Looking for help / suggestions.
I raced CDA 70.3 a couple of weeks back and had a bit of a heart rate episode. Here is the nutshell version. For a full report feel free to read at enduranceloop.ca/blog
During swim warm up I felt a short episode of a skipped beat and subsequent flat and fast beats – as if the heart is trying to make up for that skipped beat. Only lasted about 30 seconds. I have had a few of those in 2012 and got a good checkup (including stress ECG (well, as much stress as those are), and ultrasound, but nothing was found besides a slight right side branch block. I have accepted I have those short episodes every once in a while, so I didn’t think much of it and raced anyways.
Swim and bike went okay, stayed within my HR target for the bike (142) and felt good. Coming out of transition HR was a tad high so I went slow to meet my target (152) and boom - hr went up to 184- 189. That is definitely not a HR I can not sustain - I max out at around 180. I manually felt my pulse and it was indeed fast and very flat. Weirdly I felt fine though and jogged on.
After about 10 minutes of this the HR dropped just as fast as it had increased (see attached image). But HR stayed at around 162 – 167, again, based on training definitely not something I can maintain for a half marathon. I went through the race carefully, insecure but feeling okay. Post race my HR took forever to go down, stayed at 120 for a good half hour or so.
For a couple of weeks post race my HR still sky rocketed when I went running (seemed okay on the bike), and I had a lot more of these skipped beat type episodes – like 6 – 10 a day? Family doctor says these are just Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs) and nothing to worry about. ECG is normal it seems. I felt sluggish, headachey and overall not happy though.
Since the beginning of this week (July 17) I have drastically improved, almost no more PVCs and only slightly elevated HR on runs any more. Given our amazing health care system my appointment with a cardiologist (made the day after the race (June 26)) will be on August 29....by then I will be completely back to normal I am afraid (well I am glad, but I will have nothing to show any more...)
Any suggestions, similar experiences etc. here?
The irony is that I am racing to raise money for stroke research (hence that enduranceloop webpage) because my dad – an avid Ironman competitor and a picture of health - died of a stroke at the age of 59. I am only 42 and I really do not want to follow in his footsteps on that front.
Any help would be appreciated!
I raced CDA 70.3 a couple of weeks back and had a bit of a heart rate episode. Here is the nutshell version. For a full report feel free to read at enduranceloop.ca/blog
During swim warm up I felt a short episode of a skipped beat and subsequent flat and fast beats – as if the heart is trying to make up for that skipped beat. Only lasted about 30 seconds. I have had a few of those in 2012 and got a good checkup (including stress ECG (well, as much stress as those are), and ultrasound, but nothing was found besides a slight right side branch block. I have accepted I have those short episodes every once in a while, so I didn’t think much of it and raced anyways.
Swim and bike went okay, stayed within my HR target for the bike (142) and felt good. Coming out of transition HR was a tad high so I went slow to meet my target (152) and boom - hr went up to 184- 189. That is definitely not a HR I can not sustain - I max out at around 180. I manually felt my pulse and it was indeed fast and very flat. Weirdly I felt fine though and jogged on.
After about 10 minutes of this the HR dropped just as fast as it had increased (see attached image). But HR stayed at around 162 – 167, again, based on training definitely not something I can maintain for a half marathon. I went through the race carefully, insecure but feeling okay. Post race my HR took forever to go down, stayed at 120 for a good half hour or so.
For a couple of weeks post race my HR still sky rocketed when I went running (seemed okay on the bike), and I had a lot more of these skipped beat type episodes – like 6 – 10 a day? Family doctor says these are just Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs) and nothing to worry about. ECG is normal it seems. I felt sluggish, headachey and overall not happy though.
Since the beginning of this week (July 17) I have drastically improved, almost no more PVCs and only slightly elevated HR on runs any more. Given our amazing health care system my appointment with a cardiologist (made the day after the race (June 26)) will be on August 29....by then I will be completely back to normal I am afraid (well I am glad, but I will have nothing to show any more...)
Any suggestions, similar experiences etc. here?
The irony is that I am racing to raise money for stroke research (hence that enduranceloop webpage) because my dad – an avid Ironman competitor and a picture of health - died of a stroke at the age of 59. I am only 42 and I really do not want to follow in his footsteps on that front.
Any help would be appreciated!