Thanks for the post. Although I have not had Covid I have had similar symptoms in the past which seemed like CFS so I have an idea of what you are experiencing and I know it sucks.
Never found a reason for it, but the only thing that helped was rest and moderation of exercise with very gradual increases.
I have been vaccinated but still being pretty cautious due to the Delta variant and my compromised immune system.
Hope it gets better for you.

Thanks for the encouragement. I haven't exercised in about a month-in-a-half.....although it's killing me, I've learned to be patient and hopeful for the future, whether it be through the 2nd Pfizer shot or simply by giving my body time to heal. Or, perhaps some medical breakthrough. If the numbers are as high as they are predicting, no doubt there will be a significant amount of research happening soon.

I don't believe I ever had COVID, but I've been dealing with slightly elevated heart rate since I received my second dose... over 1.5 months ago. I've tracked my heart rate throughout all my training for 7 years... the only times it's this high is in January after I detrain for a month and eat pizza and drink beer.

I'm going to my primary care doctor in two weeks to try and get a handle on all of this.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

This was always my concern. Dying would be obviously horrible for my family, but have some of these symptoms would be down right miserable to live with indefinitely.

We live in Colorado and do all of the outdoor things. That would basically be gone.

I hope you get better. I couldn’t imagine dealing with this for so long.

The part I'd add to that is that people choosing not to vaccinate partly base that decision on their perceived chance of catching it.

Depending on where you live that chance has varied depending on local measures. Eventually everywhere will open up, it's inevitable. At that point the number of cases will probably eclipse anything seen before where you are. The options to shield yourself will drop as employers want to get back to normal and gradually people are less careful.

Once you decide to get vaccinated you (typically) get the best protection about 3 weeks after the second vaccination with say 8 weeks between vaccination. Obviously the details vary with the vaccine available.

My point is if someone hasn't been vaccinated by now they are months away being fully protected even if they do something about it tomorrow. I think your cautionary tale is timely. We have the back and forth here with the vaccine hesitant but I wouldn't wish poor health on someone just because of that. The game is changing and if people aren't careful that time lag will catch people out.

Good luck with your own health. Given the scale I imagine lots of research into this is ongoing as we speak.

Been living with it for over 15 months now. Endurance sports is pretty much over for me.

OP here.

To Route66, I'm tempted to say the usual things like "never say never, keep up hope, this can't last forever" but after 15 months it's easy to understand your lack of positivity. Personally I'm researching Long Covid in the news daily. There seems to be a surge of articles these days...every day there's at least two or three new posts. Most are just reporting on the extent of the problem, but even that, for me, is something to be grateful for. As the problem becomes more widespread we'll see more research into cures or at least strategies to cope. Good luck!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57776010

I have fibromyalgia, which I've had for about a decade. What I've had to accept is that there are good days and bad days, and that what I'm able to do at my peak I couldn't even think about at my lowest. I'm never going to be a pointy-end racer, but I can still train in some capacity and race to the best of my ability. I hope that you're able to find a way to get back to sports.

Yes, COVID is bad for those with autoimmune disorders. But they sorta know how to deal with it already.

But now there’s a large number of newly affected that face these challenges for the first time.

Good news is that there’s plenty of resources and help out there for those suffering from autoimmune.

You don’t have to give up endurance sports, you just have to adapt and accept certain limitations.
As one thing is for sure:
Life with endurance sport is always healthier than Life without.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, because I'm not blaming you for saying it or anything, but its honestly an exhausting and insulting thing to hear.

My last race was literally Kona and now my endurance sports (16 months post-infection) amount to the days I'm well enough to walk my dog. I'm hoping I don't have to give up my job

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Me: https://carnivoreendurance.blogspot.com/...ever-comes-next.html

Latest: Colorectal Cancer is in the News Again. Don't Blame Red Meat
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I find that terrifying personally and really feel for you as I know how I would be

Praying they find treatment that works for you and everyone else impacted

I understand the sentiment. I had Covid in late March 20 and I've been suffering from Long Covid since, full spectrum of symptoms some of which have eased significantly (joint pain, tachycardia, arthiritis etc) and some which persist relentlessy in up/down cycles (headaches, brain fog, fatigue).

A good day for me means being able to do a full day of my job (desk job at home which I've had to take a more junior role), walk the dog round the block and spend time playing with my kid. A bad day, I'm exhausted for walking the dog, have to lie down and can't concentrate to look after my son. I went for about 9 months without being able to watch even a film or 'complex' tv show due to lack of concentration & light sensitivity. Sport is out of the question right now, I've probably had about 5 days in the past 16 months where I thought I may be able to do something more, but I refuse to give up hope and sell my bikes/treadmill etc. I was at my worst about 6-8 weeks after the original infection and merely walking up the stairs or stepping in the shower was too much, as was emptying a dishwasher, these are incredibly trivial tasks considering what most of us are used to be able to do.

