Went out for my first ride 7 days post IM. My heart felt tired and I was short of breath despite going easy. I know that post IM your heart can show similar signs to someone who has suffered a heart attack. Does anyone have any data on heart damage and how long it takes for the heart to recover. Is any of the damage permanent and does anyone else have similar problems? I’ve done nearly 10 IM btw.
The book “Lore of Running” by Tim Noakes, MD touches the subject several times. Mostly about runners who are doing ultra-marathons. But the book is over 900 pages, so it might take some reading.
On subjective symptoms it’s hard to say that it’s your heart.
Sounds like you need a good rest and a trip to your MD for some blood work.
I know that post IM your heart can show similar signs to someone who has suffered a heart attack.
I don’t know if you read the same report as I did, but they showed in “tests” post endurance ahtletes hearts produced the same antigens (?) as someone who had a heart attack. I did not say the heart was damaged**,** or the athlete felt symptoms of heart damage. So, if you don’t feel right, it wouldn’t hurt to go in for a check up. Especially if you have done 10 IM and never had this happen before.
You might want to check your heart rate during and post exercize. m AFib is very common in endurance athletes.
You can have that after a long run…heck, even a 1h run…
There are a lot of triathletes with inverted T-wave. Add to that some intensity on the run, or a long run, and you get elevated CPKs…Looks just like a myocardial infarctus.
Westy-I think that a careful review of the data will give the answer you seek. It’s true that one way to document an MI-myocardial infarction or heart attack-is thru a blood test known as cardiac isoenzymes looking for an elevation. It’s also true, and known for some time actually, that occasionally there’s a mild elevation in the isoenzymes following endurance athletics which is*** not*** an MI.
It would not be easy, if asked, for me to list symptoms for a “tired heart” but, as noted previously in the thread, an evaluation by your family physician is probably in order, even if it’s only for reassurance.
If your symptoms are unusual for you and not improving or worsening go see you doc. Its impossible to come up with a differential with the limited data you provide as there are just too many possibilities and you will likely need some testing.
Cheers Guy’s will take it easy and get the Doc to check out my bloods etc. Meanwhile I’ll do some research, it’d be good to know actual heart damage that is ‘normal’ for someone post IM and how long the muscle takes to rebuild etc. We all stress about getting massage for our legs etc but don’t do anything for the cardiac muscle.
Its impossible to come up with a differential with the limited data you provide . . .
House could. Then he would insult your need for tests.
If you feel tiredness in your heart, then there is something seriously wrong. Go to the doc in that case.
If you just have a different value on your heart rate monitor, or the legs don’t get going during a training 7 days after an IM means that you are tired (not just your heart…). Nothing serious about this, very common after IM. Just keep all training very short and easy until you feel good again.
bump
interesting thread! I had no idea the heart could show signs as if it’s had a heart attack post running. I obviously skimmed “Lore of Running” a bit too much 
I had a false positive for MI the morning following teaching a pretty intense spinning class that actually ended up saving my life.
To make a long story as short as possible, I felt some slight chest discomfort during the AM hours at work. Coworkers gave me the ‘this is nothing to fool around with’ lecture so I went to the local ER just to be sure. Blood test showed elevated triponen T (if memory serves) levels indicating a heart attack. In the minutes following, I received both a lecture on why I didn’t come in sooner and an echocardiogram. Followup tests came back negative for a MI, but the echo showed moderate to severe mitral valve prolapse and a dilated aortic root that was twice it’s normal size (think of a balloon ready to burst). Neither condition had presented any symptoms (doctors had never even heard the backflow through the mitral valve). The aortic aneurism would have eventually killed me very suddenly the same way one supposedly killed John Ritter of Three’s Company fame.
Four months later I was on a plane to Cleveland for valve repair and an aortic graft. Four years later good as new (almost).