The current goal is to not get my wife and daughter sick and keep my own down time at a minimum, so I've pretty much shut myself down and am currently sprawled out on a couch.

Guess I'll work on the golf game for a few weeks again when I'm up and moving.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

I got hit with COVID about 10 days ago while on vacation in Hawaii. The three adults with me all got it, but my daughter who was recently boosted about a month ago, was totally negative despite all her continuous exposure. We adults all had the full vaccine course with 2 boosters but still got it.

Was very similar to a flu for us, except didn't go quite as deep into the lungs, and had more of a nasty sore throat. I didn't get fevers but the two other adults did. I still have an annoying cough 10 days out, but I've been surprised out how functional I've been trainingwise, as the deep airways are clearly fine once I'm going hard.

I'd still do as everyone on this board recommends, and take it EASY until you're sure you can go hard. For me, that was pretty quick, luckily, although I'm still not 100%.

I admit I was very surprised how nasty the Omicron COVID was in terms of symptoms. A lot of comments on Fox news say stuff like "I didn't even notice I had it!" or "it's like a mild cold!" - for sure in no way would I say that about our infections, which were significant. We almost brought a 78 year old grandmother with us on the trip - for sure, that would have been a really tough time if she had gotten it.

Replying to you just because you're the last commenter.

I raced in Lubbock on Sunday, after waking up on Saturday with a mild headache and an 'off' feeling I dismissed as pre-race nerves. I had a great race, then was coughing (productively) post race, which I attributed to track hack after racing hard. Got back home on Monday, just felt tired... then woke up on Tuesday congested and with a runny nose, which finally prompted me to test - positive. Double vaccination and booster, but haven't had my second booster yet because I've had two canceled appointments (thanks Walgreens..). Had a few waves of fatigue on Wednesday (yesterday) and one side of congestion today, but otherwise feel totally normal, EXCEPT for steady GI upset since Tuesday. That's been the worst symptom so far :(

I feel pretty fortunate that this has been so mild FOR ME and that there's no obvious consequences to racing with it. I was planning on taking this week off/easy anyway, but I'll be adding another week of super light/easy before starting back with training to be extra cautious. I feel pretty dumb for not paying closer attention pre-race and possibly sharing germs with so many other people, so a preemptive apology to my fellow racers down in Texas. I had been sort of following this thread, but I'll be following it much more closely now.

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KJ
Swim and Triathlon Coach
AllTerrainEndurance.com
KJ@allterrainendurance.com

Yeah. I noticed this bad boy. It wasn't terrible -- but it's definitely not nothing, either.

Got paxlovid. Hooray for having a history of traumatic brain injury.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Well, I've started doing some very light aerobic exercise.

Have managed:

• 3 swims from 1,000 to 1,400m. Very easy
• 2 bikes from 15 to 20 mins. Very easy
• 3 run/walk/hikes from around 17 to 21 minutes, just walking and hiking (2 of them had some steep trails) as I feel necessary.

Haven't gotten sick again, apart from after my 21 minute run today I've started to get quite a runny nose - I'm hoping it is just hayfever.

Running was weird today - felt quite easy to begin with, then just felt tired and like it was lots of effort, albeit with a low heart rate. Just walked for a bit when it started to feel like lots of effort.

rrheisler - be wary of brain fog etc with covid if you have had concussions before. I've had 4 concussions last 10 years and headaches and brain fog has been worse since I got covid.

To be honest I think that's why they got me on paxlovid so quickly -- I've had increasing neuro issues the last few years likely all tied to my really bad one in 2014.

Fatigue and a little bit of haze today, in addition to the symptoms I described above. That said, about 3 hours since I took my first dose of the anti-viral and it definitely has made a difference. HR has come down a bit and I don't feel *as* shitty.

Still going to take it very easy coming out of this. Walking / golf / swimming in the outdoor pool. Riding and running likely out just given the terrain here (we average about 200 feet of elevation per mile in every direction from my house).

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Day 3 here, second full day of paxlovid.

I'm wrecked. Exhaustion. HR seems to be leveling out about 15 BPM higher than normal. Throat is worst it's been and I have something I can't quite hack out of it stuck which is fun.

