This has come up in a couple of HR threads of late.
I’m interested to hear the experience of others.
I’m seeing an impact on my HR and wondered if others similar.

I’m mid 50s fit & healthy, cycle 3 or 4 times a week.
Covid in May so likely it was a variant of Omicron. Contracted mid way thru LEJOG gave up at 700 of the 975 miles.
A couple of days of flu like symptoms but about two weeks feeling weak esp if tried to do anything physical.

Since then my resting HR seems quite erratic, normally <50 but can now be 75 and rise and fall over a week. Seems to be impacted by exercise ie rise after a big ride and falls only if I rest for days.
Can enjoy big rides eg 60 miles plus but am seeing elevated HR of around 40% and legs more tired after.
Also seeing HR numbers almost flatlining eg 150bpm for most of a ride irrespective of effort re speed or hills. But HR does drop when I stop for food or finish.

Very interested to hear experience of others.

It seems to me that time and recovery rides only may be the answer to getting back to normal.

Cheers Karl.

For the week or so I had it (late June) my resting HR jumped to 65 overnight and was fairly consistently in the 90’s during the day.

Now it’s back down to 48-50 overnight and 58-60 during the day.

But does jump up when seemingly doing nothing, e.g. it’ll be 105-110 just doing day to day stuff like brushing my teeth etc.

Speed on the bike is way down, I’m just unable to keep up with people I know I should be able to easily out-ride. I’d not call it “long covid” as I know a couple of individuals who’ve milked that for all it’s worth and more. But there’s definitely a bit of a tail to it. And maybe it’s relative to how fit you are, the average cyclist losing 20% of their “FTP” isn’t going to impact their day to day life, if you’re sedentary then losing 20% of your fitness probably does impact your ability to walk.

Also seeing HR numbers almost flatlining eg 150bpm for most of a ride irrespective of effort re speed or hills. But HR does drop when I stop for food or finish.

To me that would just look like overdoing it?

My resting HR was 43-47 before Covid and stayed that way after the first covid in December 2021. After Covid round 2 in early July, it hasn’t been below 53 except for two nights when it was 49 & 50 respectively. Sometimes it goes up to 60.

My cycling performance doesn’t seem to be affected – although I did have post viral fatigue for 3-4 weeks on both occasions – although I haven’t raced since.

Virtually no difference, when I had it my resting HR was raised maybe 1-2 bpm – enough to be in the noise in day to day variability.

Afterwards, again no difference that I can detect.

However, I do seem to be 25W or so down on all my peers post Covid – which I can’t really explain.

I don’t have really accurate data, but from what I remember, my normal RHR of about 45-52 went up to about 65 while I had plague and stayed that way for a while after I recovered. It has gone back down, but getting back to fitness is proving harder than I originally thought. I just don’t seem to have the energy and stamina I had before Covid.

Whatever my recent infection was that began in the last week of July, be it Covid or some bizarre summer flu, my typical sitting around resting HR despite being a big coffee drinker has gone from 45-50 to 60-70.

It’s been ~11 days since I began to feel more human and return to work, but my legs and knees are still way down are pre-illness strength and stamina, for both walking and cycling. Things are improving, but quite slowly.

Took 4-6 weeks for mine RHR to settle down after covid and to feel like I had any real go again.

Had covid in early June, took 2 weeks off the bike.

RHR was about 10 up on normal for the next 2 weeks, and then settled back down. Took a couple more weeks to feel I was back to where I’d been pre covid

When it’s high, take a manual pulse – fingers on wrist. How does it feel? Steady, constant beats but just faster, or is there a variation in timing/strength of beats.

Does resting rise and fall steadily, or does it flip between 50 and 75? So can be at 75, then settles in a minute or so to 50?

I get bigemeny/trigeminy after exercise, comes on about 6 hours after riding and lasts up to 24 hours. It’s like lots of extra ectopic beats – bigeminy looks like double normal resting, trigeminy 1.5 times. The extra beats happen slightly early in the rhythm and feel weaker.

Cardiologist not worried (I’ve had issues so booked a consult with my usual one). Can be electrolytes, can be… something else.

Whilst in fever stage my heart rate at rest didn’t go below 95bpm, it’s usually 55-60. Once fever had gone it went back to normal

Riding wise it was slightly elevated for around 2 weeks after & this coincided with no power on climbs. Seem to be back to normal 4 weeks after infection

I suspect (with absolutely no evidence) that I may have had it in May 2020, but my resting heart rate went up by 20bpm and my max heat rate dropped by about 20. I’m now back to being about 48 low and getting about 180 max.

HAd Covid in mid-JUly. Resting HR went from high 40’s to over 60 and has stayed there. First real exercise this week and HR is about 15-20 higher than pre-Covid for the same exercise. Hoping that it will come down now that I feel up to exercising on a regular basis

Very interesting responses.

Thisisnotaspoon – I may be over doing it so will test this out, gentle riding only for next two weeks.
Beej thx for sharing re bigenemy, trigenemy and ectopic beats. I have paroxysmal AF and have the tech to track HR inc arrhythmias.

Virtually no difference, when I had it my resting HR was raised maybe 1-2 bpm – enough to be in the noise in day to day variability.

Afterwards, again no difference that I can detect.

However, I do seem to be 25W or so down on all my peers post Covid – which I can’t really explain.

Exactly the same. COVID in June, still not got pre-June power back.

