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.. cos you might have a viral infection and you might give yourself pericarditis.
Went to run up a hill the other day, didn't make it obvs cos it was over 500m straight up. Went back the next day with my walking boots and marched up it as fast as I could. Felt a bit weak and woozy, but I'm not really used to it so I thought I was just tired and pressed on. At bedtime that night I had terrible chest pain, so went to A&E and they did all the tests and told me I had pericarditis likely caused by exercising with a mild virus. I felt otherwise fine and had no inkling that I was ill besides feeling a bit tired which I'd have expected. And I am normally pretty careful with looking after myself, I'm not a no-pain-no-gain macho type; I will definitely quit if I feel I need to.
We seem to have many viruses about, both COVID and the usual stuff we lost our immunity to whilst protecting ourselves from COVID, so take care of yourselves.
Does pericarditis sort itself out?
I'm in the final stages of my first bout of covid. Managed to avoid it until a week ago. Certainly not gonna be doing anything so irresponsible as exercising 😉
Hope it's a swift recovery from whatever bug you've got, and the pericarditis.
Interesting. I had Covid about 8 weeks or so ago. Fully vaccinated so it just left me feeling a bit under the weather. Isolated and returned to normal activity very gently. Self diagnosed with Pleurisy within a few days and felt uncomfortable for around another week or so. Self medicated then started to feel better.
The best was to come and I experienced and was eventually diagnosed with AF after a very worrying episode (of very many) that meant an ambulance was called and I was taken to A+E. I have a resting HR of <35 but with a very low maximum of around 155. My resting was around 80 and whilst seated was spiking as high as 157. Anyway after lots of tests the whole thing appears to have settled down and I hope disappeared. I feel back to normal and a week wearing a full time HR monitor showed nothing even tough I purposely trained quite hard for 6 of the 7 days. Fingers crossed but I hope it was related to Covid or some underlying side effect and is now out of my system... The bad news is I am on other medications and blood thinners which is disappointing but I am grateful for modern medicine.
Something I read recently made sense to me, exercise during and a few weeks after illness should be based on how hard it feels, not what the numbers say from pre-illness.
Hope it clears up soon OP.
I have always been careful about this since getting Pneumonia a few years back. However COVID has especially made me very wary of trying any exercise if it doesnt feel quite right.
Also getting older, if you dont listen to your body it can take much much longer to get back to exercise again
Had this back in 2009. Was rather bad, ended up in hospital with chest pains, palpitations, and AF. Originally doctors though it was myocardial infarction due to ECG readings. I was only 24 years old so shook me up real bad. I'd just had a really nasty bout of the flu a week before and as my ECG gradually went back to normal over the coming weeks I was diagnosed with viral pericarditis instead. Took about a year to get back on track and to be honest I've never got back to 100% pre-illness. Take it easy OP.
Does pericarditis sort itself out?
Apparently so. The docs weren't at all worried, which is nice. It's been 18 hours or so since I was in enough pain to go to A and E and now I'm fairly comfortable, only mild pain.
To be honest I was sure this was lung related so possibly @surfer you had same. Although I've had no cough at all or wheeze, my breathing is fine except a deep breath felt painful.
I have also not had any palpitations or anything other than pain, my HR even was quite normal, so it may be a mild case. Had a chest Xray and everything was fine there too.
Just ordered a new wetsuit for the tri which is in er... Six weeks....!
No good. Advice was, head cold ok, but aches and pains/fever etc, no, take it easy. Aching muscles will also go for your heart too. Hope you've not done long term damage.
Glad it does! Fingers crossed your OK for the tri.
And that sounds pretty rubbish @surfer. Hope the meds sort you out.
My cousin exercised right through COVID. I think he felt fine and saw it as some namby pamby snowflake thing, just hope he hasn't done himself any harm.
Only person I know with long covid started exercising again as soon as they felt ‘better’
It’s ruined them completely. I reckon a min of 2 weeks after you are feeling better to start exercising again is a wise rule to follow
The hidden dangers of Kate Bush inspiration.