People do need to understand the long term impacts that lots of people are suffering. The more people are talking about it the more progress that will be made and hopefully this provides some momentum for those who have been living with ME/CFS for sometime.

Thanks for posting and happy to share any experiences, I don't have the answers, but have had limited success with purely pacing and breathing exercises.

Sorry to hear that. That sucks. My dad is a physician, and what he's told me about the long covid and the vaccine, is that it is typically AFTER the second dose. Frequently with worse that normal symptoms that resolve in 36 hours, along with the long covid symtoms.

I wish you all the best, and good luck with #2.

No worries, it’s the internet and there is a spectrum for long covid, ranging from tiredness to (rare) death ( Guillaume Barret Syndrome / Creutzfeld Jacobs).

Sounds like you’re severely affected and I hope that you get all the medical expert care you may need. There’s treatments and there’s hope.
Wishing you all the best!

I'm sorry, man.

I think that has to be harder in some ways than having been chronically sick for a long time; I have no high peak to have fallen off of, so any time I'm able to do a thing it feels like an achievement. I don't have Kona as a reference point. That has to make "adapting and accepting" really, really sting, and it's just plain shitty.

I hope you are able to recover fully over time.

You two make me glad we've got a cat instead of a dog, because I'd hate to be on the hook for daily walks, lol. Some days no problem, but others, no way. I get the impression that there are quite a few endurance athletes who have been hit with long covid from the various long covid groups I've monitored through all this. I know that I was doing some heavy bike work on the trainer between the time I presume I was exposed to the virus and when I developed first symptoms in March last year, so possibly that played a role. I've read comments from a couple people who seem to have made a return to some longer running (slower than before), but that's about it. I thought I was making a slow return to normalcy and had done a very gentle return to some activity 3-4 days a week, but that all came crashing down late last year when I got greedy one day and went outside for a 5k slow jog which sent me into many more months of heavy fatigue and my first experience with brain fog. So I'm much more careful now with exertion on good days. Pfizer vaccine gave me horrible headaches for several weeks and has left me prone to them pretty much daily, but a couple of months out now and the constant fatigue has become more sporadic. Not sure if the vaccine is to thank for that or a prolonged period of little activity.

Anyway, good luck to all of you with your recoveries. I'm looking at it in term of a multi-year recovery to whatever degree of health I achieve again, but know that I'll never want to tax my body with endurance training again even if I feel I'm up to it eventually.

Worthwhile read to understand current knowledge : https://www.nature.com/...s/d41586-021-01511-z[/url]

1 in 10 of those who contracted the virus end up with long covid.

Interesting you say that about the vaccine. Was the onset fairly immediate or did it come on gradually? I had sporadic headaches in the initial months but the crushing migraine type have only been an issue for maybe 6-8 weeks. I'm ten weeks removed from my second dose of Pfizer. Seems other people around the internet have mentioned something similar.

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Me: https://carnivoreendurance.blogspot.com/...ever-comes-next.html

Latest: Colorectal Cancer is in the News Again. Don't Blame Red Meat
https://carnivoreendurance.blogspot.com/...news-again-dont.html

Yeah, I also had a couple months of daily moderate headaches early on after the acute infection last year, but those would come on gradually as I got more tired in the afternoon and would clear overnight. The post-vaccine headaches I got started a couple days after shot #2 -- those were hideous, on and off 24/7 for about 3 weeks, debilitating at times and would awaken me from my sleep in agony most nights. Ever since they let up, every day there's a sense that another bad headache's lurking, and sometimes I get a bit of one, but nothing like during that initial three-week period after the 2nd shot. I don't know if it's vasodilation, microclots, or something else (have heard a few theories), but the sensation isn't like any kind of head pain I ever experienced before. Then again, not much with covid and PACS is like anything I've experienced before.

You're not alone.
My wife has the effects, since contracting the virus at the start of April last year. Nearly 3 weeks in solitary confinement before the fever reduced below 38C. All the 'classic' symptoms as now understood- coughing hard, banging headache, chest feeling like it's being squeezed tight all the time, totally fooked while doing nothing, etc.

She still can't run, and sometimes out of breath just on a dog walk if there's an incline. Some days better than others.
It's really a case of step by step. She is better than a year ago.

One of our friends in our tri club I also struggling with long covid - with the painful chest remaining for months and months (a year + now actually).
Here is something she has found helps hugely - open water swimming! Particularly with colder water. It seriously relieves the chest pains when she's in, and for a period of time after. She found that by chance when she went into the sea on a family break after being badgered by her daughter to go in for a swim. And for the 1st time in about 4 months was free from the chest pain. Still helps her now. See the bbc link below.

