I first noticed something was off when cramping on a ride, when I never cramp. That afternoon I home tested positive. Although the actual illness wasn’t bad and the effect on FTP was quite noticeable. After four weeks, I was -15%. Even after 8 weeks, I am still off by about 5-8% based off watts for 20 minutes FTP. The power curve is worst at the 15 seconds to 5 minute.
What was your experience?
I had COVID last March. I didn’t notice anything and felt good. However, the past few months I have felt very tired, but not related it to COVID.
Last week I started using Zwift again and noticed that in group rides (1.6 - 1.9 w/pkg) I couldn’t keep up and got dropped almost instantly where I normally do 2 w/pkg. I’m beginning to think that there were COVID side effects after all.
I had Covid back in January and did not notice any real effect other than being off the bike for a couple of weeks. Numbers pretty much came back…but note the bar is not set high.
A few weeks ago I caught one of the latest variants. Quite a bit sicker and took awhile to get over. Started riding easy again and then went into AFIB (not from cycling…first noticed issues while riding a lawnmower in warm weather). No history of heart issues in my ancestors. None. So I was a bit taken aback by this. Took 9-10 days to get electrocuted back into rhythm. Waited a few more days to get riding again. Did a decent ride last night. Down about 10% of the years best numbers from a few minutes on. Did not sprint. Felt good. Stressed the heart (34% at estimated threshold or above…a bit long) but felt as good as can be expected. Maybe try to do a Z1/Z2 tonight.
All in all I feel good. my numbers are where they should be based on my recent low load.
heart palpitations for about 2 months in feb/mar 2020 pre vax and it took about 9 months before i could do any threshold work. but i was able to weightlift, sprint, and do z1-2 for most of that time after the inital 2 months and made huge gains there, so it hasn’t been a total bust. my ftp is still about 0.5wkg lower than it really should be though
It’s taken me a good 6 months since I had covid to even get close to the numbers I had before. My heart rate is noticeably higher too. It’s also messed with my blood sugar levels and I feel more inflammation in my body than before.