Can't believe no one has recommended Paxlovid.

I'm vaccinated and booster'd and acquired the variant recently from my wife who was the first to test positive in our house. I felt lethargic and had a fever on day 1, promptly started the Paxlovid that evening and when I woke up on day 2 feeling like a new person. I still had the URI symptoms (congestion, mild cough) but the fever/lethargy/systemic symptoms were gone. Oh and it's quite possible you will experience a bitter or metallic taste after starting Paxlovid. GL.

I was actually coming to this thread to recommend the same thing (if you can get a prescription). Sister woke up with a fever and tests positive; I test positive a few hours later with only the slightest inkling of symptoms; I get a paxlovid prescription a few hours later due to being somewhat immunocompromised right now and have been taking it for 3 days now. No fever, no cough, no fatigue, only a tiny bit of a sore throat in the morning. Honestly amazing and refreshing after being sick so much recently and having a bad first bout of covid in 2021. Going to try a light workout tomorrow and will closely monitor my heart rate, but I'm very thankful I was able to get the antivirals so early into my infection.

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Benjamin Deal - Professional - Instagram - TriRig - Lodi Cyclery
Deals on Wheels - Results, schedule, videos, sponsors

Damn I’d never heard of this. It’s just been listed on our pbs in aus for use by those immunocompromised. Being type 1 id fall into that category. Well this is helpful if I get it again.

Fwiw I’m day 8. No symptoms as in headache fever etc etc. weakest of weak positive on a rat test yesterday.
Daily life I wouldn’t feel a thing and know any different ……But again the training hr has been the only issue. I did a zone 1 easy pootle today. Sun was shining and I did an hour at snails pace. That was enough for the ticker to bump to 155 on the odd occasion (I’m 42 fwiw). Less than a month ago that was my half iron heart rate pace. I’m not being silly with it though. I have reached out to fellow club members who have said it has taken them 2-3 weeks and basically overnight their Heart rate returned to normal rule of function for the intensity of exercise. It’s these stories of months and months that are scary.

Day 3 post +ve RAT. So seems like it was 6 days since I was exposed and possibly I was infectious from the day after, with those people starting to be positive or show symptoms today. Yesterday I was a complete mess. Horrendous headache, everything sore and pulseox through the floor. Today feeling more alert but have a worsening cough (I'm a mild asthmatic).

Interesting that my Garmin 'stress' score has been really high the last two days. RHR elevated about 20 bpm from normal.

Not attempted to leave my room (I'm isolating in a hotel as I was away with work when I tested positive), but did do a few rounds of heel raises from my physio for my achilles issues. Not completely sure but may be losing my sense of smell - still have some but think it's 'muted'. And also getting waves of hunger, albeit that goes after a glass of water. Can see things would get very bad for long term health if I was at home with access to the comfort food shelf.

I been good on the tooth too. Put the biccies down you will regret 🤣

Welcome to the jacked hr club. Running is now your enemy for that.

w/r to Paxlovid, just curious, how did you get a prescription? Isn't it restricted to folks with certain medical conditions? Over here we have a similar registration for Paxlovid. My wife's a doctor in a hospital and she was really surprised to hear that "athletic" folks would get a prescription.

Day 5 with symptoms for me. Tested positive. Its like I have a moderate cold but with terrible fatigue and a terrible headache that won't go away. Yesterday I tried to run, got in 30 minutes before the fatigue just overwhelmed me so I shut it down. Today I went for a 1 hour long run, nice and slow. Got it done but had to walk a couple of times towards the end. Slowly my strength is coming back but I am going to take it easy for a while and not push it.

Tested positive yesterday but have had a dry cough since monday night. My journey started with my losing my voice last Saturday. Never had that happen before. I felt fine otherwise, raced an Olympic Sunday, felt good, Monday night the coughing started. No other symptoms. I was resting post race anyway and thought it was related to the voice thing. Continued more and more coughing as the week went on. Took a home test that come up negative but after a hard night coughing Friday tested with a clinic that came back positive.

