That’s not it.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Maybe just some basic bloodwork. Occasionally viral infections cause decrease of blood counts etc which might cause some fatigue.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Had it, tested positive. Had no discernible symptoms - trained hard the entire duration and of the illness. I was getting tested every 3 days and was positive for 2.5 weeks. I think there is a psychosomatic component too it because the media has told everyone that the should be on deaths door.

Pulse ox would be pretty useless. It doesn’t show you how well the cells are processing O2 . In fact low pulse ox’s were the main reason why people were being rushed on to ventilators unnecessarily at the beginning of the pandemic.

Am I correct in assuming that you felt so good that your donut consumption increased when you were positive?

You can't apply what you experienced with to other people because everyone is different. Media won't report some generic and okay cases. They will report on extreme and rare cases to warn people. I have two friends whose moms passed away at nursing homes and they had to say good by over facetime. Another lady(60 yo) who said Covid is hoax is in hospital just got off from a ventilator. She survived but is very weak. She can't go to restroom by herself. Not to mention she hasn't seen her family for over 3 weeks now. She's a freelancer, so she's out of job and money too.

Doubtful that it's psychosomatic.

Pretty much all my daughters friends at college got Corona and tested positive (about 8 in total that I'm aware of). Their symptoms and severity were all different and their recovery times varied as well. None of them needed hospitalization, but some had high fevers, others just a slight cough, etc. Some who got better had no lingering affects, others did.

There is no one size fits all with this. One of her friends who is a runner, still can't run at the same pace she used to.

I am finally getting time to check on my favorite forum (I was/am directly involved in managing pandemic for a large urban hospital) and found this thread. Your post just forcing me to say "I know how you feel, brother!" I was infected in March, was confirmed positive by antibody test couple months later. In March I did not know I had it, not because I was asymptomatic but because my symptoms were discounted even by our senior epidemiologist as unlikely Cv19, and we had no testing capacity for staff. My onset was severe bloating, body aches, weird rash on the chest, general malaise... no fever (and I was taking my temp 2-3 times per day) and no cough. I was lucky that initial "hit" was on the weekend, as I had to be back to work on Monday. That weekend is still shrouded in memory fog. I pre-stocked liquids and frozen meals earlier that month, anticipating supply chain disruptions and getting ill on my own. What I recollect from that weekend is walking about 12 steps back and forth in the room for 20 minutes every couple hours in attempt to manage what I can describe as "exploding inflated stomach" (and there was nothing in in to explode). Stomach was distended to crazy volume and associated pain was about 8-9 on 1 to 10 scale. Simultaneously and for much longer, there was onset of general malaise and fatigue where I remained on my back drifting in and out of sleep unless I had to get up and pace my steps to control pain. I committed not going to ER since they were managing really sick people.

But the other main symptom I had, was just like you, "weird aches and pains." Major skeletal muscle groups (quads, hamstrings, calfs, lower back) felt like it was day after I finished fast IM on zero training. Severe pain grade (8-9 of the scale) remained for 8-10 days. I recollect standing at work with half-bent posture, with hands pressing deep into my lower back, and sweating from pain. Lower back and quads felt like car hit me... And localized stabbing pain in a calf remained for a very long time.

I also had what you described as "weird episodes of a strange feeling of tension in my chest" and throat that stayed with me for 2-3 weeks. Malaise and body pains remained strong for 2 weeks, suddenly within couple days they were gone. But when I took a "test walk" on empty Park Avenue for several blocks, I had to rest after 4-5 minutes and must admit, it felt great to stop ambulating ;-) Muscle pains dissipated by week 3. I started to do light indoor spin after 3 weeks and run "tests" after week 4. My body was sending weird feedback - some day I was devastated by 5 mile run, some weekends I would need only a short nap to recover after 2 hour "run" (more like adventure jog around NYC to look around). In general, running now is very different activity - I feel as I aged 10 years (cardiovascular perceptional indicators), and past flexibility and force off the ground is gone. I am being optimistic and hoping it is all can be addressed by more consistent training next year by documented research on "long haulers" and long term effects make me cringe.

Hope you are recovering and feeling stronger.

Thank you very much for sharing this.

Would be useful to know your age. I'd love to know the age of every person who posted testimony on this page. Could add valuable insight for current and future readers, if folks are open to sharing that bit of private information. Completely understand if not!

I hope you recover completely, very soon.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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📱 Check out our app → Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
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I'd love to know age of all posters on this page and all positive cases discussed! In case anyone wants to post relevant ages, that would be awesome! If not, thank you all dearly, for your information, and I wish you exceptionally good health in the future.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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📱 Check out our app → Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube → Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub

The day after posting this, I was the most sick I have ever been in my life. A solid 2.5 days of it. Fever, aches, nausea, the works. It was another 3-4 days before I started to get some energy back and my resting SpO2 was consistently >95%. Today is week after that and my lungs are still quite unhappy. I have started a bit more activity, but the ol' oxygen bags are the limiting factor. I rode relatively easy yesterday evening, but felt the inflammation flare up quickly. Lots of coughing and chest tightness. Take it easy and try again in a few days. 37 yo male, no med hx.

Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) had it (I think) in August or early September and dropped out of the Giro on Oct 17th (a day after your post haha) due to "bronchitis". He obviously wasn't there quite yet. Now, this was after only a month or so and a grand tour is hard on any immune system. Especially in the shit conditions in the Giro.

Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma), who tested positive 2 days before your post, hasn't logged anything on Strava since. Not even a Zwift ride. I know that doesn't mean anything with pro cyclists, but in addition to that there has been complete radio silence from the team about his condition. I do remember a throwaway comment in a Dutch podcast that he initially was asymptomatic but got worse about a week later, but I'm not sure I remember that right.

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Citizen of the world, former drunkard. Resident Traumatic Brain Injury advocate.

Take it easy! Go for a walk or something but keep an eye on the old ticker. I would wait a week or so to ride again.

You're right. An easy ride really surprised me though.

I got it around the 18 of August while on a vessel with very stringent controls.
This is on a working vessel, not a cruise ship, so only professional sailors onboard.

Anyhow seaman was detected positive on his return to the Philippines despite testing negative in France.
So the company decided to test all the crew on my vessel and the one berthed next to it.
5 people were found positive and confined to their cabins. After a week we were sent ashore and spent another 10 days in isolation in a flat (controlled, no entry or exit).

Then we all were nose and blood tested again.
All negative for the snot test, I was the only negative on the blood test (as in low antibody count).
Probably this was due to me getting the virus last, but in any case, I was sent home for 2 weeks where I tested 3 times negative with the nose test.

During the "infectious" period, me and my colleagues had no discernable symptoms.
I did whatever exercise I could, up to 45 min on the spot runs or long burpee series, with normal side effects.
However, when I got home, I started to get "nearly cramps", as in the stiff muscles pains one gets after recovering from the flu and starting to exercise.
Except, when I get these from the common flu, they last 15min for the first run then disappear. These lasted ALL the runs, however short, long, intense or not, for 2 weeks - never had anything like this.

I am now back at sea, and under total lockdown 2 weeks before any EU country was.

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http://brokeniron.blogspot.com/

I created a questionnaire here to collect data. If you take it, please let me know how I can improve it

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swim.bike.run.soccer

i want that covid will end soon

What's your objective with the questionnaire? There are self-reporting studies of this sort with large numbers of responses (https://redcap.uits.iu.edu/surveys/?s=C4W3M837JF for instance).

But my first feedback is this -- question number 1 eliminates many people who got infected early in the pandemic (April and before) who were unable to get a test due to availability.

Providing a slightly different experience with exposure to COVID. 27yr old male, training consists of lifting and cycling. Coached by and guided through this process by DrAlexHarrison.

My roommate was exposed to COVID. Once she was exposed, we both started quarantining. Her test came back positive, mine came back negative. With that being said, I did have symptoms similar to an illness I had back in late March/April when this all started and my job didn't have a testing protocol in place yet. Specific symptoms were extreme fatigue for ~4-5 days, minor fever, as well as swelling in my toes... what is being referred to as 'toevid'. (https://www.nytimes.com/...virus-covid-toe.html).

COMPLETE SPECULATION, and someone please correct me if it is their area of expertise, but I believe the test came back negative because I had COVID earlier this year. The symptoms severity this time around was about 85% of what happened before.

I was able to do moderately intense exercise for the first 3 days of exposure, followed by the onset of extreme fatigue. Took 4 days off completely from training to rest before doing a low intensity strength session. Have slowly been getting back into things but the biggest challenge was managing the toe swelling. Riding indoors on a trainer in a ~55F garage, the combination of cold weather where I live, swollen toe decreasing blood flow and moderately high heart rate caused my toes to turn blue. Potential danger lies here if color does not come back. Fortunately, slowly warming up the appendage (DON'T DO THIS QUICKLY) was able to return blood flow back to the area. From there training was pulled back significantly and 'toe checks' were conducted during rides. I continue to ride indoors to help control my environment and quick treatment if needed.

THIS IS JUST MY OWN EXPERIENCE! I leave all guidance on medical treatment to our incredible medical professionals. With no end to COVID in sight and temps decreasing as winter approaches, I figured this would be useful to the community.

Article in NYT today by Jordan Metzel M.D. regarding exercising after being diagnosed with Covid-19.

First two paragraphs:
For the past 20 years, when patients asked me about exercising while recovering from a viral illness like the flu, I gave them the same advice: Listen to your body. If exercise usually makes you feel better, go for it.

