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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [IamSpartacus] [ In reply to ]
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I DNF'd Lake Placid on Sunday 9 miles into the Run. Within minutes of getting back to my condo I fell asleep. The day before my throat was dry and scratchy, but no other symptoms. I tested positive for Covid on Wednesday morning via rapid and PCR. Only had a dry cough for less than 2 days. Resting HR has only be slightly elevated 4 or 5 beats from AVG RHR 40 to 45.

I went for a short 4-mile Jog yesterday. HR stayed reasonably low despite the heat. But today I'm wiped out. After reading this thread I'm just going to take it easy. Day 5 of quarantine today. Hope everyone else is coming along. I had both Pfizer shots in April 2021. I didn't get boosted because last Pfizer shot my lymph nodes in my arm pit blew up like a water balloon.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [blueapplepaste] [ In reply to ]
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blueapplepaste wrote:
SteveDDS wrote:
It's nice that your Dr. prescribed Paxlovid for you. I specifically inquired about Paxlovid with my Dr. and he refused to prescribe for me. Not sure why, but i'm a little pissed about it since I've been sick for a month now.


Same for me. Just tested positive over weekend. Went to doctor, was told I'm not at risk for developing pneumonia or being admitted to hospital so refused to prescribe it.

First 48 hours were brutal. Felt like 80% the intensity of the vaccine side effects, but 6x as long. Fever has finally broken, so I'm optimistic the worse is behind me. Thankfully I haven't lost my taste/smell, so I can at least still enjoy a morning coffee. Though appetite is minimal at best.

Just to update my experience:

Today is Day 8 since testing positive. Symptoms nearly completely gone. On Day 6 I developed a very mild chest tightness that feels like the early onset of an EIB. Still persisting as I write this. Cough is all gone as well. However, zero issues getting enough air and don't feel out of breath ever. Even going up and down the stairs it's a non issue.

RHR is completely normal and moving around the house doesn't cause any spiking. I also don't feel fatigued or winded moving about.

Still resting and not taking any chances with the chest tightness still lingering. If it wasn't for the chest tightness I would never have guessed I'd had COVID.

Going to continue to sit and do nothing for a few more days. If the tightness still persists I'll probably ring my HCP just to be double sure nothing more sinister lurking underneath.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [jrielley] [ In reply to ]
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Great add to the thread.

I'd estimate I'm in stage 3 on this chart -- and figure there's no reason to really fuck around with entering higher HR zones until we can better match up effort / breath rate to heart rate. I'm exactly 31 days since testing positive.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [IamSpartacus] [ In reply to ]
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It does...but it's SLOW and variable. My wife and I both had COVID last April/May. Took me about 2 weeks to get over the initial effects (tired, brain fog, etc.). She had the whole coughing bit MUCH worse than me. We started training for races again 2 weeks after that and both of us got easily winded (TBH, we weren't in the best shape to begin with). By the end of June I was FINALLY able to ride/run again...and ended up completing a Sprint (more of a death march, but I finished!) in early September. We I in better shape (though I *was* riding about 10 hours/week prior to COVID) I think it might have been different? But even my doc said my story wasn't uncommon.

Now, just over a year later it's all just a bad memory.

Hope you get well soon...and recover quickly!
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [rrheisler] [ In reply to ]
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First easy run went well today! HR stayed within the normal range and so far my body is not fatigued from it so hopefully I can continue with the easy runs until the weekend then see how adding some pace feels. But this cough is super annoying! Hopefully it doesn’t stick too long because I can see that being an issue when running at faster paces.

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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [SteveDDS] [ In reply to ]
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I have been told by a doctor that Paxlovid is designed to keep people out of the hospital but there is no evidence it helps patients with less severe symptoms.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [Hokiebird] [ In reply to ]
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Hokiebird wrote:
Hi Flek, (and any MDs out there)
Do you think the 3 days of intense activity primed your wife to be more susceptible to a more severe infection? Can a person be at an apparent peak in overall racing shape, but have an immune system that is somehow not in prime condition to resist and respond to a viral infection? There is literature on overtraining syndrome and upper respiratory infections, but I didn't see anything specifically covid-related. Can the inflammation response to high intensity exercise add to the infection response?

