Friday, February 02, 2007

Catching Up

In the name of self-defence, I guess I should point out two things: Firstly, indoor soccer is generally played on wooded floors. It’s not the same kind of floor you may have in your living room; instead it’s softer and slightly bouncy to protect people who choose to go into silly tackles and end up landing head first. Secondly, Niamh doesn’t “have to put up” with my running. As evidence, your Honour, I wish to submit the following transcript of a discussion we had just yesterday:

N: When are you running again?
T: Not yet, maybe on Saturday if I feel better
N: You should go running again. You’re a much happier person on your running days.
T: You notice a difference?
N: Yes, and you were always cranky on Saturdays last year
T: You mean that last year, when I ran 6 days a week, the fact that I deliberately left Saturday free to be able to spend the whole day with the family, backfired?
N: It was nice idea, but yeah, it backfired.
T:
N: Mind, I’m glad you do your long runs at 5 am in the morning. That's nice of you.

There you have it. I didn’t invent any of that. Not only does she not have to suffer for my running, she actively asked me to go and run as soon as I can.

And now it’s confession time. Big time. Something happened back in September, and I never told anyone about it, but it’s been at the back of my mind ever since. I guess I’d better come clean, and now is the perfect opportunity. It was a post in Eric’s blog a few days ago about a runner suffering from tachycardia that reminded me about it again.

Back in September, I ran the Blarney Half Marathon. We made a family day out of it, but that’s a different story altogether. I made one tiny reference in my race report to the incident in question when I said “I didn’t do much of a warm-up, less than I had intended”. Well, there was a reason for that.

About 20 minutes before the race start I started jogging lightly in a field beside the race HQ. After 5 minutes of that I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision blurred, I saw black spots in front of my eyes and nearly fainted. I had to lie down there and then, just to avoid collapsing in a heap. I put my legs up to help the circulation. I already wore my HRM and had a look; it read over 200, and after a minute or two the display stopped. I felt my pulse and it was extremely fast but also irregular, like dub, dub, <pause> dub, dub, dub <even longer pause>, dub, dub, … you get the picture. This went on for, I guess, 5 minutes, and then I slowly started to feel better. Eventually I managed to get up again and since I thought that I couldn’t possibly run a race after that, I went towards the HQ to look for some medical help. I couldn’t see an ambulance, and was about to go inside to ask for a doctor when a loudspeaker came on, “all runners please go to the start line”. I don’t know why I felt compelled to follow that order, but I did. I kept thinking “I can’t possibly run, I’ll faint before the half-mile mark.” However, as I took my place in the field and waited for the five or ten minutes until the gun sounded, I felt ok. So, when the start came and everyone started moving, I moved along with them. Within 2 minutes I had completely forgotten about the problem, and 95 minutes later I had completed the up to then best race of my life.

I haven’t encountered anything like that since. It was really scary, especially when the heart stopped for a beat or two. I definitely felt it was the end of my running, and was afraid of having some defect in my cardiac system. But, I have been fine ever since, and my running has come on in leaps and bounds since then. I certainly don’t intend to give up running, and while I would like to find out what exactly had happened, I’m convinced that it was not a serious or even debilitating issue.

Having gotten that off my chest, let's come back to the present. I’m still off the wagon. The head is improving, instead of a splitting headache I’ve now got a manageable headache, and I might try a run tomorrow, but I will have to wait and see. I’m definitely itching to get back out on the road, but if I feel pain, or if I think that I’m not ready to resume running, I’ll wait longer. My plans for Connemara haven’t changed, in fact we’ve booked a room there for the whole family for the weekend in question. It’s only 8 weeks. Good God, it’s only 8 weeks!!!

1 Feb: 0 miles
2 Feb: 0 miles

8 comments:

  1. My friend (Rumon) has/had an irregular heartbeat, and ended up having to get an operation last summer. It’s a long story and he is best at telling it. That said, what I got out of him was that it was nothing too serious, but it was getting in the way of his athletics (and it was getting worse). He is now well on the road to recovery and is going to be with me in London in April.

    Take care of your head and you’re smart not to rush back, this few days rest will only fuel the fire and allow your body some time to recover.

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  2. Thomas,
    Maybe dehydration was the issue. My heart skips whenever I get dehydrated - which, since I take a diuretic as part of my blood pressure/heart meds, is often. Often that skipping of a beat is actually an extra beat - the one before is weak and bearely felt, then next one then feels stronger. I have two types of skipping: PVC and PAC - premature ventricular contractions and premature aortic contractions. Both give that same rhythm you described. I haven't ever felt faint, or had the racing beat that you describe with it though. If it happens again, get it checked. And remember, I have a leaky valve and I still run - it doesn't meant the end, though it could mean a change in how you run.

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  3. Thomas! After The Heart Accident (200 HR !!! imho it's not about a dehydration) you had your Best Half and Fantastic Dublin on Oct 31st, read your Guts & Glory three times. For this period - WHY haven't you attended a Cardiologist? Forget about 65 lousy Euros, there has to be a Normal clinic to make a Full Analysis of your cardiovascular system, electrocardiogram or smth. Hope you do not think I'm a scaremonger. Thanks to Robtherunner I belong to Ladies' Camp now, still I think you have a Great family. Take Care of yourself. It doesn't really matter if you beat your 333 PR this Feb or not.

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  4. How come if our cars act up, we get into the mechanic asap. But, when it's just our heart, we do nothing.

    Think of your heart as the race engine. You want to keep running, make sure your engine is in good repair.

    Pat
    Arizona, USA

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  5. Many years ago I had more or less your same problem. Nobody succeeded in understanding what happened but for 5 times in 2 years, during the workouts, I had to lie on the ground without strenght and very very low blood pressure. Now I feel good but....what happened and why?

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  6. Thomas I really don't think any of the women was refering to Niamh putting up with your running. It took me 3 times to finally write this but when I read your response to Cindy with a comment on her blog I was confedent that was what I'd thought. I only mentioned the chocolate and flowers for that reason it would have been nice to have add that to the apology also

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  7. My name is Robert Key and I am a runner from Houston, Texas. I saw your blog listed when I was looking through the RBF directory. Last summer (I'm 47) I went out for a run and starting having an irregular heartbeat and had to stop after one mile, scared the heck out of me. For a couple of days, I felt very weak, then regained my strength and have been fine since. I have no idea what happened.

    I really liked the inspirational message of your blog and the way you trained and fought to break the 4:00 barrier. I have a web site at http://www.faithfulsoles.com that is inspirational stories for walkers, runners and athletes of all ages and abilities. A new feature I have recently added to the site is a categorized and searchable Running Blog Database where members of my site can find a blog of interest to them based on other walkers, runners or athletes of similar abilities, goals and interests. To my knowledge it is the only one of its kind specifically for walkers and runners on the internet. I would appreciate it if you would take a moment to put a link to your blog in our Running Blog Database. Just click on "Link your running blog" under "Free Features" from the home page. If you want to learn more about my running background, just click on "Meet Robert" from the main menu , or to learn more about my involvement in the running community, click on "Faithful Soles in the news" in the left column under "Weekly Features". I also have a blog that I just started at http://faithfulsoles.blogspot.com, but most of my running information is on my web site. Also, if there is anyone else in your blogger network that you think would be interested in listing their blog, please feel free to pass this information along to them. Thanks and continued good luck in your training

    ReplyDelete