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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I find that in these types of situations (recovery from illness, jet lag) having a detailed training diary is enormously useful. You can compare past performances.
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Thank goodness we now have ride history to look back into as well. Normally I will leave a comment in the completion page especially if there’s something which I noticed significantly like erratic HR or feeling super hot despite the fan or anything else at all.
Going back to the elevated HR thingy, actually yes @ClaireK, I have done The Bat quite a few times and is one of my favourite rides besides Defender, Shovel and Nine Hammers and looking back to the most recent one before coming down with Covid and just by looking at it, it does look like the HR is all over the place yesterday
This was the ride on 4th/Jan and the bottom was back in 12th/Oct/2022. (HR is in the background)
Back in October, the HR was #SmoothLikeButter
I agree with you on this, it’s quite difficult to bring the HR back down so quickly right after the tough intervals because since there’s really a lag in terms of the HR when compared to the effort.
Hahaha, I don’t take them with a pinch of salt but rather a fistful of salt 
and yes, the chest straps are by far the most accurate. Even the pros uses chest straps so that speaks volumes in itself.
Oh same here! Before coming down with covid, I found it much easier to stay within the prescribe HR compared to after coming down with covid.
However, I am still wondering, if there is something not right with my HRM or not because throughout my ride on 4th/Jan there was quite a few HRM connetion dropouts, but it’s as though my Edge tells me the HRM is connected, rather the HR and HRZ reading in on the Edge just shows ‘—’ . Just weird…
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Normally my HR climbs to the prescribed HR zone, and then recovers quickly in the recovery intervals. Post Covid, a zone 2 power would net me a zone 4+ HR and it wouldn’t recover. I ended up doing walking for 2 months and then a ton of zone 1 and 2 riding for about a month. When Intried intervals after that, I was back in the target zone, just the higher end of the zone. Everytime my HR seemed high, I’d kill the ride and go back to walking for a few days.
Having the history and knowing what my normal HR for an effort isnlike was really helpful.
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Thank you for the input Dame Lisa! That really does gives me some additional insights. I guess I should really give tomorrow’s ride a go and see how I really get on with it.
At this point in time, I am not at all sure if I should even sign up for this year’s ToS , granted that’s not my biggest goal for this year.
For all those with elevated HR during exercise, what about your resting hear rates?
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Still same here. Third week post-COVID, Did London - Edinburgh - London last night. After I got up some steam I still had to dial down to 90% to stay in the prescribed range. And my recoveries in other rides this week are still minimal.
Doing and feeling ok with workouts if I keep everything to Z2, but it’s been slow going. Much frustrated.
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Going off the overnights on my RIVL watch, my RHR remains a consistent 10bpm higher than normal. My first-thing-in-the-morning RHR is normally <45bpm, but I’m in the mid-50’s to low-60’s at present. Wife says I’m sleeping really hot, and even though I’m allowing myself some extra sleep since COVID, I’m not feeling as rested as per usual - though my deep sleep and REM cycles are about the same as pre-COVID, so I’m just adding on more restless sleep…will probably just go back to my normal times next time.
Yep, same here. RHR around 5-10bpm up on normal.
@CPT_A feel your pain. Another disappointing session for me today. Made the depressing decision to reduce my FTP so (in theory) I can stop adjusting workouts on an individual basis to keep in HR zone. In hindsight 5% FTP reduction isn’t nearly enough but if I’m honest, I’m still clinging to the hope that I can go back to my old numbers. Anyway, despite the FTP reduction, HR still waving around at the top/outer end of zone 2 for a zone 1/2 effort. Not embracing the suck but definitely wallowing in it today!
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