If it helps, 2-3 weeks off the bike would see my exercise HR go up by 10 or so BPM when I get back on the bike, regardless of whether the rest was illness, or just time off the bike.
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Thanks @Orion12521 @KenR and @The_Nick.
Lots of good advice. I have wondered about how much of the high heart rate is loss of fitness but my gut instinct is that things don’t feel quite right, rather than it being that I’m just unfit (though 3.5 weeks since any meaningful training will have had an effect for sure). Did Tour of Ara this morning which should have been easy but HR still up in the middle of zone 2. Think I just keep have to carry on with these short “easy” sessions until things look like they’re heading into a more normal zone. It does feel like it’s got a long time to go yet though and that bothers me, mainly because come new year I’ll be missing my social rides with friends outside until I feel it’s back under control. It’s a way of life and a social life so hard to consciously choose to dial it back but I know that’s what’s needed for now. You do wonder about those that don’t monitor HR and are unaware of any particular differences. My mum had covid last year and is fairly inactive. Her perception of her recovery is that she has bounced back and feels absolutely fine. Who knows if she wore a HR monitor if it would say otherwise but she’s delighted to prove the fitness junkies in the family that she’s come out on top 
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Misery loves company, and I feel your pain.
Finally completed Ride For Your L1fe today to finish the December challenge. Easy enough ride to keep the HR in Z2 throughout, but just doing an hour (1:08) on the trainer today was hard - my endurance has already taken a beating after my Very COVID Christmas.
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Recover well, @CPT_A . COVID/Influenza/RSV is nothing to ‘sneeze’ at. I’m working on recovering my fitness from two years of wandering around the outlands after a stay in injurylandria. Before that it was COVID…Was not a good two years at all. Now to work on regaining.
And my training was going pretty well too.
Past the worst of it now. Will see how recovery goes…
Chris
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Hi Claire, perhaps this thread may help
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Aww! Very sorry. Hang in there.
An update from me here… I went to a cardiologist (who was great) and did a LOT of blood tests to see if I’m showing any signs of heart damage (myocarditis etc.) and luckily so far the answer is “no”. I’m going for an echocardiogram next week and so that should give me the 100% all clear. I would say if you’re worried, go check out a doc. Not sure what country you’re in, but if you’re US based I can share a document with you that lists doctors who are particularly versed in post-COVID treatment.
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Fantastic that you found a quality cardiologist. My findings for heart issues were based on three different CT Scans post hiking fall where I broke several ribs and a collarbone. My cardiologist is one of the professors at UArizona and is on a ‘wait and see’ for now. BTW, did they schedule for an echo with Stress? If you are and you’ve never had either, be ready to put out the highest effort short of Kitchen Sink, but in 15 or less minutes.
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I believe it’s just a regular echocardiogram, but I’ll bring the SUF bucket just in case 
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That sounds really positive @Rearviewmirror 
. I’m in Scotland and at the mercy of the NHS unless I pay to go private. I may well do that at some point but at the moment it still feels like pretty early days and I’d like to see if it will resolve itself. Since posting on here, I’ve another cyclist friend complaining of the same elevated HR issue a few weeks post covid. It’s obviously a “thing” - I’d just like to know when (hopefully) it will resolve so that I can get back to normal training. If I had a date to work to, I think I might manage to be a bit more patient. Appreciate our bodies don’t work that way though!
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Everyone is different, but for me it was just about 7 to 8 weeks after falling ill that my Garmin started to return to normal numbers (HRV, RHR etc.). Hopefully it will be even faster for you!
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Let’s hope so. Mine was a definite BEAST of a workout. I wish I had recorded it for the amount of effort it was. And here’s to a ‘clean bill of health’ because anything else will put you in Injurylandria for a while and NOBODY wants to be there.
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Hi Claire
The whole covid (or other illness) is a dreadful experience. It’s really hard for those of us who love cycling to the extent that it’s a part of our identity (happy place 
). It sounds like you’re managing things well, and most importantly, being sensible. I found a lot of comfort from this forum - the support, advice and even experiencing other people’s successes vicariously really helped me through when I was bored to tears.
