatic people and mildly to moderately symptomatic people who exercise heavily and stress their heart. While not much evidence, they have proposed return to play guidelines included in the article.

I too get depressed when I don’t exercise. But it might help to understand the reasoning behind the recommendations and what to expect. Might be good to forward on to your doctor for a discussion.

https://www.acc.org/...ovid-19-pandemic-era

I’m not dispensing medical advice, just giving you current guidelines and recommendations to discuss with your doctor. Best of luck!

great reference
thanks

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Brian
“Eat and Drink, spin the legs and you’re going to effin push (today).” A Howe