This is the weirdest illness I ever had. I never really get sick, 3xs vaxxed, not stuffy, no chest congestion, no sore throat, but persistent dry cough (especially at night) and slight fatigue. I don't think I have ever coughed this much in an illness. I can't imagine how bad I'd be without the vaccinations...I can see how this could send you to an emergency room. Thank you science.

I'm going to try a gentle run today and see how that goes.

I just explained how hard covid hit me before and that I've been sick four separate times since January which is abnormal for me so I likely have a somewhat compromised immune system since my first time with covid. Provider wasn't going to give it to me with at least one official qualifying condition but that was enough for them.

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Benjamin Deal - Professional - Instagram - TriRig - Lodi Cyclery
Deals on Wheels - Results, schedule, videos, sponsors

I caught it a week ago Thursday, 2x fax and 2x boosted. Positive test on Friday a week ago, felt horrible (stuffy head, fever, tired) for two days, then fever ended Sunday morning and I got more energy/less symptoms each day after that. Went for easy 30 min bike on Weds, 40 min run on Thursday. Pretty much felt totally normal a week out from the positive test, and was able to do a 2 hour ride yesterday and 2 hour run today.

In the midst of the worst symptoms I was actively reviewing my bucket list to see if I had any regrets of things I hadn’t done. By a week later I’m optimistic I can build back up for a couple weeks and still do the marathon I was training for in mid June.

Side story- my wife caught it the same time, probably a day ahead of me, got anti-virals immediately because she is immunocompromised, and felt basically normal within 24 hours of starting the anti-virals. So wish I had some underlying condition to get them too, but no luck. I think being vaxxed and boosted definitely helped me get through it quickly.

Anyone else finding that since having COVID it seems to be much harder to beat other colds etc?

I'm tripled vaxxed and had flu jab a bit over a week ago.

I got diagnosed omicron start of March and started training again start of April. Just really short easy stuff.

Began with 25 minute bike and 25 min run with 1 min walk, 1 min run. I did the 10 day no symptom protocol prior to starting. Then got sick again a few days after resuming training so took more time off until 25 April or so and started really easy, then started feel sick again, took more days off, then started training again 4 May and managed to build to 1.20 on the bike and 25 minutes of straight running.

Then got sick again mid-May and have not trained since. My sickness symptoms are very mild - like running/blocked nose, feeling stuff down back of my throat, but I know if I resume training it is likely to get worse so I haven't. I've now had 4 months where I've managed to string together a maximum of around 4-5 days only without feeling sick again. Got sick end of January but didn't test positive for COVID until March.

Should I just give up on training until I am entirely symptom free? I'm a type 1 diabetic so have somewhat compromised immunity already, but I don't think I've been this 'mildly' sick for so long. When I got like this in the past, it would usually take me 7 to 10 days and I'd then recover.

Should I just give up on training until I am entirely symptom free? //

Short answer, Yes.. You just described the classic Type A athlete when they get sick or injured with anything. All you have to do is reread your story here as if it was someone else. Then you would see that a few more days, perhaps weeks in the beginning, would have shortened the total time sick in the end. Problem is that when it is us in the middle of this stuff, we just cannot seem to recognize our best path out of it. We just have to test it when we shouldn't, or just say fuck it and go for it when we get frustrated and tired of being sick.


I know this because I was this guy several times in my career, taking a 2 month sickness and turning it into 6 to 12 months. But I did eventually learn my lesson, so now I do nothing with a new runny nose or scratchy throat. I just assume everything that feels like a sickness is one, and any training(even sub 100HR stufff) just makes my expiration date that much longer....

Back to where we were.

Now Tuesday (I tested positive before symptoms Friday AM). Woke up this AM mentally feeling 100%. Really sharp. Physically, I'm in isolation in a hotel room, so in reality hard to know but would describe it as how I feel on a saturday afteroon after a normal 100km club ride. Wouldn't want to go out and do it again, but kinda normal problem free physical fatigue.

Worked all day yesterday, and a bit fuzzy, today was a full on 7am to 7pm (and a bit) of meetings via teams. Did feel a bit dizzy/spacey mid afternoon, headache mostly gone and down to single paracetamol every 5 hours or so. Not off my food, but equally hunger pangs have gone. Now at level matching my energy expenditure.

Cough is still there sometimes, but better than it was. Resting Heart rate last 2 days been at 53, which is down from 67 over the weekend, but still above my 4 week average trend of 48. These are garmin RHR figures, the low is back to 41 today which is back to typical for a normal day min.

Planning a walk in the AM. Big challenge will be to not overdo it as the walk will finish with climbing 3 flights of stairs back to my room.....

Looks like ur hr is returning to normal

I’m day 11 since first positive test. Very weak positive on day 7 but none since. Back at work since day 7 and feel fine generally speaking. Maybe slightly lethargic. But that higher hr lingers still when I look at a treadmill sideways. I don’t expect that to let up anytime soon. I assume this is similar to what an asthmatic feels. Like a slight squeeze on the lungs, like they aren’t fully open. Anyway. Dead of winter here and off-season. I take ownership of a new trek speed concept early July. I really don’t want to be that guy who has a new toy but half his ftp for many months still.

3x vaxxed, 3rd one mid December, flu vaxxed last November.

Went for the last two weeks to the Nordics and adjusted to local habits of not wearing masks, no precautions etc.

• Last Saturday evening very minor cold-like symptoms in the throat.
• Last Sunday my last activity (12 km run, had been running on daily basis in my vacations and was actually starting to notice some fatigue). Symptoms on and off, a bit worse in the afternoon. End of vacation, travelled home.
• Monday stronger symptoms, like a heavy cold. Very tired in the evening. Took home test with positive result.
• Now, Tuesday, feeling much better after a 10hr sleep. Climbing stairs no problem. RHR (Garmin) has been 10 bpm higher than usual the last two days.
• Let‘s see how this continues.

I read that rest is paramount. Like no activities for at least 7 days after symptoms are gone. Hard to accept.

Having gone through COVID in early April and still dealing with the consequences, I'll say that if I could do it all over again I would err more on the side of caution in terms of getting back into training.


I'm glad this is starting to come up in discussion - at least in places like this. This is NOT "Just a cold", as so many have blown covid-19 off. NO ONE knows exactly how contracting the virus will impact them. For some it will pass through with few symptoms if any. For others, it will feel just like a garden variety of head cold. For others the actual illness from the virus will be quite severe - some will bounce back reasonably quickly from this while others will suffer Long Covid ( some people I know who are reasonably athletic who have Long Covid - have NEVER been able to return to training yet - almost 2 years on!). While for a small group it will be fatal. This is WHY avoiding getting sick from it initially, however you do that, is important - because again, you have NO IDEA exactly how you may be impacted.

20 years ago - caught full-on viral pneumonia. At the time I was VERY physically fit. Had left triathlon, but was still in 1:15ish half-marathon fitness. I was bed-ridden for almost 2 weeks. Had to take almost a full month off work. It was the sickest I have ever been in my life! Some permanent damage via scaring was done to my lungs. Told that my lung capacity was about 75% of what it was before! It took me the better part of a YEAR to get back close to the level of fitness I was at. I was told I was just unlucky to catch that particular virus, and it do that too me. That was NOT covid-19, but I just want to share this story to let folks know that these things CAN BE very serious. Just blowing them off as "nothing" is a mistake!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Thanks Fleck, interesting to read.

Day 6: Plan was to walk this AM but realised that when I checked in it was for just one night until last friday, so whilst extended my room key hasn't been swapped. Thankfully checked before nipping out and then discovering I was locked out of the room. I've taken this as the training gods keeping an eye on me and protecting me from myself ;-)

So still coughing indeed in shower this AM think that it's all loosening and so hopefully clearing via the medium of some grim coloured lung snot. Did about a quarter of a pilates set and really feeling that - same sort of feeling as day after ironman where all your limbs are suddenly triple their weight even as you sit there. And 45 mins later spent sitting at desk HR is still holding steady at 87bpm. Hmmm, may skip the bike FTP test on Sunday.... (To be clear, joking. Coach isn't even letting me do swim squad at weekend).

