I recently found out that I had Covid, and am now on the road to getting back up to speed.
One of the interesting things about this round, is that the first indication that something was amiss came from my Apple Watch's VO2 Max reading dropping suddenly, which happened on July 1. It decreased from 38.5 on June 10 to 36.3, and it usually will increase or decrease in increments of 0.1-0.2, so this was a sudden and large drop.
I didn't really think any more of this drop, and continued to ride, both to work and recreationally, for the next several days. I was a little tired and had sinus issues during this time, but this was my rest week following three weeks of going harder, so the symptoms were not unexpected. On July 6, I took a Covid test, basically just to rule it out, and was surprised to find that the second line turned dark very quickly - yup, it was Covid. The symptoms were not nearly as bad as the first time I hac the virus, but I did feel fatigued and spacy.
During my break, I found this article and infographic that was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that outlined specific steps in recovery that I thought would be useful. I'm now a couple of days into the protocol, and feeling pretty good, so I wanted to document this information for my own future reference, as well as possibly helping others.
Since I've now resumed activities, I've also returned to walking and was happy to see that on July 16, my iPhone VO2 Max had returned up 38.1.