She's got up to 4.5 miles on her longest swim so far this year (despite BoZo shutting all pools and outdoor swim venues for Jan, Feb and March). She's still not fully over Covid by a long way. But there's got to be some hope from what she's found.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-54513618


Good luck.

This thread is a worrisome and sobering read. Wish and hope for the best to you guys affected.


As an FYI, this was in recent WSJ article....


https://www.wsj.com/...opwebshare_permalink

Idea is that covid disrupts the immune system resulting in latent viruses emerging. The latent viruses cause long-covid symptoms.
It also mentions that the usual lab and dr office tests may not pick up latent viruses being active (i.e. resulting in a false negative), but more sophisticated tests can detect whether latent viruses are present.


Researchers that are studying this are also mentioned in the article if any of you want to track down their published / ongoing work on this.

 
I'm sorry to hear so many on this forum have been struck by it ---- no doubt you've experienced the horrible multi system dysfunctional response to exertion that is often delayed by 24-48 hours -- known in the scientific and patient community as 'post exertional malaise' or PEM --- it is the antithesis to the triathlete lifestyle -- you will now have to train yourself to rest hard in order to preserve your already diminished quality of life.

You're probably also experiencing a great sense of loss and fear of further loss: of health, triathlon, family and social activities, work / income, and on and on -- you may (very likely) encounter health care professionals that dismiss your symptoms, or gaslight you ('its all in your head'), or recommend 'graded exercise therapy' maybe with 'cognitive behavioural therapy' like they are pushing in the UK --- part of the loss may be confidence in your doctors and the health care system and you may feel marginalized and abandoned.

Or, like me, your greatest fear may be that you become bed bound, unable to even care for your self - and that, like some, you'll be so sick and so sensitive to light and sound and movement that you will need to be alone in a dark silent room, laying completely still in order not to 'exert'. I'm not down for that, and I don't know how 'live' that way.

Fwiw, I had a viral infection in summer 2012 and missed IM Mt Tremblant -- after a few months the PEM symptoms abated and I sloooowly increased exertion -- I assumed I was over that virus and raced short course summer 2013 --- had another month of mild symptoms Nov 2013 -- raced short course summer 2014 (13 races, 10 podiums, 4 wins, total brag).

But then the symptoms returned again Dec 26 2014 while riding my bike ---- that was the last time I rode a bike and I've been sick much of the time since -- could not walk more than 15 minutes on flat ground not carrying anything...can't shovel snow, carry groceries.

Fortunately I am a responder to rapamycin -- I can now walk my dog twice a day for 30 minutes each -- it is harder to induce PEM, and when it occurs, it is less intense and shorter duration -- but not everyone with post viral illness responds to it.

Long COVID was predictable.

People who've previously gotten sick with a virus and did not recover -- like a good chunk of people from the 2003 SARS outbreak, and countless other flu epidemics -- have been warning any one who would listen that many, many people with COVID would not recover --- yet the medical system acts like chronic post viral illness was a brand new phenomenon -- this speaks to the pathological problems embedded within the medical system -- as a long time AIDS activist, and more recently a patient safety advocate, I came to the realization that the medical system is not designed to correct errors, especially institutionally embedded errors - it is designed to further consolidate their power and the status quo (so I have moved away from patient advocacy, coz I don't want to validate a system by playing a role that sustains it -- and it is futile to try to change the system, we need a new system and so I welcome AI and robotics and blockchain).

I connected with another triathlete via this forum -- he's a doctor and wrote this excellent article about his experience as a patient: https://gallagher80304.medium.com/

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Advocating for research & treatment for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).
http://www.meaction.net/about/what-is-me/

"Suck it up, Buttercup"
(me, to myself, every day)

Thank you for your kind, empathetic, informative post. Postviral syndrome, post-sepsis syndrome ... a whole lot of us were already begging people to hear us out at the very start of the pandemic. I hate to say it but for some, there are outcomes that are worse than death. I didn't die, so I don't think about it too much, but ... I don't have words for what my life became three years ago, persisting 'til now. I do remember learning to walk again (twice). I remember learning to swim again (such profound empathy for adult-onset swimmers ... ) I can finally drive again.

Everything changed.

My heart really goes out to those of you struggling with long Covid. I imagine seeing others have a really cavalier attitude toward the illness or the pandemic might feel like a slap in the face.

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Yanti Ardie of Y Tri Multisport & Majick Juice for lasting critter defense & skin soothing
~ World Open Water Swimming Association Coach & Official
~ IRONMAN Certified Coach (Founding Member)
~ Triathlon Australia Professional Development Coach
~ 3 by the Sea: my Journey from death to ...