I am glad he faught it off but read this key piece:

O’Donnell hadn’t set out to make history when he arrived at the U emergency room March 9. He had been worn down from a business trip and stayed home sick for a week while his wife was on a getaway with her sister; their 3-year-old daughter stayed with grandparents.

The article further says he was trianing for another IM. I have no idea how tough his business trip was, how many time zones he was bouncing through and amount of training he was doing. I train pretty hard on overseas biz trips (sometimes my hours are more than at home because I don't have family around), and the most run down I get are by the return leg of those trips. Ironman training and long haul biz trips are super taxing, but its what many have to do in "normal times".

Perhaps if he was just at home training hard, he would have been strong enough that this bounced off him should he have been exposed at the grocery store vs the airport or flight. I've ended many biz trips on the verge of being sick and after two days of normal sleep at home, its back to normal (and like many I flirt with the edge of my capacity to recover inside every trip because it comes with the territory).

In any case, its been discussed on this forum and I don't know if the was training hard, but I think part of the takeaway is lets not do anything (trianing, business etc) to get run down and batter the immune systems we have.

Triathlete magazine just had an article on a female former pro who is a doctor in the U.K. she contracted the virus and is having a difficult recovery. She made a great point about not trying to recover too quickly as she had a bad relapse after exercising too soon. Also has lingering joint pain. This is a very serious disease, a few weeks of shut down will seem like nothing if you end up with long term health issues.

I've done that with seasonal flu about three times. IT SUCKS. Restarted training about 2nd or 3rd day after recovery and virus came roaring back. A few springs ago made that mistake twice. I was sick on and off for 2 months.

Yeah. Keep the distances reasonable and effort easy. And don't risk bike crashes.

This has been known for quite some time. But yeah, stories like this help to further educate people and help them realize this reality.

Training hard promotes your health, training too hard and jumping across multiple time zones will suppress your immune system.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

As a past-master of getting sick after business trips overseas (usual combos - early starts, lack of sleep over the time away accumulating, long hours, not eating as normal, jet lag, stress (like it or not a business trip has stress - you'd not be travelling if it could be done by email) and sitting on dry aired disease ridden planes) it's true that such trips out you in a hole and susceptible. Irrespective of training load.

There's now an Ironman COVID-19? Those guys trademark everything, have they no shame?

I would agree that trips on their own can put you in a hole, then adding training stress on top of that doesn't help. In August I went to Perth, was there for four days, came back, I had 70.3 TC three weeks later...went immediately into the hole when I got home and was sick.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Wow...when an 11 hr guy calls you out for being a wuss.................
Hey, I've got a 19 year old niece who's been sleeping upright for the last 6 days, you want her number, so you can tell her she's a prat.

I read the article in the original post, and I think that you are talking about Tamsin (in the UK). I also read her's via twitter or something. I'd read that she got back to exercise/training a bit too quick.

I suspect I had a seasonal flu around March 6ish. Timing is suspect with everything going on, and Amy caught something at a kid's swim meet a week or two before I got sick. I can't remember the last time I stayed home from work for anything. Anyway, I knew that I was sick. Because of the timing, no idea what it was because in early-March they were still saying there's no COVID test unless you've been around someone or have traveled. And, they were saying to monitor symptoms. I had a sore throat one day, really bad fever one night, and a low grade fever off and on for 3-4 days after, and then sinus issues for a total of about 3-4 weeks.

Just as a data point, I've been tracking heart rate variability. I still coach a few athletes, and while only 1-2 of them track it, I've been doing it for over a year. Other than overall trends/averages I haven't seen a bit difference. When I'm run down the trend is lower, when I"m not, it's slightly higher.

My HRV went from about an average of mid-70s pre-sick to probably low-30s for 2 full weeks during/post-sick. I have not run the actual numbers. My resting HR has never been that low (upper 40s to mid 50s), but it went up to the mid-60s for a full week and very slow recovery back to the mid-50s. I didn't track any of this when I was racing pro...even RHR.

I only took a couple of mucinex pills, nothing else. I did some very very light exercise when my HRV returned to the upper-30s or low-40s after about 2 weeks. I'd had no fever for 10 days and my sinus issues were mostly gone. I figured at that point, it was lower because of being un-fit and recovery from being sick. My RHR has slowly trended down to the mid-50s. My HRV is back up to the mid-60s on average.I exercise now about 4-5 hours a week to give y'all an idea of what I do...used to race pro and train 20+ hours a week.

Point being, you're going to know if you are sick. If you are tracking HRV and RHR they can provide some info for recovery status and when to get back into some exercise/training. I don't know that HRV is the breakthrough that some have claimed it is, but I think that trends can be good. I also think that it kind of helped me take a conservative approach to getting back to exercise. I will still take the day off (even when feeling 100%) if my HRV value is somewhere aroudn 25% below normal just to be conservative. I'm looking at the rMSSD values on the HRV4 app, not the recovery points.

Be safe out there. It's an even longer season, if there even is one. Try to save your immune system for when you need it.

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Brandon Marsh - Website | @BrandonMarshTX | RokaSports | 1stEndurance | ATC Bikeshop |

It really does not discriminate. I am 51 and was training thru the winter for an upcoming long course. I have been racing since 2008, marathons, ironman and trail ultras. March 23rd I came home from work with chills and by night fall had a fever that ran on for 5 days. Fever broke and I couldn't breathe, I had to stop half way down a flight of steps to catch my breath. Brushing teeth felt like full on track work, gasping and panting. My wife took me to the ER and I was immediately put into isolation acute care. Diagnosis acute respiratory failure and pneumonia due to COVID 19. 10 days as the boy in a bubble, IV's, shots, pills and I really couldn't tell you all of the means used. Much of the first days were a blur, fever had returned and I was being closely monitored for blood clots. Hi flow supplemental oxygen for days. I got top notch care here in NYC and do believe the doctors and nurses kept me from the big sleep. I responded well after oxygen was ceased and came home after a total of 12 days. A month ago I was running 20 to 30 miles a week and Zwifting 3 to 4 times a week in anger, now I am mouth breathing under my mask walking the dog around the block. I feel lucky as fuck to be able to do just that. It really does not discriminate.

Your humanity just shines through.

Glad to hear you made it through, good luck in your continued recovery!

Thanks for the good words, the few races I was registered for have cancelled save for one in October. That is my motivation for now. Be well!