Concept2 Forum

About two weeks ago I got pretty sick and missed a few days of practice. When I came back to practice I thought I was feeling better, but my sinuses were pretty congested and I ended up having a really bad cough that lasted another week. Obviously during this week and a half I was unable to pull at the same splits as when I was feeling well.

I was hoping that once the cough went away I would be able to pull around the same splits as before I got sick, but now I am no longer coughing, my sinuses seem pretty clear, and I am now significantly weaker than before on the erg. I am having trouble breathing when I do any sort of sustained aerobic workout, even at paces that should be very easy.

To give actual splits, a few weeks ago I would easily do a 10k at a 1:59.0 split with very little effort. Today I started doing a 10k at the same pace and had to stop 6k in because I could barely breathe (my legs weren't tired).

Does anyone have an idea what my problem could be, and when/if I'm likely to fully recover. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

i think you just haven't fully recovered. even though you feel fine, you may still have some healing to do within your lungs. Respiratory illness will set anyone back. you should be fine withing another 2 weeks.

If I experienced serious shortness of breath in the absence of continued coughing and congestion symptoms, I'd quickly go see a good intern or GP. Could be your original viral illness (or whatever it was) has migrated to a serious bacterial infection in the lungs or even the lining of the heart, something a course of proper antibiotics could fix in a couple of weeks. Don't rely on well-intentioned message board advice in a case like this.