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I got covid in August 2022 and it really knocked me back a bit. The week I was sick, I didn’t want to look at a bike. Terrible experience. I got on the trainer the following week and experienced higher heart rates than usual given I was easing back in with Z2. I feel like it took me 6 weeks to get back to normal fitness just in time for my final event of the season.
I’m certainly not a doctor but I listened to my body and adjusted workouts and rides accordingly to keep from digging a deeper hole for my fitness and health. Nothing we do on the bike should come at the cost of our health, mental or physical.
I wish you a speedy recovery.
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I’ll chime in again: +1 to all of this @jasonmayo. Following A Very COVID Christmas, I jettisoned my winter plan and started from scratch w the Fitness Kickstarter, adjusting workouts downward as needed to account for the +10bpm heart rate. So a lot of enforced Z2 rides.
Yesterday was the first ride since clearing COVID that I did at 100% (30min alternating cadence GCN/no-vid), and I still went (briefly) over target HR on most of the later high-cadence efforts. So yeah, take it slow and listen to your body.
…as infuriating as that may feel (believe me, I get it.)
#embracethesuck
#morethanyou
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@CPT_A #embracethesuck! That made me laugh.
@jasonmayo thanks for sharing your experience. It’s always nice to hear from those who’ve made it out the other side.
@Natasha.R - agree completely that covid is dreadful and think I would go to great lengths now to avoid it. Until now, though not complacent, I certainly wasn’t too concerned. This has definitely changed my mind.
In the last couple of days I’ve managed to increase duration to closer to an hour and moved into more zone 2 power than just recovery. Felt really happy yesterday when HR was almost back to “normal” range but tonight, it seems to have bounced back up. Sod’s law that husband’s post covid high HR seems to be settling down quicker than mine but he did seem to get off lightly with other covid symptoms.
Speedy recovery to everyone else currently embracing the suck as @CPT_A would say!
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Everyone’s path on recovery is different as you experienced @ClaireK . You seem to be doing well and the ‘blip’ in your resting heart rate should moderate itself in the next few days.
Thank goodness I came across this thread this morning albeit a little late to the party but welcome to @ClaireK to the forum!
Actually just like you Claire, I came down with Covid as recently as November 2022 (got my mandatory shots and booster shot, masking up at work and at public areas, and yet I got it 
) and upon recovering from the illness 11 days later, I was scouting for information in the this very forum on how to return to training. I did get a good idea and I found Dame @IsiSchneider_KoS thread very useful. 
What I did was, I took almost 4 weeks off the bike since recovering and only returned doing very easy and low intensity rides a week before Christmas and yes, HR does seem to be slightly elevated.
In order to mitigate that, I decided not to hit the power and cadence targets but rather the HR range instead. Not sure if that was the right way to do it but I guessed it worked for me.
I did another ride (The Bat) just yesterday morning before heading to work, I found my HR being very erratic. My Garmin HRM was reading between 130 and 140 in the recovery sections (Max HR during recovery was supposed to be 116) while my Garmin watch was reading like only 90+. During the interval sections, HR was in the high 170s (Max 166). 
But I do have to state that, I don’t feel out of breath throughout the day at work, so I guess I am OK?
It’s going to two months since recovery and I am still adjusting my ride intensities as well. Another thing, I am still contemplating if it is a wise idea to do this year’s ToS. 
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Hi @DarrenWCKam. Thanks for the welcome It seems everyone’s experience post covid is different and because of that only you can really determine whether the training, its intensity and duration is working for you (rather than against your recovery). I would though take the HR readings on the garmin watch with a pinch of salt - in my experience, the chest strap produces a much more accurate reading.
On the high HR on interval rests, pre-covid, quite often my HR did not go back to the target z1/2 in a break from efforts (esp if a tough session) but it really depends on whether that is normal for you. The workout history tab on the app is quite helpful as I have been able to see my average HR for the whole workout each time I have done it previously. Generally I am finding I can stay mainly in the prescribed HR zones (sticking to z1/z2 Inspiration workouts at the moment only so v low intensity) but when I look at the average HR for the whole activity compared with pre-covid sessions, I tend to be about 10-12 bpm up. If you are able to compare against previous “Bat” sessions, you might get a better feel for whether HR is far out overall? Or if you haven’t got a workout history for the Bat, pick one that you have done a few times before as see how it compares. Good luck and look forward to your updates as your recovery continues 
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