Nope and don’t know anyone that has either. Only heard people I know talk about friends of friends, what they have heard on the social media grapevine and people who think they have had it but not confirmed. Which is strange given I have family and friends all over the country, abroad (N Cyprus, Aus and NZ) and my lad has been doing Covid patient transport darn sarf for the entire lockdown period.

I’ll take it as extremely lucky, so far, given how bad it has been.

So what are the mildest symptoms you can experience? Or is it a sliding scale from truly asymptomatic through to ITU? Is there a consensus on the ‘first’ symptom you’re likely to feel?

Felt surprisingly weak on a short (but intended to be hard) CX blast on Friday although recovered and actually felt relatively quick on some sections by the end, then my Sunday road bimble also ‘felt’ weak although the actual average pace worked out about normal for my average bimble.

Only other physical symptoms have been a feeling of being ‘a bit hot’ in the evening and going to bed for the last three days, but I still think wifey is meddling with thermostat when I’m not looking…

My only concern is trying to avoid training through a mild case and ending up with long covid symptoms…

I should have done a proper log of the event timescale, but from memory…

My better half had a continuous cough when I got home from work 17th March, by 19th she became very wheezy and became pretty serious for ~5.5 of the following ~6 weeks.

I felt like death warmed up on 21st March, like I was full of a head cold. But this eased considerably by the next day and was replaced by aching/tight ribs, with the discomfort moving from day to day. I could do z4+ up sub 10min hills, but instead of being able to do a similar session two days later, I was absolutely wiped for 4+ days. The fatigue was insane, I had to take afternoon naps regularly, something I won’t normally do because it normally messes up my sleep later that day.

My only concern is trying to avoid training through a mild case and ending up with long covid symptoms…

That’s pretty much what I did. The first thing I had was a screaming headache in the small hours of the morning followed by an hour of throwing up then curled up shivering on the sofa, I thought it was food poisoning. Rest of that week I had a very occasional dry cough, but felt generally ‘off’ and weak on the bike, despite it being a recovery week. With hindsight, I realised that my breathing wasn’t quite right above threshold. I deliberately rode the climbs steady because of that.

Never really had a temperature. Did two hilly rides over the first weekend of lockdown and went downhill into weird, high altitude breathing from there. It wasn’t until my immune system kicked in ten days or so later that I felt conventionally ill. The rest is long Covid history :-/

My advice, if in doubt, would be to back offend rest for a few days. With hindsight the breathing thing and also two random rash patches on my upper arms were both warning signs. Of course back then in March, it was all about continuous coughs and high temperatures. If I could go back, I’d look at N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and Lyposomal Glutathione as stuff to supplement with along with vitamin D, Vit C and Zinc. Google NAC, there’s some quite interesting stuff on its effectiveness with Covid.

Edit: Mrs BWD, who brought this into our lives in partnership with Boris Johnson and (probably) Northern Rail, had three days of mild scratchy throat, a headache and odd skin sensations, she also had some sort of random rash. Other than that nothing bar some mad HR spikes when walking / running / cycling. Five months later she also developed a single Covid toe. It’s all very random.

My only concern is trying to avoid training through a mild case and ending up with long covid symptoms…

I’d advise rest. For like a fortnight at least. Maybe more.

I didn’t, because I had mild symptoms and thought I just had weird cold. If someone had told me to rest for 2 weeks I’d have told them where to go – I mean, there’s running to be done.

It’s been maybe 6 months of long covid and no running for me. Safe to say I’ve learned my lesson :'(

Thanks gents.

I felt my symptoms were so mild it was worth experimenting. I made sure I was the last one to adjust the thermostat in the evening (wife was turning it up to warm our wee one’s bedroom at 7pm, but not turning it down again) and I just rested for a couple of days to let the legs recover.

No more ‘fever’ and out on the bike today got a couple of PRs and a 2nd place on a decent sized local climb, so think I’ve dodged the Covid bullet this time. No weird breathing and heart rate is behaving as I would expect.

It’s been a worthwhile little bout of hypochondria though! I now know what even the mild symptoms are so can be vigilant, I’m ‘training’ for something next July so can afford to take a couple of weeks off if needs be.

@n0b0dy0ftheg0at

Does this experience sound familiar to any of you?

yes, those flippin chest aches are something I’ve had since March, bouncing around all over my chest ranging from a dull ache to more of a sharp stabbing pain. Does anyone know what actually causes them? While we are on the subject, what causes the mild bouts of breathlessness I’m still having that then go away just as quickly as they came!??!

