chas58

Did anyone who had covid find a long term impact on their general health or cycling? I had it winter 2020, and my cycling struggled last summer.

I just looked over my personal metrics, and found that although normally my fitness numbers are pretty consistent year to year, after covid, my average HR was down 20bpm (that was a sharp decline) and my max HR was down 9bpm (over 6 month intervals). My Strava “fitness” down about 25% (directly related to lower HR). I struggled last summer, and these numbers seem to corroborate what I was feeling.

Season is just starting around here – so far I’m feeling better than I did last year, but its too early to tell. Hoping I’m still recovering. Just wondering if anyone else had long term effects on biking from the virus. Hoping those of us who caught the thing can have a long term recovery.

Troul 

before it became the center of the spotlight, I'm 99% sure I've had it. Was around thanksgiving of 19'. I was drained for a few months, but being cold weather season, I'm normally less active. So it was hard to tell how less productive I really was.

aplcr0331

You had it last winter? Just a few months ago? Do you have a power meter? How are your segment times looking? Did you do some training over the winter? Sounds like you feel positive that this year will be better, that's good. Were you hospitalized? Which test did you get that confirmed the diagnosis? What has you Doctor said about training/riding? It seems like underlying conditions not only determine how bad cases might be but that having those prior to Covid and then resuming an active lifestyle again have some negative effect too. Do you have underlying condition?

It appears that recovery depends on underlying conditions perhaps? There's been some pro cyclist who had Covid and then seem to recover and have success but they might be outliers with their otherworldly physiology. Remains to be seen if there are longer term effects to health form this.

There was an article earlier this year about triathletes who had Covid and from what I remember all of them had resumed training and were looking forward to the upcoming year. So that's great for your short term plans looks like most healthy people who get it seem to be able to resume their previous activity levels.

Good luck this year!

BlazingPedals

Litespud

it’s not clear what, if any, patient characteristics are associated with post-acute recovery (or lack thereof). Pre-existing conditions can certainly affect the severity or outcome of acute disease, but I don’t know that they affect the aftermath. NIH is funding a large national study (to the tune of $1.5B) to determine what predicts “long COVID” and how to address it

mstateglfr 

Oh, you are apparently patient 0 then. The Typhoid Mary of covid.

Troul 

I was not an isolated case, few folks in the network had it prior. Chalked it up as the flu at the time.

aplcr0331

That’s because that is what it was. 2019-2020 was a bad flu year, in fact it was shaping up to be as bad as 2017-2018, but it was cut short by five weeks due to Covid.The first peak was earlier than usual, around the same time you and your friends had it.

Count yourself as lucky because by Feb 2020 there had been over a quarter million hospitalizations and over 14,000 deaths from the flu.

Koyote

Over 2.8 million people have died, and you can joke about it. Classy.

mstateglfr 

You mentioned getting it around Thanksgiving so I was jokingly referencing that the first case in the world was between a week before Thanksgiving and the start of December.
That's some tough luck- getting a novel virus days after the first infection on the other side of the world.

veganbikes

I have had muscle aches, a headache, diarrhea and for a brief bit shortness of breath that ended up with my in the hospital for a short bit lucky two negative COVID tests but I was sure worried. I am unsure what happened but it was not a fun experience even just thinking there is a possibility I might have COVID. It is no joke and those who think it is need to wake the f' up. You can make all the silly comments you want when everyone is vaccinated and this all over and done with but until then if you aren't trying to end COVID, just end your conversation. Keep the jaws shut (try playing with some rusty parts lockjaw will get ya) and let the healthcare professionals do their job.

Troul 

maybe not by tv, but the side effects of what's required to just go about living life, has changed.

Cyclist0108

I have a friend from college who runs a research institute at a major university in the UK. He got SARS-CoV-2 a year ago, and has had "long covid" ever since. He went from being highly fit, active, and a total workaholic to someone who can only do one activity, like washing dishes, in a single day. He has been incapacitated and on medical leave for a year. He had a comparatively mild case of the disease initially.

rsbob 

Listened to a female multiple marathoner who had COVID long haul, who after 6 months barely has the energy to walk from room to room and sleeps far more. Heart rate has changed dramatically and now has horrendous migraines. She really got the short stick.

cjenrick

there was a report on the radio concerning long haulers,

after getting vaccinated, some of them noticed dramatic improvements,

Troul 

You'd think that information would be spewed all over the network.

Cyclist0108

It has been reported, but most of the evidence is anecdotal.

Link to a New York Times article

trailangel

Yes.

Bigbus

??

chas58

Thank you for the sincere replies everyone.

and, thanks for the good info cjenrick I hope that is true.
I did not feel "strong" for the first 3 months, which wasn't a big deal. My wife literally thought she was having a heart attack a month later and went to the ER, but they found nothing (no blood work though, just EKG).
We are both athletic, in our 50's and no pre existing conditions. Healthy not young.

I did recently get the first shot, and my body reacted negatively to it just like the it did to the virus the first time (just much less intense, and much shorter duration). Since then I am starting to feel better aerobically - so maybe you're right. Would be nice to be back to where I was 2 years ago (rather than last summer). I just could not sustain the same power or recover easily last season (6 months after initial recovery). It wasn't a huge impact, but enough to stop me from racing - but of course there were no races last year for me to miss. ;-)

Looking forward to more improvements in 2021 and hoping cj is right. I do feel a noticable improvement aerobically, but its still to early to tell. Remaining optimistic though!

Cyclist0108

Well, as I told my friend, even if it is expectation bias, who cares if it makes you feel better?

BlazingPedals

In February of 2020, I came down with Influenza 'A', which was bad enough that I went in and got tested. It was not covid. I had gotten the flu vaccine in the fall, but apparently it didn't cover that one. Well, that or the very low effectiveness of the flu vaccine overall (something like 58%.) I was sick for a full 10 days with it. When I got covid in September (yes I tested positive this time,) I ran a 102-103F temp for 11 days before being hospitalized for the pneumonia aspect. I was on oxygen for another 8 days.

I suspect that anyone who had a severe flu-like sickness in 2019 actually had influenza A, which my doc says was rampant at the time. Anyone who thinks Covid 19 is a 'media-only' sickness is suffering from ostrich syndrome. I know a few people who were non-believers until they or a family member actually got it. Now they believe. The weird thing about covid is that some people are non-symptomatic (but still infect others,) some get a mild fever for a few days, some get what I had, and some are hospitalized for severe symptoms for a month or more. Prior health means nothing.

BlazingPedals

Back to the original question. I went out today and did 16.6 miles in just over 1 hour. Something like 16.3 average. That's probably about what I expect first thing in the spring, except that it'd be that speed for 25 miles. At 16 I was whipped. Hopefully the difference is just more out-of-shape than normal, and with some hard work I'll be back to my 19-21 mph averages by August. (Usually my average speed is dependent on what the group's speed is because I'll slow to whatever they're doing.)

rsbob 

From what I have read, long-haulers are but small percentage. May the odds be with you!

ropetwitch

Hope everything will now go back to normal, I miss biking. This pandemic is taking too long and thanks that vaccines are now available. Are you guys willing to avail the vaccine?