So I just tested positive for COVID after my partner got it a few days ago. She had all the flu-like symptoms: fever, aches, chills, congestion, etc.
I tested positive for it yesterday and, knock on wood, the symptoms have been very mild: somewhat sore throat and occasional nasal congestion. But fortunately I am not feverish and frankly still feel very good.
I have slept very well and my vitals (tracked via Whoop) have been pretty normal: RHR remains baseline (as opposed to the first time I had COVID in Summer 2022 where my RHR was elevated by ~20 BPM for a couple days).
I am currently on a recovery week after a block of polarized base training (which I consider fortunate timing) and I was able to do the prescribed Endurance 1.x recovery ride, immediately after testing, with no issues and the same efficiency regarding HR to power.
Assuming if I feel good and my vitals are good am I still good to train and do the recovery rides? Assuming I remain feeling the same what are thoughts on starting my next block Tuesday considering my positive test came on Thursday?
I wouldn’t. I tested positive last March, no symptoms bar a splitting headache (and my partner said I felt hot in bed for one night). I was off work as they wouldn’t let me in as a teacher even if I felt ok! I did 5 days of just walking an hour/day briskly on my own as this actually relieved the symptoms of the headache. Day 6 I did Colosseum -4 and then Colosseum -3 the next day…felt good after that and was back doing my threshold intervals the next week. You can’t tell with Covid and since you are on a recovery week anyway, what’s the point of risking it?
Echoing the above, rest is best. I just see it as a safer bet to take it easy and only get on after you feel totally recovered and ready. I did so with my Covid a year ago and again with a regular cold in October this year. Didn’t hop on the bike until a day after I really felt ready, and even then took it easy to start.
I think there is more potential harm if you hit it too early than if you take an extra day or two off to be fully recovered.
Personally, assuming I were vaccinated and not immunocompromised, I’d be inclined to do nothing more than brisk walks for 3-4 days, and if still more or less asymptomatic, then I’d do some easy z2 stuff for another few days, then if still fine, crack on as normal. That to me would seem to balance caution and reasonable common sense. Nb I’m not a doctor!
Medical recommendations on this have changed significantly over the past few years. The first guidelines that came out in 2020 recommended complete abstinence from physical activity for like greater than a week, and formal medical assessment. This was driven predominantly by concerns re: myocarditis, plus lack of clinical experience with COVID.
More recent guidelines are more lenient due to realization that the rates of myocarditis are way lower than initially feared, that the majority of cases of myocarditis are mild, uncertainty that early light exercise is actually problematic, plus more mild disease than in the early waves (due to evolution of COVID and wide-spread vaccination).
For example, this training peaks article is pretty reasonable. The flow chart they quote is from UpToDate and something that I personally think is pretty reasonable - it follows what would be “common sense” clinical practice on this matter, and it basically what I personally did myself when I had COVID. Essentially, for mild illness, take 3-days off and make sure you feel better, then do some variety of graded return to sport depending on how you’re feeling after you start riding again. Development of chest pain or problems breathing means you should see a doctor (hopefully this is obvious).
BMJ Sport has another article you can review here. Their recommendations re: time off and return to sport are a bit more conservative, I think unnecessarily.
I have my own personal opinions, but they differ from the majority expert consensus (that is best summarized by the above links), so I will not share them here so as to not confuse people.
TL;DR read the TP article (copied from UpToDate) and follow that flow chart.
I picked up Covid two days before my A race earlier this month and I came back just the way you describe. It’s only yesterday that I felt good on the bike.
This is pretty much what I did. I was initially out longer than 3 days as I felt pretty awful for 1 week. 2nd week rested as I really didn’t feel wonderful.
By 3rd week I was feeling better. Tried an easy trainer ride. Heart rate was high compared to RPE and felt fairly fatigued afterwards. Shut it down for 3 days after that then tried again. Went through that cycle a few times before things truly improved.
Every case and every person is different, but I have personally treated it like any other cold or flu and just listened to my body and err on the side of taking it easy. For me, I’ll do easy Z2 stuff when I’m not feeling great (but not terrible) and it often makes me feel better. I like the reference to “brisk walk” in a previous post. If I’m not up for a brisk walk, I’m not jumping on the bike either and I’ll be in full rest mode. If I’m up for a walk, I’m up for a Z2 spin.
As far as getting back to intensity, my body is pretty clear on that. I’m not going to do anything over Z3 until I’m feeling at least 95% back to good health. I’ll also use resting HR and body temp swings as a good readiness check.
Why even test? Covid wass nothing more than any other of the many respiratory viruses we have been getting for millennia for the young and healthy but in the omicron era it’s even mild for the elderly. Feel good train, don’t feel good don’t train
Not sure this is the case - the big issue with Covid was the variability of symptoms among the population. In addition some people seemed to get non linear recovery - like - I feel great to return to training…until they didn’t. Long Covid was also an issue - even though the numbers were tiny - although I suppose if you get that then you are not considering a quick return to high intensity turbo training!
Ifr was equal to or even less than influenza for community dwelling individuals < 65 for the elderly and institutionalised it was significantly more deadly
Let’s assume for a minute the study is accurate (and I can post dozens that contradict it)……do we have no responsibility to protect the elderly? Or can they just be sacrificed since they are old? How about those with compromised immune systems that are not old, like my wife?
“Hey, sucks to be you, but since this highly communicable disease is only a bad cold for me, I’m not going to test in order to limit the possibility of me transmitting the disease.”
This is a review that lumps all studies together …
How does that even follow the simple fact that the IFR of covid was of the same order of magnitude as a “regular flu” for healthy adult? Except that lockdowns made it worse for everyone since the young and healthy could have acquired strong long lasting herd immunity