Four months of steroid inhaler appears to be paying off on the breathing. HR is still a bit of a movable feast.

Shockingly I had a return to some form of unfitness last week – having spent two weeks before being floored by a cold. Did 32km Saturday on the road 62km Sunday – slow and steady. Actually pretty chuffed about that as day one of the cold had me wiped out at walking 500m. Week before last I’d got to the point where I was going to write off this year on the bike. I’ve never been concerned about starting a ride and not being able to get back – it was a novel feeling.

The toughest bit is the mental side when things just go sideways and you feel like your on a run of returning to normal. Feeling drained by yesterday’s ride 10km of trail centre ride. A definite triumph of optimism over reality – bit of a gulf between feeling good and being ready. Just couldn’t keep my HR anywhere close to sensible – even plodding up mild gradients in a 30-50 combo. Hopefully the price isn’t going to be too high.

The good news is I can get out and about – just a case of remembering to be sensible and seeing how long the run lasts. After months of mostly walking round the village it’s a big jump in the right direction. Next adventure is a flu shot.

yes, those flippin chest aches are something I’ve had since March, bouncing around all over my chest ranging from a dull ache to more of a sharp stabbing pain. Does anyone know what actually causes them?

The short answer is not really or it could be one of several issues. Some sort of inflammation of the tissues around the heart / ribs like Costochondritis, which is cartilage inflammation. Or Pericarditis, which is an inflammation of the membrane sack surrounding the heart.

I have a pain on the lefthand side of my chest which corresponds to something dubbed the Perrin Point by the osteo behind the Perrin Technique and is apparently a location where inflammation of the autonomic nervous system, which doesn’t normally register pain, can refer pain to nearby bundles of sensory nerves. It seems believable given that a bunch of my symptoms from elevated HR through to weird adrenaline surges that only happen when standing up, seem likely to be due to damage to autonomic nerves. I have ‘sensory changes’ to the nerves in the middle two fingers of both hands, so it seems reasonable that the autonomic nerves, which are very fine apparently, have also been affected,

But the joy of long covid is that there are loads of weird symptoms and very often no-one knows what’s causing them. The classic long covid experience is to have clear chest x-rays and ECGs plus a shedload of blood tests that fall wihhin normal levels, but be proper ill regardless.

If you’re worried, get it checked out I guess.

Next adventure is a flu shot.

I had one of those a couple of weeks ago. Didn’t affect me at all, hopefully will be the same for you.

Had flu jab Thursday and nothing notable yet, touch wood.
But others are saying it’s a hard hit this year, so everyone’s different I guess.

@BadlyWiredDog

The classic long covid experience is to have clear chest x-rays and ECGs plus a shedload of blood tests that fall wihhin normal levels, but be proper ill regardless.

Yes exactly this. I got all those tests done back in March (except markers for inflammation) and they came back fine which was a relief except I still felt dreadful (and subsequently got worse). In June I actually managed to get seen by a cardiologist who gave me a clinical diagnosis of Pericarditis i.e. based on my reported symptoms because so much time had elapsed that he couldn’t find anything of concern.

Whilst my chest pains have bounced around they do focus on the left hand side of my chest. General inflammation and chronic nausea were key factors for me. You mention the nervous system, I could well imagine that all these symptoms are interrelated in a way I don’t understand enough about. I found Kombucha helped the nausea/stomach issues a little.

So we’ve just had a positive test result for my daughter – she’s 3 at the end of November! To say that we are both shocked and stunned would be an understatement. She is actually already better and bouncing off the walls – self isolating us for a other 10 days is going to be interesting! I think it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that my wife, our 8 month baby and I all have it floating around in our system now, so it’s just a matter of seeing what happens over the next 10 days or so, so far we are all fine.

Have already notified the grandparents and nursery, all of whom had close contact with her in the 48 hours prior to her developing symptoms, now we wait and see if track and trace actually contact us, what’s do people reckon?

Whilst my chest pains have bounced around they do focus on the left hand side of my chest. General inflammation and chronic nausea were key factors for me. You mention the nervous system, I could well imagine that all these symptoms are interrelated in a way I don’t understand enough about. I found Kombucha helped the nausea/stomach issues a little.