None of these questions have definitive answers. Every case can be different. I am just speculating here, and wondering what future studies will reveal.

I think this is a really good question as I picked up covid during the peak of my training for a marathon. It was the first time I got covid, and I had been wondering if I became more vulnerable because of my intense training. I'm also one of those people who will get sick right after a race if I keep training intensively afterwards.

My experience with covid was a couple of days of really bad flu symptoms, then fatigue, congestion and cough for the next month. I do not say congestion and cough lightly - I could feel it ripping through my lungs so had chest pain and tightness the whole time. For a few days, I really didn't know if my body could fight it. I did nothing for a month. After waiting a week without symptoms, I started slowly training again keeping a close eye on my heart rate. After a couple of weeks of light training, I was pretty much back to normal fortunately.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [Trirunner] [ In reply to ]
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I'd disagree with that -- it definitely kept symptoms at a manageable level here. I was still pretty sick, but it never got any worse, which I think was the point.

Granted, I'm considered "high risk" due to my brain injury history.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [rrheisler] [ In reply to ]
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I've seen some results of some very small, non-reviewed as well as some anecdotal observations that Paxlovid is an effective therapy against long covid as well. I think the theory is that although contained, there is still virus living in the digestive tract for several months post infection that contributes to long covid in some cases.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [rrheisler] [ In reply to ]
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I feel the same. I was eligible for Paxlovid because I take an immunosuppressant drug to treat a severe case of an autoimmune disease, and that puts me in the “high risk” category eligible for Paxlovid even though I’m otherwise healthy in terms of BMI and other criteria. My doctor discouraged me from taking Paxlovid because of the side effects, put I pushed for a prescription.
I started taking it day one, while bedridden with awful body aches and the worst headache of my life. I’m now on day 16 and did a 1:20 masters swim workout this morning, followed by 1:15 of tempo work on the bike. Two weeks ago at this time I was still bedridden and now I’m back to swimming and biking at 100% (running is another story - that’s taking a lot longer to come back). I don’t know for sure that the Paxlovid was a factor in my speedy recovery, but I’m very glad I took it and will push for it again if I get Covid again. I don’t have any lingering symptoms other than a HR that jumps into Zone 4 after just a few minutes of easy jogging. I feel VERY lucky.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [Iron Dukie] [ In reply to ]
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This is my 2nd round with Covid since April (I'm lucky!).

The first time, I got infected mid-April (was trapped in work meetings with someone who tested positive the day after the meeting). I had ALL the symptoms but never tested positive. Because I never tested negative, I wasn't eligible for Paxlovid. My asthma flared so bad I almost went to the ER (Day 4) and I ended up needing to carry my rescue inhaler with me everywhere and I had to go on a steroid inhaler for a month. I also developed a sinus infection and went on a Z-pak at week 5. All in, I was sick for 6 weeks, mostly with angry lungs, crushing fatigue, HR drift, and brain fog.

The second time, I'm 99% sure I got infected while at the Oregon 70.3 race (I stayed in a house with 6 others who all were fine, I was in a different swim time than the housemates, otherwise we were together for the WHOLE weekend). Got a positive test Wed after the race, got Paxlovid that afternoon. I still had a mild fever, aches, chills, headache but felt substantively better at day 4-5. Asthma has only been minorly affected. No HR drift - I've been able to ride my bike at a low Z2 and keep my HR <65% max. I'm at 3 weeks in and feel about 90% better.

My n+1 experience with Paxlovid has been substantially better than without it.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [mvenneta] [ In reply to ]
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mvenneta wrote:
I wonder what % of athletes that have CoVID have these elevated HR issues. From this thread it seems like a very common problem - I wonder if that’s just cause it’s those folks that post?

This thread scares me :)

When’s it good to get back to training? When HR drops to normal levels?

