VO2 Max after covid

I had Covid in February this year and was absolutely floored with it. 

My reported V02 Max has slowly deteriorated since and as another poster asked/mentioned my HR’s have increased too for a given pace so much so that what was easy (and tbh still physically is) no has my HR in Z3+ all the time yet walking barely registers Z1. 

I have no real issue holding my old paces however HR much elevated especially as the pace increases comparative to pre Covid. 

Another after effect I’ve noticed is that I will just hit the wall. Literally ‘I feel great I can go all day’ to ‘bam, nothing left’. No build up. It has had a pretty negative effect on my training and has been mentally draining/frustrating. I really struggle to motivate myself to run with it presently so have been hiking a lot instead which doesn’t have the same effect on me and I can still ‘go all day’ so to speak. 

When I do run now it’s shorter distances to avoid hitting the wall to far out from home.  

Going to get back on the bike and see if some long slow rides can get me through/over whatever’s going on. 

A work colleague has also seen similar regarding HR but not the hitting a wall part. 

Yes, absolutely. I had Covid in early May and ended up losing three weeks of running. I've noticed since coming back that I'm having to work harder (higher heart rate) in running, while having a much slower pace. I'm not sure how much is from missing three weeks of running vs the impact of Covid. It's probably a combo of both.

My VO2 Max has gone from 54 to 44, and my Lactate Threshold has also plunged.

i'm not too troubled. I'm sure I'lll get back up to my normal levels over time and with training. I'm just happy I had a minor case of Covid and avoided ending up in the hospital. 

Yeah, I think thats what its more useful for, to illustrate crude changes through time. Its interesting to see how many people still have long term covid effects, and here you can at least have the watch back up how you feel.   

Interesting most are reporting higher heart rate paired with the significant change in VO2max observed. 10 points is a lot of change, whether or not its accurately measuring 54 in the first place, its still detecting considerable change. 

I had a VO2 Max of 62 cycling, which was a stupid overestimation. As time has gone on it has gradually decreased over 2 years to a 52. 
I think it is an approximation and the longer you use it the more accurate it becomes. I'm 63 years old and while fit, not an elite sportsman. If it is that important to you go and get a VO2 max test and get the truth.

Yup, Garmin is crazy inaccurate, that's why I was saying its only wise to look at long term trends from it for any kind of info. Garmin had me at 100 for a while when I ran more a couple years ago (yeah, sure I was more fit than Lance Armstrong), now its bouncing around 40 (apparently now it says I'm elderly), always dinging me down when I walk my elderly dog and up after I do 2 or more runs. Though I did lose a little fitness, the big change came from buying a Fenix 6 and it tracking my dog walks as starting activities.. thanks Garmin. It never does change more than 1 point after a couple activities, so right now with daily to bi-daily dog walks, its useless to me, but if were to not be doing walks and training only, it could be useful in long term trends, but absolute numbers/real VO2max estimations seem to be a joke on Garmin.

Agree completely.

However it’s a guide with imo some basis/use. When I was at my highest (62 iirc a few years back but using Polar) I was definitely at my fitness peak before I suffered a bike accident and didn’t train for a while. 
I was at 56 when I changed from Polar to Garmin at the start of the year and after several runs Garmin scored me at 54.
Close enough to suggest whatever algorithm the companies use are similar. 
Would I score those numbers in a lab. Who knows but I certainly can’t afford to find out and tbh I’m not that bothered. 

My opinion is it’s only useful for the individual as like you say for keeping an eye on trends. 
Boasting about it on the internet (popular on Reddit it seems) means nothing again imo. 

Anyway. For me, my downward trend as well as increasing HR was directly related to getting COVID. 
The HR is slowly coming down but the V02 is still slipping also.

I’m currently sat at 46.

I feel stronger than that tbh but that may be in my head and borne of the frustrations I’m experiencing on my journey back to fitness. 

 Last week took first Pfizer shot and the resting HR is completely normal. However the Pfizer is mrna based. 

Its a weird trend to always blame a vaccine though, you could have exactly the same as you reported with: 1) just achillies tendonitis, 2) any other viral infection (there are millions of viruses we ignore), 3) Garmin changing algorithms and HR hasn't really changed, 4) just loss of training plus age meaning greater loss of fitness shown in HR than you are used to in the past, 5) weight gain, 6) depression associated with all thats going on, 7) etc etc... I've experienced #2 most probably before covid in my country and felt the urge to blame covid like you blame the vaccine. I've also experienced #1-7 as well and they are hard to tease out. 

So I understand the questioning, and vaccine is a good scape goat because you can't prove it didn't or didn't do anything. But the oft repeated "maybe the vaccine did xyz to me that I noticed" lends a sense of credibility to the next "xyz vaccine did" and the next xyz and then 10++ more people arent getting vaccinated and we get to enjoy more covid variants circulating around the world for years to come and need more vaccines to protect from them..

That same nullified virus in the vaccine has been used in other vaccines in the past & it lacks codes for replication. It attaches to a cell, injects its code which says only make antigen (the rest of the virus making code has been eliminated), and then these antigens are ejected outside the cell (not full viruses), like a big target buoys floating around. Its possible your body killed off a few of your own cells presenting these proteins, but it shouldn't be an issue, so I'm not sure how the vaccine could cause what you are experiencing. Especially when you've got an extremely obvious mechanism (injury, lack of training, reset down to lower fitness level while training is lacking and age meaning you are not able to compensate and up the same fitness level easily as you remember you were able to 5, 10, 15, 20+ years ago..

Garmin also changes its algorithms annoyingly frequently so it may even be just its more/less accurate than before for you and nothing changed at all except Garmin's estimation..