I think one of the shortcomings of conventional medicine practiced in this country is that it’s quite silohed. We have a system that tends to look at individual organs and symptoms rather than the person as a whole, so if there is an over-arching cause behind a carousel of different symptoms we end up with several specialists who focus on a particular organ rather than a more holistic doctor who treats the person as a single issue. Sometimes that works really well, sometimes it doesn’t.

It’s a bit like a car with, say, a faulty ECU, which is causing issues with the ignition, the fuelling, the brakes and the air conditioning. You check each of those areas individually and there’s ‘no problem’, but until you fix the ECU, the faults will persist. And there are no ECU specialists at the garage.

I clearly have mild nerve damage / inflammation to sensory nerves, which has been confirmed by a test and given how the virus uses the vascular system to attack potentially attach virtually every part of the body, it’s not unreasonable to think that it also impacts on the nerves of the autonomic system that link all the main organs to the gut and brain and governs things that normally happens automatically.

Given that even though they’ve massively improved, my fingers are still tingling slightly, it wouldn’t surprise me if other nerves are still healing slowly and out of kilter. The neurology consultant I spoke to the other day said 3-6 months healing would be a reasonable estimate. Given that using a B12 spray has markedly improved my tingling fingers, I’m going to try to persuade my GP to give me a course of intramuscular injections of B12.

I think one of the shortcomings of conventional medicine practiced in this country is that it’s quite silohed.

Is that statement made with any medical knowledge?

As soon as someone uses a car/garage analogy, well, tells a story.

Is that statement made with any medical knowledge?

A PhD in YouTube.

While feeling like death warmed up (feels like head cold with no sneezes or coughs, plus the achy ribs and a bit of sternum ache again today, oh and “old man knees” every time I stand up) I eventually popped out for potentially one last food shop before household isolation a while ago, better half’s postal test results came in negative three days after she sent it off, so she hasn’t caught C19 again presuming we had the real deal ~7 months ago.

As much as it’s good news, given her severe breathlessness months ago that resulted in ~6 weeks off work, part of me was hoping the test result was going to be positive to partially explain my current state and give me some time off work to recover without an attendance review counting absence.

I feel wiped out despite this week having only done my cycle commutes, thankfully not crazy workload deliveries, one short walk and one short cycle for groceries. Not a single recreational ride, even of a pootle nature… While opportunities to head out the South Downs hills are fading fast. Meh.

now we wait and see if track and trace actually contact us, what’s do people reckon?

low chance

Yesterday in the supermarket I suddenly became really tired and stayed that way all evening and into this morning. Yesterday evening I had more rapid breathing than normal. I went riding today, ended up riding with a fast stranger and when I exerted myself hard I felt utterly exhausted like I was going to fall off my bike.

Just posting to catalogue the symptoms really.

Had flu jab Thursday and nothing notable yet, touch wood.
But others are saying it’s a hard hit this year, so everyone’s different I guess.

I had mine Friday – My arm was really painful within 3hrs, yesterday I was a fatigued mess and today my neck and knees hurt.

Yesterday in the supermarket I suddenly became really tired and stayed that way all evening and into this morning. Yesterday evening I had more rapid breathing than normal….  ….Just posting to catalogue the symptoms really.

And then

ended up riding with a fast stranger

And somehow you thought all this was a good idea?  Notwithstanding your personal heath, I thought you were a bit more sensible than that.

So shockingly Track and trace did actually contact us and were persistent about it – missed the first call at 9am,second call about 12 dropped out but they finally got through in mid afternoon. Have to say that it took an age to answer all their questions and given this was for a 3 year old she didn’t have much tracking to do, god knows how long it would take for an adult to log all their contacts if they’d been going about their day to day lives prior to getting the fever.

What’s more, once it was finished we all got a text message within 5 minutes to say that we’d been a close contact and need to self isolate.

I do not want to give the authorities any praise but it does seem that when it works it works OK if you can provide all the details, though it does fall down completely if you can’t provide details such as she went into a shoe shop on Monday and had her feet measured – I didn’t know when, for how long, who she saw or anything so that’s a large gap in her time line where probable contacts won’t be contacted.

I’d advise rest. For like a fortnight at least. Maybe more.

I didn’t, because I had mild symptoms and thought I just had weird cold. If someone had told me to rest for 2 weeks I’d have told them where to go – I mean, there’s running to be done.

It’s been maybe 6 months of long covid and no running for me. Safe to say I’ve learned my lesson :'(

This ^^^

Just want to be able to ride without spending the next days feeling like I want to curl up and sleep.

I tested positive on the 8th October. Isolation ends tomorrow, thank God.

