Significant Loss of Fitness, Much Higher Heartrate

Most logical thing would be to get tested for Covid first. Also your easy runs are probably too fast at 7:30

have you had any chest/heart pain at all

Yeah, I think I will get tested soon. It is weird because I have not had any other symptoms of the virus. Any other illnesses it could be?

I have not had any chest or heart pain.

This summer I took a 2-week break to let a sore hammie get a bit of rest, and when I started up again I felt like I was starting running all over again from scratch. I felt like crap every run and I also noticed my HR was 10-20 BPM higher at any given pace than it had been before the break. It took a couple weeks before I felt normal again and it was another 2 weeks or so at least before my HR came back down and stayed consistently back down.

Give it a couple more weeks and see if you feel better.

Agree with the other post about getting a covid test.

Also I have had little phases like this and they pass. Haven't necessarily been able to nail it down to one reason for feeling worse than usual. I'd recommend leaving the watch and HR monitor at home for a few weeks. Just try to relax and enjoy it - get the watch back out when you feel more like yourself.

I had COVID over the summer. Symptoms were very mild. Noticed the heart rate changes about 2 months later with a drop in performance...very unnerving and quite strange. Normal performance is slowly coming back and the HR 'anomalies' seem to be going away, slowly.

If this is wrist-based HR it just straight up doesn’t matter.

If chest strap, my HR has gone through the roof if temps / humidity even climb a little bit. If I run early in the A.M same deal.

On my run today, I felt quite a bit better than I have in the past week. My heart rate was 5 miles at 8min pace, with about 170bpm average, and it didn't feel as hard as my other runs have felt. It was still was 15-20bpm higher than it should be I think, but at least it's progress(I hope). I am going to get a COVID test tomorrow. I agree that it is probably just a phase of feeling bad, but are there any other illnesses that I could have?

Thanks for the help.

It is a wrist-based HR, but I have physically been able to feel that my heart rate has been higher and the runs have been harder. Also, I live in Minnesota, so I don't think I have to worry about the temperature being too high at this time of year haha.

Funny but relevant story:

I had covid 4 weeks ago, and about a week before I started showing any symptoms I noticed similar stuff. For me, if I run between 7:00-7:30 pace my HR will be between 140-150 usually, but I found myself climbing to the low 160s and eventually into the 170 range for the same pace. I was also worried I was burning out but in reality I had Covid and my oxygen intake was getting worse. I then broke out with a very bad fever and migraine and the rest is history.

I’d say take a couple days off, go get checked, and even if you aren’t sick still take a couple days off. Trying to run through the virus (pre fever obviously) ended up giving me a mild case of pneumonia that I’m still healing from so be careful!

whats wrong with me? wrote:

It is a wrist-based HR, but I have physically been able to feel that my heart rate has been higher and the runs have been harder. Also, I live in Minnesota, so I don't think I have to worry about the temperature being too high at this time of year haha.

There's your problem, it's cold.

You might want to consider low iron after taking others' advice. That subtle decline sounds a lot like low iron but definitely speak with your coach or parents or a doc or all of them if you want to start supplementing. Often, athletes who get their iron back up feel like, "the lights come back on."

TheFastestSlow wrote:

You might want to consider low iron after taking others' advice. That subtle decline sounds a lot like low iron but definitely speak with your coach or parents or a doc or all of them if you want to start supplementing. Often, athletes who get their iron back up feel like, "the lights come back on."

Concur. Low iron can make a real difference, and just the kind you described.

The only other things I could think of offhand (besides Covid-19 and low iron/anemia) were a mild case of the flu or mononucleosis.

Have you got your thyroid levels checked? The higher exercise and resting heartrate as well as "feeling out of shape" could be a sign of hyperthyroidism. Other syptoms of hyperthyroidism include increased sweating/heat intolerance, unintentional weight loss, increased anxiety. Have you had any of these other symptoms?

check your diet, are you eating sufficient calories + make sure you eat red meat+eggs and dairy for easily absorbed nutrient sources. If you eat rely too heavily on plants you won't be digesting/absorbing half of what's on the label that's why vegans eventually start to feel like crap/get injured.

I had something very similar to what you describe a few months ago except instead of running at regular pace with a higher heart rate, my easy pace just dropped by 2 minutes (got slower), and I had no idea until I looked at my watch. Turns out I developed POTS after getting Covid. See if you fit the pots diagnosis, but definitely check every other possibility because pots is incurable and I likely will never run again.

jazzytherunner wrote:

Have you got your thyroid levels checked? The higher exercise and resting heartrate as well as "feeling out of shape" could be a sign of hyperthyroidism. Other syptoms of hyperthyroidism include increased sweating/heat intolerance, unintentional weight loss, increased anxiety. Have you had any of these other symptoms?

I have not had my thyroid levels checked, but I don't think that it's hyperthyroidism. I have never had any of those other symptoms, and I haven't had any thyroid problems in the past that I know of(although I am pretty unfamiliar with hyperthyroidism).

lease wrote:

TheFastestSlow wrote:

You might want to consider low iron after taking others' advice. That subtle decline sounds a lot like low iron but definitely speak with your coach or parents or a doc or all of them if you want to start supplementing. Often, athletes who get their iron back up feel like, "the lights come back on."

Concur. Low iron can make a real difference, and just the kind you described.

The only other things I could think of offhand (besides Covid-19 and low iron/anemia) were a mild case of the flu or mononucleosis.

Is it common for people with low iron to only experience the symptom that I am having? I have not really been experiencing fatigue or any of the other low iron symptoms. I'll definitely get it checked if I continue to feel like this though.