I’m definitely not a cardiologist, but i did hear an interesting radio interview/podcast recently that referenced an article where a large pool of post-covid US athletes were tested for myocarditis and it concluded: “The prevalence of COVID-19-related myocarditis in the athletic population ranges from 1 to 4%. Even if the event rate is quite low, current screening protocols are helpful tools for a safe return to play to properly address CMR studies.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8998516/

I had similar heart rate issue after recently having Covid. Seems to be back to normal now.

Glad I had a heart rate monitor as this highlighted the issue and stopped me from pushing too hard allowing better recovery.

Google POTS or PC-POTS.

And then carry on.

Wow this thread isn’t cheering me up much. I’m 10 days in now and not watching my HR but when i try doing stuff i’m finding it pretty hard… even just moving/lifting/doing things… i’ve only done 1 cycle which was to the pub with my lad and pretty gentle but even that wasn’t easy… Looks like i’ve got another couple of weeks before feeling human again then

Of the people I know, not sports folk, they have taken a fair while to get back to normal. It’s a virus and does affect hR etc. I really think all the deniers, need to read stuff like above. It’s very real, and no matter how ‘mild’ it does affect people, and for months later.

Boils my wee wee !

GWS all you suffering. ‘Yet’ to officially catch it – I had ‘something’ in December 2019.

Had Covid in mid-JUly. Resting HR went from high 40’s to over 60 and has stayed there. First real exercise this week and HR is about 15-20 higher than pre-Covid for the same exercise

Ditto except end of June. RHR under control now (low 40’s for me) but mid exercise HR +20 ish over pre Covid numbers.

The prevalence of COVID-19-related myocarditis in the athletic population ranges from 1 to 4%

My neighbour, previously a keen triathlete, had COVID in march 2020, and then long COVID. He’s now been diagnosed with myocarditis, is on meds, but still isn’t back to normal. Can do a half hour jog here and there but has never seriously trained since.

I was no athlete but my long COVID has been similarly debilitating – haven’t cycled more than a mile in over 2 years 😐

Of the people I know, not sports folk, they have taken a fair while to get back to normal. It’s a virus and does affect hR etc.

I think a lot of people still think Covid is a ‘respiratory virus’, and expect to recover in a similar fashion to a nasty cough/cold, when in fact it may be more accurate to call it a ‘vascular virus’, as it can infect the cells that line your blood vessels.

The clear message that seems to be emerging is to take care when attempting exercise in the immediate recovery period, as it has system-wide effects that are still not fully understood.

https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.m4721%20

Wow this thread isn’t cheering me up much. I’m 10 days in now and not watching my HR but when i try doing stuff i’m finding it pretty hard… even just moving/lifting/doing things… i’ve only done 1 cycle which was to the pub with my lad and pretty gentle but even that wasn’t easy… Looks like i’ve got another couple of weeks before feeling human again then

The idea that it’s over after 5 days is a bit missleading. I was still testing VERY strongly* positive 10+ days later because work still has mandatory testing before you’re allowed back. The guidance only dropped to 5 days because they withdrew testing. Before that it was 5 days + 2 tests 24h apart, which seemed like more of a PR thing as I doubt (based on the group I caught it with) many people passed. So at 10 days it’s still likely you’re pretty ill.

*yes I know the test’s don’t really test for magnitude, but there’s a difference between the faintest of faint lines and the drawn on with a sharpie look.

Had it twice that I know of (no jabs) and noticed no difference in HR, no loss of energy either apart from feeling a little bit grotty for a couple of days

similar to some folks on here, my RHR went from low 50’s to low 60+ for the time that I had covid. Since testing neg I did notice for the first one or two days that I had an obvious tightness and could feel the effort of even just gentle cycling- My commute for instance 4 miles, almost pan flat had me breathing like a tour rider up Mount Ventoux.

Settled down now, but sprint efforts still have me wheezing 3-4 weeks later on

My neighbour, previously a keen triathlete, had COVID in march 2020, and then long COVID.

Snap! My resting heart rate was 90bpm in April 2020. Now back to about 55. When race fit it was 45. Haven’t trained for two years, but I am walking (30-40 miles/week) and riding a little. Still left with some chest pains and pericarditis is a reasonable possibility. I have had lung issues ruled out by testing (MRI, CT and gas exchange). For reference I was training at 400km and 14hrs/week for some serious 12h action in 2020.

Had it twice since then. Last time the RHR climbed but only to about 65bpm.

had covid in 2020 and it wrecked me, during exercise it mostly did what id expected but would remain elevated from what i’d expected for hours after, making sleeping difficult. Round 2 has been less aggressive but still remains high after exercise, least dodged the grim fatigue this time

I had COVID a few weeks ago, and at the time I was really suffering, RHR went from about 60 to about 95. Feels like I’m over the worst of it, and RHR is now about 70, but I seem to be suffering from persistent severe headaches. Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks
T

but I seem to be suffering from persistent severe headaches. Has anyone else experienced this?

My COVID experience gave me weeks of severe headaches, and yes now still months on I get headaches when I never used to. Memory loss has been a big thing too

My resting heart did go up, but my exercise threshold lowered. Intermittently now I appear to be back to normal

Loads of people I work with (well ok one or two) who are not sporty have been unwell with irregular heartbeat and have been given 24hr monitoring things which have picked it up but then no diagnosis but it’s then gone on to resolve over time.

I call that faux hangovers – I often wake up with a very dry mouth and headache despite adjusting my hydration.