I'll chime in for the first time. My RHR is pretty much normal but any exercise shoots it right up.

Male, 31. 3x Moderna with the last one 6 months ago.

Last Tuesday felt completely normal, had a good swim and bike ride. Had an achilles/calf issue which prevented me from runnnung for 3 weeks. Feeling healed, I was so excited about putting my running shoes out before bed again... of course woke up the following morning feeling sick.

Day 1: massive headache, sore body, fatigue, chills/sweats. Went to get tested and confirmed positive. RHR was elevated 10-15 bmp.
Day 2: complete change in symptoms. No chills, soreness, or headache. But got a mild fever, cough, and congestion.
Day 3: feeling better. RHR coming down but still elevated.
Days 4-5: continuing to get better and RHR back to normal. When going about my day, feeling nearly 100%. Still testing positive but feeling like I could work out if I wanted to.
Days 6-8: feeling good and RHR normal. Feeling restless and ready to start exercising. Jogged 700m super slow to the test facility and HR jumped like I was doing a tempo run!
Day 9: easy bike ride to test the waters. 70% FTP for 1hr. Had some serious HR drift, +25bpm. Dropped power but HR didn't drop, so I stopped at that point.
Day 10 (today): first negative test. RHR elevated by 10-15bpm again, maybe because of the bike ride.

If it wasn't for a HRM, I honestly wouldn't know something is wrong and I'd probably be pushing my workouts again. I'm definitely more fatigued and sore from the easy bike than normally, but I also haven't done any exercise in 10 days, so I would've assumed that's the reason.

The lack of exercise is is killing me inside :(
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [IamSpartacus] [ In reply to ]
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3 days in...what a pain.

My own fault. Have been taking public transport (because it was easier) to visit a friend in hospital. Got caught in rush hour and on a full bus with hardly anyone wearing a mask, where the 7 minute ride, to the subway, took half an hour.

I now know what life will be like when I'm 80. Going up (and down) stairs one at a time and panting at the top. HR all over the place. Ballet practice is out.,,lol
Oh and living in the basement, isn't that where all old people end up.

If it goes too long my one and only A race is done for.

The good news, still losing weight.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [michael Hatch] [ In reply to ]
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 Just to further update my experience. I'm now 3 weeks from first positive test and feel great.

Had some minor chest pains around Day 10 that I went to the doctor for. They did a litany of heart tests and imaging to make sure it wasn't myocarditis or something else. Everything was perfect. Was told it's probably costochondritis. So took NSAIDs for several days and it went away.

Finally back exercising "normally". What would have been an easy recovery pace/power feels like a solid Z2+ effort. HR higher for effort than it was preCOVID. Longest effort was 1hr, but I started out with 15 minutes and worked my way up day by day.

I also chalk that up to being sick for several days, and not doing any physical activity vs long term effects at this point.

Even without COVID, going 2 weeks sitting on the couch would have been a rough time getting back at things.

My recommendation is to listen to your body and not be a hero. It was tough, I went a full 2 weeks w/o any activity and last several days of that I felt like I could have. Glad I didn't and took it slow and gradual.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [blueapplepaste] [ In reply to ]
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I’ll update my experience as well. Took 5 days totally off, then 5 days easy. Then Saturday on day 11 I did a 5k and felt good. I had very mild symptoms and no elevated hr, tracked from day one of covid to track progress.

After 10 days started my normal training plan but had a lingering super annoying cough. Didn’t really impact much but was not fun at all. Messaged my doc and he prescribed me albuterol (90 mcg every 4 hours which I don’t use every 4), qvar (?) 2x a day, and a steroid pack for 6 days. Started yesterday and it has been amazing. No coughing which has been great.

Even with my symptoms I would not want to get this again because of the lingering cough. 8 weeks until the Chicago marathon so will be playing it super safe until then. But I also don’t live that fun of a life anyway, ha.

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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [BigBoyND] [ In reply to ]
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Update from me, as well.