I’ve been tired and had a minor cough, but nothing other than that.

I’m going to enjoy my ride today!

Is that statement made with any medical knowledge?

No, just from a slightly frustrated patient point of view. And a generalisation I know. Perhaps I phrased it badly, I’m not saying that British medicine is lacking, far from it, but that maybe its strengths from a patient point of view, are more obvious in specialities than in a more general diagnosis. If I seem frustrated, it’s because after seven months plus of endless weird symptoms, I am. There are tens of thousands of people out there with very similar long covid / post-covid symptoms and still a very limited overall picture of what’s going on with us. Sorry about that.

Apologies for the flippant youtube comment BWD, all the best fella.

Apologies for the flippant youtube comment BWD, all the best fella.

You’re all right. YouTube, ironically, is one of the things that’s kept me almost sane. At the point where I could only manage to sleep for three hours a night or so, the EF Gone Racing stuff and similar, plus mountaineering films helped my brain stop shaking. The GBduro route is on my list for when I’m over this bastard thing.

Binge watch Dave Jenvey, at least it’ll make you feel better about your riding! I’ll need to look into this GBduro, has escaped my attention.

If I seem frustrated, it’s because after seven months plus of endless weird symptoms, I am.

You have my sympathies of course but I am not sure it’s fair to blame the medical establishment straight away. It’s a new and by all accounts pretty weird disease.

You have my sympathies of course but I am not sure it’s fair to blame the medical establishment straight away. It’s a new and by all accounts pretty weird disease.

I’m not ‘blaming’ the medical establishment. I’m sorry if it came across that way, my GP has been generally very supportive. I’m just frustrated and incredibly tired.

Lung xray results show still have reduced capacity-Im waiting to see the consultant for what that means going forward- ebike allows me to cycle for 2 hours ok at a heart rate of circa 140-160 but I cannot run 150 yards without my lungs feeling like they are exploding??

On another note Ive registered to donate plasma 3 times now and still not heard back off anyone- the radio ads suggest they are desperate for donors……….

Day 200! (trumpet fanfare, bugles)

Until yesterday, I would have said it had been 6 weeks since I’d had any unpleasant symptoms bar fatigue and the occasional bit of chest tightness. But I’ve come down with a headcold (probably) which gave me a temperature and aching joints. Much more than I would normally expect.

But until then, I was doing better – averaging over 4000 steps a day. My GP did me a sicknote recommending 4 day weeks, so I’ve had the last 6 Wednesdays off, during which I stay in bed til 12, then do nothing all afternoon. It really helps. Will try 4.5 days from November.

Not sure how much my perceived improvement is down to me recovering, or just being better at keeping my activity levels down to conserve energy. Probably both.

REALLY REALLY REALLY BORED OF IT NOW 😐

I miss being able to sink a couple of pints without immediately feeling shit. I haven’t touched my bike since March, and I’m so tired in the evenings that I rarely have energy to pursue my hobby of music. We had a few days in a Welsh cottage, in which I sat while MrsDoris went for a nice coast walk on her own. And I’m putting on weight, for almost the first time in my life. Gah.

Micro has it so I guess its just a waiting gamme for the rest of us.

Got the results of the chest x-ray – normal. That’s a relief. There was a price for the mountain biking – back and abdomen pain plus bit of a headache. Slowly improving. Energy levels are a bit low – sleeping about 10hrs a night. Yes, I know, I did it to myself.

Not had the flu shot yet – next week along with another round of bloods, antibody, ECG and a few other things.

After ~1.5 weeks of a head cold with extra fatigue and achy limbs, I felt quite human on Monday, even the achy floating ribs of the last ~5 weeks had gone.

Went for a fairly hilly ~35 mile ride after work, kept the power steady, felt absolutely fine even though my heart rate was a bit elevated and simply put it down to the lurgy I thought I was getting over.

A bit tired on Tuesday, but hardly unexpected, as Monday’s “training impulse” score was ~250 and South Downs rides after a work shift have been very rare this year. So had a very lazy day.

Felt ok at work on Wednesday, but after a bit of effort up the hill home, I felt increasingly knackered as the afternoon went to early evening. But I thought this was down to the overnight rain waking me early.

Today I woke late at ~0930 and felt groggy from the off, finally surfacing after an hour. Feels like the head cold is back, along with the achy ribs, in no fit state to fancy riding to Petersfield’s Bell Hill or anywhere else.

