For those who’ve had covid, how long did it take for your HRV to get back on track? This chart starts on day 3 of my 2 weeks of covid. Suprisingly (to me anyway) HRV peaked a few days before I tested negative, and it’s been very low since.
I’m making an effort to come back slowly and sticking to Z2 rides when I can keep HR in check. My RPE is where I’d expect it to be, and I don’t intend to do anything strenuous for a while.
I’m trying to learn what if means when folks say “listen to your body”. I’m trying to do easy stuff when I feel up to it, but don’t know how much I should worry about HRV at this point.
I jumped into intensity too soon but got away with it…silly. All guidance I have seen seems to point to a slow return to exercise and intensity which is seems you are doing
Thanks…what a great way to visualize this! Sorry to hear it was 3 months for you.
If you could do it again, what would be your indication it’s OK to add in some intensity? HR during rides? RPE? HRV?
I’m planning to take it easy for a while, but my RPE and HR seems to be decoupled. My old Z2 was maybe 200W @ 135 BPM, now it’s 170W @ 135 BPM. The 170W feels super easy even when HR is higher than before. Hope I explained that well!
I’m about 1 month post COVID and my Garmin stress levels (HRV based) have been relatively low despite a high resting HR and fatigue and whatnot. It doesn’t seem representative of how I feel, but I have read that COVID can sometimes mess with your parasympathetic nervous system and it’s communication with the rest of your body, so I’m not really putting much stock in my HRV right now.
All captured in intervals.icu using some (freely available) custom charts Thanks - It didn’t stop me riding but I did come back too soon really but as above I got away with in unscathed thankfully.
Very similar to your approach. Easy z2 by RPE and let HR do what it needs to do to try and stabilise. Looking at some more data you can see how variable my HR was etc 3 months post. This could of been because I did too much intensity too soon, it might not - who knows.
I have an athlete I am coaching now and I have not considered giving them any intensity until I have seen a week of consistent avg HR back at baseline and a corresponding RPE.
HRV was normal again within a week of testing negative for me. But I took “listen to your body” to mean sleep >12 hours/day for 3 days and do nothing more vigorous than taking the dogs out for short gentle walks to get some fresh air. To be honest couldn’t have done much anyway as felt absolutely wiped out for those days, but did then come back very quickly. Eased my way into training over a week or so before doing anything much above Z2 to be safe, but felt fine when I did intensity and was racing within a month of my positive test. No idea whether that quick recovery was down to taking it super easy or whether I just got lucky. Think definitely best to assume and plan nothing and just go by feel so that you can take as long as you need. Good luck!
I caught COVID for the first time last New Years. My RMSSD is usually between 80-100 but it took a nosedive into the 40s over the course of a handful of days. It gradually improved from there. I’d say my HRV was off for less than a month, but I didn’t feel “normal” again until another month after that. HRV didn’t reflect my longer COVID period very well…
HRV and resting HR was back in baseline on the first day I tested negative. That was 10 days after I first tested positive. I did two weeks of Z2 with Z3 towards the end of that period. Three weeks after testing negative I brought back high intensity.
I think you find quite a bit of variation, just as there’s a lot of variation as to who suffers with longer Covid symptoms and who doesn’t.
Thanks - It didn’t stop me riding but I did come back too soon really but as above I got away with in unscathed thankfully.