About 5 days after the first negative test, I am feeling 100%, aside from the fitness lost from time off.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [ In reply to ]
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I've been reluctant to post but think it might benefit others so here goes:

I had a splitting headache, runny nose, chills with a low fever on Sunday 7/31 that developed while I was traveling. I tested positive and holed up. My symptoms abated and tested negative on Friday 8/5. I did IMAK on Sunday, 8/7 coming in under 10 hours. I was bradycardic for the entire race but otherwise felt decent. I was still able to do a 7 mile hike to the Mendenhall Glacier the day after the race.

Since then, I've had neck-up congestion come and go and periodic waves of feeling fatigued and just generally off. Symptoms have never developed below the neck.

I'm thrice vaccinated FWIW. Covid's such an odd illness. I have no regrets about having raced and just feel really grateful and fortunate to have been able to do so.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [jorts] [ In reply to ]
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Replying to last post, as general reply.

Last week I searched this forum for "crud", which is the term used often for respiratory infections here. I found threads from 2017, 2018, 2019, and Jan 2020 that discussed members' experiences with severe respiratory infections and lingering symptoms that affected training. Some mentioned up to month long recovery times. I didn't go back any further in time.

I have had colds and flu with varying recovery times. For most colds I've always given myself about 2 weeks before trying to do normal training. One week for the illness, then one week for just getting back to daily life activities. Then I would start training gradually. I had one bout of flu back in 2009-2010 era where it was a longer recovery, about 4 weeks as I recall.

I'm not trying to minimize COVID or claim it is "just another virus", as I have had immediate family members and co-workers die from it. And I am doing all I can to preserve my own and family's health.

I think it is interesting to see that this forum has "documented" informally the effects of respiratory infections from year to year, and that each year there has been something that affects triathletes enough to significantly disrupt training.

I don't think any of the previous threads had near the number of responses as this thread, though. And in the previous years, I didn't recall people writing about scrapping their entire season.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [Hokiebird] [ In reply to ]
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2 days into the start of the school year and my son brought his new friend COVID home to meet the family.
He ended up vomiting that night, but the rest of the time just having a slight fever for a day and mild/moderate cough and slight sore throat the rest of the time. He is now back at school, and only tires in the early evening. Said he wants to wait till next week before starting Ultimate practice.

Wife got it a day and a half later. Bad sore throat and bad cough. Body aches one day and one instance of vomiting. She's 6 days past and still has a sore throat, but thinks she may get back running by Thursday.

I got my last ride in this past Thursday and started showing symptoms Friday afternoon, slight nasal drainage. Tested positive Saturday morning and had body aches all day, but just drainage. Body aches caused me to sleep wrong Saturday night and I woke up with a pinched nerve feeling in my lower back, which made Sunday miserable. But still just drainage and low energy.
Day 4 - and either I'm so stopped up I can't smell or I finally lost my sense of smell. But I can still taste. No sore throat, no cough. But just a general lack of energy. I start to crash at the end of each day and I'm in bed by 8:30 to 9pm.
Now on Day 5 - and it's tracking the same as Day 4.
Resting HR has only been 3-4 bpm above avg the whole time, except for that first day when it was about 6 bpm above avg.
Probably the oddest thing has been the nasal blockage/drainage. I'm prone to allergy infections in the early spring and this started out feeling like that. But it never progressed to moving to a sore throat and chest congestion. It has all stayed in my head, but with a minimal amount of chest tightness.
We were planning to head up to the Mtns this weekend and get some hiking in, but we will see how everyone feels before we making that decision.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [Hokiebird] [ In reply to ]
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https://www.science.org/...nd-people-long-covid

Blood abnormalities found in people with Long Covid
Study implicates lack of key hormone, battle-weary immune cells, and reawakened viruses
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [jorts] [ In reply to ]
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jorts wrote:
I've been reluctant to post but think it might benefit others so here goes:

I had a splitting headache, runny nose, chills with a low fever on Sunday 7/31 that developed while I was traveling. I tested positive and holed up. My symptoms abated and tested negative on Friday 8/5. I did IMAK on Sunday, 8/7 coming in under 10 hours. I was bradycardic for the entire race but otherwise felt decent. I was still able to do a 7 mile hike to the Mendenhall Glacier the day after the race.