Every time I start thinking I’ve turned a health corner since April, I get kicked in the balls once again. The irony of thinking I’d won the metaphorical lottery when my initial symptoms seemed so mild compared to my better half.

Better half got a face to face GP appointment yesterday for her returned breathlessness, that’s milder than back in March/April, having got a negative postal test result from 13 days ago. She was told to get a chest x-ray and went this morning plus is now on a 7-day Amoxicillin course.

Bit frustrating not to get call from GP, but maybe I’m being a bit optimistic. Hopefully there will be news in the morning, as better half is now off work again.

My fatigue has got worse in recent days, achy ribs and back, frequent headaches that Ibuprofen don’t completely resolve, tickly throat. Was in bed after work on Monday afternoon, rare for me, but happened back in April too. Wore my chest HRM this afternoon to check my resting hr and it’s +5-10bpm, stupidly forgot to take it off until dinner and the ache was unreal for a while. Thankfully not crazy busy at work Monday and Tuesday, few days off now until next shift. Five weeks now of not feeling right, seems to be getting worse rather than better, not done a recreational ride since Mon 19th when I felt the best I’ve been in weeks.

I know to be careful when comparing personal experience with proper professionally collated, national data, but this week has been a very bad week for Covid in my life.

Back in April my FIL had it and died. It was really sad, but I sort of expected it. He was the exact type of person who was going to get it, in every way, as well as the exact type of person who was going to die from it. He was the only one I knew personally who had it in the first wave, mostly I think because the testing just wasn’t there.

Things are very different this time around. About 50% of my Wife’s old District Nurse team are off with it, thankfully the ones who are older or have asthma don’t seem effected, apart from a loss of taste/smell, but the younger, fitter ones have had it bad. One is in Hospital.

Another friend/Nurse sister has it, she’s in ITU and will likely be put into an induced coma today, things don’t look good for her.

It seems to be running wild amongst Nurses this time around, despite the fact they have better PPE than in the first wave.

I’ve just had an e-mail from a vendor I use in work, my Rep, who I’d gotten to know pretty well over the last few years died last night. I was talking to him about 10 days ago, he was fine.

I know the data shows we’re nowhere near the numbers we were at the peak of the last wave, but it’s everywhere I ‘look’ at the moment.

Agree, I’ve got staff off with positive tests right now. All seem on a range from absolutely fine to moderately poorly but nobody in hosp.

I had my full work medical last week, full bloods etc and exercise tests plus private cardiac MRI. I had a -ve antibody test but docs are adamant I had C-19 in Feb (as am I). Lingering effects are chest pains, ghost breatlessness and epic fatigue from nowhere. All tests fine and clear, nothing wrong at all so just need to gauge effort and take it easy when i feel rough.
Seeing how people are mingling and not giving a sh1t really worries me though.

What is ‘ghost breathlessness’ NZCol?

Sounds like my experience of this lovely virus is similar to yours. Really annoys me when I see people mingling or not taking it seriously.

So, just when I thought it was safe to ……… go back on the bike, I got floored by Shingles (and I mean a proper smack down) .This whole post-viral fatigue/long covid thing that we have had was easing off and I had just started going out on some easy local loops ,all good. So I started slowly building up the effort and distances, again this seemed to go ok, there was even a point where I was easily keeping up with clubmates that had never been ill or stopped cycling over the lockdown/restrictions months. Then ,out of nowhere ,Shingles . Initially ,only two tiny areas of blisters, but then came excruciating pain, even with meds/painkillers it was very, very uncomfortable with little respite ,imagine having sunburn, stomach ache and back ache all at the same time .I would not wish it on my worst enemy. Then it morphed in to Postherpetic Neuralgia ,yay. So for the best part of 10 weeks I have been trying to deal with that. Those strange leftover covid symptoms still appear now and again but are mild and it’s only now in the last fortnight that I have felt like things are getting back on track and I have started cycling again. I really don’t want a second dose of covid ,so like NZcol ,large crowds where some people are not giving a toss ,do make me a bit twitchy.

Anyway, keep on keeping on folks and stay safe.

This is maybe interesting / useful re the impact of covid on cyclists and cardiac health in particular. Bottom line, if you feel a bit crap and notice your HR doing odd stuff, back off. Fwiw, I knew my breathing above threshold was ‘wrong’ before I knew I probably had the virus:

https://www.bicycling.com/health-nutrition/a33634077/exercise-myocarditis-and-covid-19/