I am just watching the video and starting to remember the entire Steve Larsen scenario. Wow, crazy stuff.

Wow. That happened to a friend of mine who was chasing Kona. Very fit, very fast. Nearly killed him. Scary stuff

Also maybe change title to Tim O'Donnell heart attack at Challenge Miami.

It may interest many in the same age group and above. My first reaction when I saw your title was, "Is he really talking about the guy who was second in Kona pre pandemic at a race in Miami 14 month later ???"

Best wishes to Rinny and Tim. I know that once I became a parent it became way more difficult to take risks in racing and have been cautious pushing my redline

well that vid has a bit of everything. So glad he is ok.

A reminder to all of us of how fragile life can be and what is really important.

Changed to be a bit more tasteful - was just shocked to see it. You hear about this happening to fit people, but not usually THAT fit. I'm surprised that it never popped up for him in blood testing, which I assume T&R do? Unless there wasn't any signs at all and it really was just a freak incident.

Wow. Total shocker.

I'm glad Tim is fine. Wonder if he'll get back to racing.

Does anybody know if this sort of blockage is detectable? I imagine a routine ECG or anything else that athletes do on a regular basis wouldn't give anything away? I really really really wouldn't like to undergo an event with a 12% survival rate.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

I’m very happy that he is doing well and that he put this out there to the public. We need more high profile people to do this to enlighten everyone out there.

https://www.slowtwitch.com/...art_Health_7911.html

This is shocking. Glad he is ok.

I was just thinking about you discussing this in another thread. What tests can we request to assess our risk of this? My doc has for a few years been advocating a carotid ultrasound. Had an echo/ stress test done about 10 years ago, but nothing since then.

I’m fairly young and convinced my Cardiologist/electrophysiologist to perform a cardiac CT on me back in May. He had no issues doing it, although it took some appeals to get my insurance provider on board. I just wanted that added peace of mind knowing I had checked every box I could to ensure my heart is ok.

Good luck to Tim on his recovery, hate to hear about people having these issues!

Also very happy he is okay. Not to derail this thread but has anyone tried the Fourth Frontier ECG strap?

My understanding is most tests detect flow-limiting lesions, that is atherosclerotic plaques that have narrowed the arteries so that blood flow is limited more or less chronically to downstream heart tissue.

Heart attacks, on the other hand, are from the acute ruptures of atherosclerotic plaques (which tends to occur in relatively young ones that haven't matured very much yet) which leads to a thrombus forming in the artery and acute narrowing if not full blockage of the artery.

I would think the two would be correlated somewhat but I'm not sure how much?

true-stress tests detect 'flow limiting lesions'

CACS looks for any plaque-and doesn't pick up soft plaque so there is a huge difference between 0 and any number.

heart attacks happen when plaque ruptures and then a blood clot blocks off the flow to the artery-and can cause fatal arrhythmia also...



Message to take home:
any activity limiting symptom, like chest discomfort/pressure/tightness, unusual shortness of breath etc should be checked out

I guess the question is how common is it to have no plaques (and I guess be in the clear?) vs. having some older plaques and therefore at risk? And does the CACS metric correlate with heart attack risk?

Like when I had multiple PEs - chest pain and SOB, and over 6 weeks my GP, pulmonologist and cardiologist (plus body scan and stress test) missed it....

Scary stuff for sure. I had the same LAD blockage in Feb, but in my case I was on a training run in Kona and ended up face down in the road in cardiac arrest. Saved by some bystanders who found me and started CPR and the medical team eventually took over and saved my life. It can happen to any of us, so I encourage everyone to stay on top of your heart health even if you are as fit at Tim. No idea if any of the tests would have identified my issues prior to my event, but I wish I had at least stayed more proactive.

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Team Zoot

Care givers are variably good at their job. I am so sorry for your experience and know that all paths are different.

I just don’t know what to say…

Meh. Nothing to say really, it's when I learned that medicine can be more art than science.

back to the subject at hand

Im 36
Have a 25-49% blockage in my LAD
I’m seeing my cardiologist and have had a second opinion

This is a very detectible thing

This really hits home.

Wow that is a scary situation. Glad you are stil with us.

Dont need to answer but did you have covid prior. I wonder if Tim did??

Not that it can't happen without but a few athletes I train have had covid and things were alot harder afterwards.

Good luck too you.

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Technique will always last longer then energy production. Improve biomechanics, improve performance.
http://Www.anthonytoth.ca, triathletetoth@twitter

Maybe. The clinical answer is "no", I never tested positive or was knowingly exposed, etc, and I don't say that I had Covid... but... I did get sick in late December 2019 (when China was just figuring out they had a problem) after returning from a business trip in Asia (S. Korea, Japan and Tiawan) I wasn't THAT sick... but I was feeling worse than I can ever remember and I did try to go in to see a doctor to get checked out, but ironically the doctor got very sick, cancelled on me three days in a row, and after that I felt that I wasn't in any danger, so I never went. I had a raging sore throat and a terrible deep lung cough, high fever, chest became very tight, had a hard time working out for a month. Basically all the symptoms that we later knew to be COVID related. I gave it to my 8yo son and he basically wanted nothing to do with Christmas morning. My wife and 5yo daughter never got sick. We all survived just fine, figured it was the flu (and it like was just the flu.) Very difficult to say if somehow I had a very very early case of Covid or not. I tend to think "no"... but everyone that was around me that Christmas thinks it could have been.

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Team Zoot

Interesting review for those interested.....TOD may not be in the "ageing" category, but a lot of the rest of us are.

The heart of the ageing endurance athlete: the role of chronic coronary stress - PubMed (nih.gov)

Thanks for the response - but how did you find out?

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

I am really sorry for what happened to Tim. Many of us are not councious about the risks that sometimes we take when especially at a certain age we train without being prior monitored or checked by a cardiologist. I suffered from an embolism 5 years ago and I was really lucky. I went to ER and they sent me back home with a wrong diagnosis and 3 days later, they discovered blood clogs in my lungs in a scan-check. I was fortunate, thats all that I have to say. In that period I was not training for anything....just happened suddenly and I was 36.
All this issue makes me think to go for a check on my heart and do an stress test. I am 42 and I love training (I have always practised sports) , but we have heard from too many bad news in IM and other disciplines. As as friend of mine always says (he is a sports performance researcher), all that thing about training 4 months for a marathon after being a couch-potato for ages is too muh for our hearts... no, everything is not possible (f**** that motto)

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Spaniard. Sorry for my english for the sensitive ones :P