In all: 0/5 stars, do not recommend, would not do again

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

I'm on Day 5 of symptoms, not eligible for Paxlovid because of the inhaler I'm on. My symptoms have been quite mild so far, likely because I've had five vaccine doses (2 AstraZeneca in a clinical trial, 2 Pfizer, 1 Moderna). Mostly just congestion and mild headache now, I did have a sore throat and fatigue earlier but those are gone. I'm feeling well enough that I'm now kind of bored at home. I'm extremely lucky, and also recognize that I don't know if I'll have long-term impacts for quite a while.

I 100% caught this at sprint worlds in Montreal, and definitely at the race venue outdoors. I wore a KN95 anytime I was indoors and drove to and from the race. Several on Team USA have tested positive since returning, and I would guess that many of them also got it at the venue although some may have gotten it dining out, flying, etc. The newer strains of omicron are extremely contagious and being outdoors isn't categorically safe anymore. I may consider wearing a KN95 before swim starts now, especially at big races like nationals and worlds. In Montreal, they didn't have a means for us to dispose of a mask at the start, so I guess I can shove it in my suit at the start. What a world we live in.

As far as training goes, on Days 1-2 my coach scheduled me to do nothing because these were directly after two big days of racing at worlds. Day 3 I felt OK-ish in the morning and went for a 30 min jog, but then felt pretty awful and nixed the scheduled afternoon swim even though I'd tested negative that morning. Day 4 I did an hour easy spin on my bike per coach instructions, then took a COVID test and saw the nice bright line on the test. Since then I have only gone for some short masked walks in areas/times with nobody else around, and done my mobility work because I don't need an injury on top of this. Today I'm probably going to do some muscle activation work and possibly 30 min of indoor biking at 30% of FTP just to facilitate blood flow. If I feel terrible, I'll stop, but my experience with other viruses, including full blown influenza, is that when symptoms start improving, I benefit from very light aerobic activity to help clear out my lungs and improve bloodflow.

Oof. Hope you get better soon, man.

Also - my resting heart rate was 2 bpm elevated on Day 1, which I attribute to post-race weekend. Since then it's been normal or low. I must be a mutant.

My resting heart rate hasn't changed - if anything, it's maybe been 1 bpm lower than normal. Felt 100% two days ago AND yesterday, but then I coached (masked) on the pool deck for ~1 hour yesterday and Garmin's body battery absolutely drained. That drain was confirmed (to me) by the nearly 12 hours of sleep I got last night... this is a weird one to recover from. I'd really like to be outside this long weekend but I think I may be forcing myself to stay prone and indoors just to be safe.

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KJ
Swim and Triathlon Coach
AllTerrainEndurance.com
KJ@allterrainendurance.com

I finally got it after two years, so I rested for two weeks. My fitness was already shit because the world's governments decided the population should be sedentary, only buy from Amazon, and never leave the house.

Now, I'm back to my terrible fitness level, pre-covid, but I am 3 years older, so thankfully the standard has dropped significantly. I am finally working my way to being elite the more people get sick and pretend a cold hurts their fitness. I could never keep up physically or mentally with the Alpha-male Liberals and their fancy bikes, training plans, educations, and youtube channels.

Now...is my time.

Yeah I'm firmly on "team nap" for this one. Oddly, *my* Garmin says I am "peaking" - which doesn't surprise me and probably tells you how much stock I put in what it says.

LOL - my MO is "how do I feel" and judge whether Garmin is right or not based on if it is lining up with my feelings :) very scientific.

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KJ
Swim and Triathlon Coach
AllTerrainEndurance.com
KJ@allterrainendurance.com

My resting HR curve on Garmin was what told me "oh, shit, better take a test" and found the positive.

Today has been weird -- I feel mostly better outside of my throat, which can be best described as feeling like I'm trying to swallow razor blades. I eagerly await what tonight's crazy-ass sleep cycle will bring.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

So an update from far into the future for those newer members of covid club.

I'm about 6 weeks from when I caught it. Only in last 10 days am I feeling that I've fully shaken the symptoms. I've done a few swim squads, cycling up to 2 hours (yesterday, biggest ride so far, fairly hilly and 250w NP). Some run walking today (runnign held back by an achilles thing anyway) and the HR for the run intervals has come back to normal in last week or so. I was still sleeping 11+ hours after 2 weeks (normally I wake up after 7 without an alarm).