@Duncan74 this sound almost exactly like me. I'm 48, seasonally-severe asthma that I control really well with Cingulair, but I always have low blood o2. Tested positive on Saturday afternoon - interestingly, that was an antigen test, and I did a PCR test less than 24 hours prior in order to fly from Vancouver to Las Vegas and it was negative. I woke up feeling "pressure" in my throat/ears and overly tired even for the early morning flight, then got home and just didn't feel right.

Sunday most of the day my "face" hurt - jaw, gums, cheekbones, eyes - but no nasal drip at that point. Headache was mild, like 1/10 at most, but I was pretty acny, no fever but I felt like I had one, and pulse ox down to 92 ish.

Monday the face stuff was gone, cough had arrived, and mild nasal drip too. Overnight last night the cough got way worse, and I can definitely feel something similar to asthma pressure in my lungs.

I got on Now Clinic for a virtual visit and was able to get a prescription to Paxlovid - for anyone interested, the guy who wrote the Rx said Sam's Club has it and they're "never out" - don't know if that's just a Vegas thing or what, but worth checking around.

Even more similar - I've been on Singulair for last 20 years. I'd forgotten the way even my teeth felt sore on day 1....;-)

Good points. Only thing I'd add is that many/most (but certainly not all) covid long-haulers experience a mild acute phase of the illness. Count me in the 2+ year camp. At this point, I've thrown in the towel on any exercise beyond simply walking. The symptom relapse / post-exertional malaise that eventually comes along from trying to do anything more just isn't worth it.

There is some evidence, retrospective studies, that Singulair helps reduce the severity of COVID. I think they are starting a clinical trial now.

This topic is depressing me. I just tested positive and feeling better a couple of days after initial symptoms and positive test. But reading through this forum regarding long term affects is depressing. Trying to also err on the side of caution I cancelled a planned Half Ironman in June so that I do not over do it. Now the question will be how/when to start my routine up again and once started how to ramp it up. I think I will half all my typical day to day distances and relax the pace for those shorter distances and see how I react.

But reading through this forum regarding long term affects is depressing. //

Yes it is, but it is also enlightening, and someone in your position is in a perfect spot to take advantage of all the stories and information here. Should not even be a thing to decide on any silly short term gain, vs the long term horrible affects that could and are happening to many athletes...

Yes. Got covid in Feb. Bad cold like symptoms for two days, took a full 10 days off and then two weeks easy training until HR back down. Was testing positive for the full 10 days. Then had an awesome for me March and April, very consistent training and fittest I've been in years in prep for HIM June A race. 42 this year and triple jabbed.

Picked up a respiratory infection from my 9 year old two weeks ago, which had forced 10 of her 30 classmates off sick, and that has been way worse than covid. Because it wasn't covid I did my usual of a few days off then getting back to it, expecting the training to help clear it, but it's still lingering. Sinuses blocked and then forcing mucus on to the chest. HR up just like covid. Probably even more fatigue. To top it off my wife then brought home some Norovirus, which hit my 5 year old. Then my recovered daughter picked up what must have been a different norovirus. I've managed to swerve both, but the disrupted sleep holding sick bowls and bleaching toilets certainly hasn't helped my recovery. Everything just seems rampant at the moment and I think from a training and racing perspective it could have more of an individual impact than covid. And then you read the news about Monkeypox...

As someone coming off 2 full years of injury and just getting back to consistent training (still with limited running) in the last month, the posts here have made me stay totally sedentary for the 7 days since I tested positive. OK, first 3 days covid made that a non question, but the posts here and the comments of my coach and colleagues all mean I'm doing nothing at all until late next week (day 14) at least.

Possibly too conservative? Maybe.
Possibly too aggressive, no.
So worse case I'm 1 week down on where I could have been, best case I'm 6 months + ahead. And at 47 then 1 week behind is laughably insignificant, but 2 more years off possibly/probably means I've run my last race.