Since then, I've had neck-up congestion come and go and periodic waves of feeling fatigued and just generally off. Symptoms have never developed below the neck.

I'm thrice vaccinated FWIW. Covid's such an odd illness. I have no regrets about having raced and just feel really grateful and fortunate to have been able to do so.

That's an impressive turn around. I assume it isn't advised to do an IM the day after first testing negative, but I'm pleased it's worked out for you.

To share my recent experience this month:
- Took 5 days off exercise to try and fully recover, including missing a tune up 70.3
- Main symptoms were shortness of breath, slight tiredness, sore throat
- After 5 days felt normal again
- Day 6 easy 50km on the bike to check everything was normal, very closely monitoring HR
- Day 7 higher intensity 50km as a little stress test
- Day 8 back to normal IM training
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [michael Hatch] [ In reply to ]
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Update 6 days in. Most symptoms gone, sleeping HR back to near normal, had a careful bike ride no HR hiccups, all seemed normal. Lucky me.

Wife, however, is now on Paxlovid after testing positive on Tuesday. Not having an easy go. Fingers crossed.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [michael Hatch] [ In reply to ]
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Responding to the latest reply on the thread. Not exactly sure why, maybe venting here is just cathartic.

I first tested positive 26 days ago. My first time having COVID after all this time. Had the first two vaccinations (Pfizer). Primary complaints were severe headaches, fatigue, moderately high fever, and extreme aches throughout my body. Also had mild congestion and mild cough but neither were a real problem. This lasted about 8-10 days. Tested negative 11 days ago and began extremely short spins on the bike last week (think 15-50 minutes).

I'm really just still having trouble getting myself out of bed in the morning and going through the motions of daily life. Brain fog, malaise. Of course I wonder if lack of activity is a contributor to this from a mental health standpoint too. For some of these short workouts I've begun I truly do feel ok, but other times it's clear the energy level simply is not there and I have to bail completely. I have started with a couple of short, easy runs this week - HR was pretty high for very easy effort level which I did expect.

I'm normally a 2x a day, almost every day exerciser and while getting up between 5am and 5:30am to do workout #1 can feel what I'd call 'annoying' in my normal state, my current level of fatigue is something different altogether. There's no way I have it in me to get out of bed and knock out even an easy effort at that hour.

So I guess my question is - have others had this level of fatigue and did you just shut everything down until it leveled off? I'm trying to follow the 'listen to your body' mantra but I'm in unknown territory here.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [Labrador1] [ In reply to ]
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OP here…. And yes I can relate. It took over 4 weeks to start to return to fitness. And I mean start: because the heart rate and breathing thing was a killer. I couldn’t also find much energy either to do much of it. For a several weeks after a return it was all zone 1 basically, although the hr was more z3. Looking back at Trainerroad I see I did an 30 min free ride, In which I actually hit the pause button a few times, with a heart rate of around 155 and 130 watts! That’s warm up power. That was after 4 weeks covid free. This correlated with my off-season so I could afford to take it slow.

Anyway, Over time u will be able to increase effort and hr will return to normal, or as fitness accumulates, will fall back into line pre-covid times. So what you’re going through is very normal. Some fall back into pre covid routine quicker than others. Many can take time as you have prob read. Just be gentle and build slowly it will come around.
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Re: Covid is kicking my ass [michael Hatch] [ In reply to ]
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Had forgotten about this thread until someone responded to the last post from Aug 17th (2022).

December 1st, ran for an hour yesterday on the treadmill ( hill setting at min). Average HR was just above 140 bpm at 12 min mile pace (with a max at 160). In my last IM race, before the Covid shutdown and the later infection in Aug this year, my average at 10 min mile pace was 120bpm over 10k (outdoors), my Z3 level then . I have been riding and running and lifting (no swimming) throughout the time.

Of course I am also 3 years (****'ing) older.
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