If anyone could point me in the direction of some solid medical evidence advice as to how long people should stay away from strenous exercise post-COVID, I'd be grateful. MrsIHN has had it fairly badly for the past week, is still off work, but is entered into a 26mile trail run at the weekend and is still talking about doing it. I've said that I think that this is a less than sensible idea, but she's adamant that she'll "see how she feels", and may instead 'just' to the 16 mile option.
She's bloody-minded enough to do it, but I know it'll just wreck her afterwards.
If anyone could point me in the direction of some solid medical evidence advice as to how long people should stay away from strenous exercise post-COVID,
With the virus mutating all the time and the huge variety in people's reactions to it, I'd be amazed if any study was still relevant by the time it comes out.....
Anecdotal but it’s a month since I had a relatively mild dose of covid and my RHR is just starting to settle down. A ride on Sunday was the first time I’ve felt like I’ve had any sort of go. Even easy efforts would see a spike in my RHR for a day or so.
I rested for a week after COVID, then started running again mindful of how I felt. I was back to full training again 2 weeks after my last +ve test, and that was back in Novemeber, been fine. But this is an odd virus that doesn't seem to behave particularly consistently.
I learned the hard way back in late March '20, what seemed incredibly mild covid while my better half (who is still off work with long covid 19 months on from a relapse) was suffering, I went back to training after a few days and it set me back ~8 weeks.
Trainingpeaks has some guidelines for returning to exercise: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/coach-blog/returning-to-training-and-racing-after-covid-19/
Entering 26 mile run straight after barely recovering is about the stupidest thing possible.
I had myocarditis in my 20s and it was visible in EKG 2 years after the initial hospital admission.
@IHN here's is link to GP journal with some patient advice, including no exercise until at least 7 days post and 2 weeks minimal exertion https://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/covid-19-primary-care-resources/guides/all-covid-19-resources/returning-back-to-sports-training-post-covid/
Edit BMJ agree-
https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.m4721
I had bad chest infection years ago, rode too soon after amd ended up with post viral myocarditis. Even still if run down I get arrhythmia so take it handy.
Advice was, head cold ok, but aches and pains/fever etc, no
That's just it, I had none of those. My RHR looking back at the data was a few beats above normal but barely above normal variance due to training load/rest.
Had pericarditis a few years ago, it expedited my “retirement” from ironman triathlons, and hard exercise generally for a few years. I’ve built up slowly since with no ill effects. Cardiologist at the time wasn’t too worried after I had had a 24hr tape and MRI to show what was going on.
On the covid front I had it very mildly in Feb this year. No symptoms at all apart from loss of taste. No fatigue, no change in HR. I rested for about 4-5 days, then did some very very easy turbo sessions to get things moving gently. All seemed fine and probably physically benefited from the enforced rest. Did 6 days XC skiing (low intensity, somewhere between a walking and easy riding level, 4-5 hours a day) a couple of weeks later and felt great!
A close friend of ours has just lost his brother (in his 40s) due to complications following on from pericarditis. The initial diagnosis was delayed significantly by a few things.
Turns out it can be relatively mild or bloody serious, and I had only ever heard of it in passing previously and had no idea TBH.
Healing Vibes OP and take it easy, better a long recovery than none at all...
IHN, I don't believe there is any really solid evidence, some people have it mild and some don't even notice! However I think most pro advice (eg for national sports squads) is around 4-6 weeks of taking it easy and then ramping up according to feel. That seems conservative to me, but there is absolutely no way I'd be doing a long race so soon as your wife is suggesting. Just no way. Really, no.
My wife and I both had covid this spring (for the first time), she had a measurably elevated HR when she re-started hard exercise, so kept it steady for 2-3 weeks and no long-term effect.
I think we've got covid to thank for teaching us about post viral stuff and that training through these things is just plain dumb.
Play the long game sums it up nicely.
I feel 100% fine today, no pain at all no matter how deeply I breathe in. Obviously I'm not going to jump straight back into training but I think I may be back doing easy riding before 4 weeks. Overnight RHR normal for me, 51.
Other sufferers, how long did it take for the pain to go?