Covid-19 has changed my advice.

Heart inflammation and clots.

That's great, as both require extensive and expensive medical work ups.

Wonder how many will be willing and able to do that.

Taking nutraceutical blood-thinners and anti-inflammatories. No drugs.
Hope that's enough to stave off the worst after my bout.

38 male, 10k miles a year on the bike, 3000 miles running. USAT elite card holder 10 years ago.


1/24 -I was around someone who had it but had no symptoms
1/26/ -she started symptoms. it sounded like covid. I wasn't really worried, I thought breeze through a covid infection.
1/30 -I thought I was clear then I started feeling cold, woke up with 102 fever/chills and aches. pounding headache
2/1 -I still had fever at night but it was only 100ish. I kept getting nauseous and dizzy when I stood up or walked around.
2/2 -woke up feeling less aches/pains, noticed i felt weak, like very weak, and i lost smell and taste. felt ok.
2/3 - I had to get on a bike and pedal, jumped on the wahoo, set it at 100w to warm up and it felt like 225w. i was at 100w for 15 mins and I couldn't really breathe well, lungs felt sore and tight. but i hadn't started coughing yet. i was about to pass out so i just quit the bike idea. 5 mins later in the shower i started coughing. not bad at first, felt like a tickle cough as first. cough got worse over next few days, especially at night. figured it might be pneumonia, decided to go to ER
2/6 -made it to hospital, covid test was positive, xray of lungs showed "filtrate" bad on left, mild on right. they put me on Z-pak/prednisone, and gave me rx for some cough stuff.
2/8 -covid symptoms went away slowly during then next few days, but I was extremely weak and tired. slept 3-4 more hours each night than normal.
2/12 -started working out again! I could only manage 125w going like 15mph. I fought hard to get 25 miles in.
2/13. -run day! my first run was a disaster, couldn't lift my legs, shuffled along at 10:30 pace for 5 miles and was sore like i ran a marathon the next day.
2/23 -each workout has gotten like 1% better. today, I was able to do my normal 13 miles but at a 9:15 pace. it never felt good. I was in a grinding hard from the first step. I've hear people say it takes 6 weeks to feel normal, this sucks.
UPDATE 4/1: I'm able to train 7x a week once again. 14 days in a row! bikes and runs are mostly 10% off my precovid paces/power. Not pushing myself because I'm still getting some soreness. maybe another month and it will be back to normal 100%

Well, literally the last thing I wanted to ever do was post in this thread, but here I am.

Tested positive on monday/tuesday of this week. Literally zero idea how I got it. Didn't do anything out of the ordinary. The pool and the grocery store are pretty much our only trips out, and always masked.

2 days of a fever. 1 day of a head cold. Very minor cough (feels more like a throat tickle). And now I'm on the 2nd day of feeling pretty normal again. Haven't tried exercising yet and won't even think about it until I'm completely symptom free.

Reading this thread certainly didn't make me feel optimistic about the timeline of getting back into training hard/racing but it does seem my symptoms are milder compared to many.

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

That sucks. I hope you only have a minor bout. An athlete friend of mine had it, and he also has a few sisters on the front lines at UAB medical who are very knowledgeable. They advised him to be careful and watch for the secondary infections that follow the initial Covid attack. Your statement above is key... He actually felt great after a week and went out for a run at almost his regular pace. That strain on his lungs probably is what drove him to a secondary bronchitis infection. So, it took it super easy after that and was back to 100% two-three weeks later.

But the huge mystery is that it seems to affect everyone differently.

Oh, and the mystery of not knowing whom you caught it from is rare. Most folks know the person they got it from or can make a pretty solid guess from within their network of relationships. I only have one friend who got it and has no clue where or how (were mostly isolated and super careful as well).

Sorry to hear this. Did they test you for pneumonia as well? If not, and you're feeling *any* shortness of breath, go get a CT scan. The sooner they can get you on drugs to limit pneumonia related damage, the better. Disclaimer - not a doctor.

Wife and I live in Houston and took in a couple families during the power outages in mid-February. Eight people total - 4 parents and 4 kids under 5 years old. They had no power and their house got down into the 30s. Unfortunately it turned into a COVID party. Today marks 6 weeks following my positive diagnosis of COVID and pneumonia. Symptoms weren't bad - minor fever, light cough, but heavy fatigue with some shortness of breath.

Following the diagnosis I took two weeks completely off and have slowly eased back into it since. I also took 2 weeks off leading into the positive test owing to the storm and the aftermath. Each day is better and it's starting to feel like I'm simply returning from a prolonged offseason. Stay positive when you do return to training if your body isn't responding how you're used to. Keep workouts short without goals and don't focus on the numbers. Best of luck to you.

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