Had a really odd day last wednesday of extreme fatigue, just like the initial weeks, but I'm putting that down to non-covid things.

I'm surprised to see that some coaches are still advocating training in early stages. Not sure globally but most of the NZ elite sports protocols are nada for the first couple of weeks, and then a very very very mild rehab 2 weeks+ before any actual training. This due to the link to early exertion and long covid. My physio was part of a trial and she was the 'test dummy' group who was asked to do some mild runnign in that first week. Took her 8 weeks before she was able to return to training as opposed to the 4/5 weeks of the 'rest' protocol.

Do you have access to that study? I'm in the fortunate position of having planned to take this past week (covid week) and next week as an "off season" anyways before building to 70.3 WC. I'm a little concerned about lingering symptoms for myself since I raced in the early days of it! But, I would also love to have that study as a resource for my athletes when the inevitable "I want to start training hard again" comes up. So much more concerned with longterm health than short term goals.

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KJ
Swim and Triathlon Coach
AllTerrainEndurance.com
KJ@allterrainendurance.com

I'll see what I can get from my physio. Remind me in a couple of weeks as 1) I'll have forgotten and 2) she's not around next week as she's off doing some study for her postGrad degree.

I can also see if my coach has access to anything in public domain.

Infographic. Graduated return to play guidance following COVID-19 infection | British Journal of Sports Medicine (bmj.com)

"#Athletes should have had at least ten days of rest and be at least seven days symptom-free before starting any exercise."


Same thing in simplified form: - COVID-19 and athletes: returning to sport after illness (sportsperformancebulletin.com)

Thank you so much!!

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KJ
Swim and Triathlon Coach
AllTerrainEndurance.com
KJ@allterrainendurance.com

Thanks for this -- it was basically what I was planning on doing for myself here.

Anybody else deal with a horrific sore throat through this? I don't think mine's been this bad since I had my tonsils removed.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

I thought I’d chime in… I got CV the week before my Chattanooga race. I did not know it at the time, because I thought it was just a cold. Worst sore throat of my life. Congestion. Incredible headache. No elevated temperature. Significantly elevated heart rate during any kind of activity. Resting HR about the same, surprisingly. Took about a month to start to feel somewhat normal again, but I am pretty sure it is still slowing me down.

I’m finding the run is taking ages to get back however it’s prob a combo of down time and fitness loss.

As for sore throat my wife complained of that a lot. My second born had a nasty temp and vomited while my other son just coughed forever.
Random virus

I've seen the "graduated return to play" BJM article circulated a few times. I think it's worth pointing out that it's from May/June of 2020. That's first variant, pre-vaccine, pre-delta, pre-omicron, pre-paxlovid, etc.

I'm not saying that anyone has definitive answers at this point given that we're still in the midst of a pandemic that's continuing to evolve and impacts different people in very different ways. But I wouldn't hang my hat on studies that, within the context of COVID, do not reflect the current reality (though it might be more relevant if you're unvaccinated).

Northy - Agree. Challenge is the 'current' thinking is of course still being researched, written, reviewed and published. Interesting though (to me) that the UK study still seems to be what is being advocated in professional and elite amateur sport down here in the corner of the globe.

Re sore throat, I lost my voice (no soreness) the day before I tested positive (day-1) , then had an absolutely grim razor throat on evening of day 0 and through days 1 and 2. Wasn't too bad by day 3.

Responding to the last post in thread - not to a particular person.

My experience was that of a typical upper respiratory illness. Got sick 2 weeks ago after coming back from Vegas on 06/17. Had pretty bad muscle aches and low fever for 2 days, spent 2 days in bed, then went through a few days of low appetite/low energy/low spirits. I'd say that by day 10 I was back to normal more or less and started working out 14 days after showing symptoms. Had an obvious loss of fitness, higher HR, etc - all normal stuff, like after a bad cold or a minor flu.

A side note is that my 18 yo daughter got CV in May, and her illness progressed the same way. She was up and running after 10 days. Also she did not really quarantine inside the house and neither did I since it is just not practical due the house size and layout - and my wife did not get sick either time. Maybe she has some super immunity or something.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment