Scary

I was really happy with the results from Wednesday's evaluation and was still determined to take it rather easy in training. So when I got up on Thursday morning I expected yet another easy, slow, mundane 10 mile run like I have done hundreds of times before.

I started at a very easy effort, as always, gradually warmed up over the first mile or two and by mile 3 I was well within my stride and just gliding along when all of a sudden my chest started feeling restricted and breathing became laborious. It felt like I had something heavy sitting right in the centre of my chest and I thought that it felt like a mild asthma attack. Lola has just been sick for 2-3 weeks with a virus infection that had kept her coughing and feeling weak and I was fairly sure I was fighting off the same bug. I kept on running; I might have felt a bit uncomfortable but nothing major. Right at the end I tested how my breathing would react if I upped the pace; the answer was, it almost knocked me out.

Still, I didn't think too much of it until I uploaded my run onto the computer and had a look at the HR graph. That's when I almost fell off my chair with shock.

The spike at mile 3 is the most shocking thing but the flat line afterwards is just as unusual. I ran over several hills and the HR should have had a few ups and downs, just like you can see in the first 3 miles.

I uploaded that image onto facebook to ask some more experienced friends what they thought of it (it only occurred to me afterwards that posting medical stuff on FB isn't the smartest move, probably). A few dismissed it as a malfunctioning HRM, but I knew that was not the case because I know I had felt "something" at mile 3; this was real. The feedback from the ones that took it more seriously was mostly reassuring, but I was worried enough to see my GP straight away. She took a few measurements (my systolic BP was rather high) and gave me a referral letter for a cardiologist, though what really struck me was the rather worried look on her face. She did not tell me to stop running, though.

I did feel like crap for the rest of the day, and in fact thought I was about to faint when driving home (taking deep breaths got that under control), which is obviously highly dangerous and not something to take lightly. The next morning I decided to test how I was and started my usual pre-run preparations. That included gently bouncing up and down for a minute and after that I was so exhausted and felt lightheaded I had to sit down on the kitchen floor to avoid keeling over. Not good. Not good at all. I went to work and hardly made it through our stand-up meeting without collapsing, so went home again and into bed, which is where I should have stayed all along.

I gradually felt better again after lunchtime, and almost back to normal in the evening. I wore my HRM for a while, and my resting HR was at 80 initially but dropped to 50 by the end of the day. I still took another rest day on Saturday but was okay for a long day of music lessons, Christmas shopping and other errands, so on Sunday morning I got out my shoes once more and started running. I was perfectly fine at first, if a bit paranoid and kept checking my HR, which I normally never do. After about 2.5 mile I thought I felt a bit off so turned around. I got home without any incidents. My HR was a bit high but nothing out of the ordinary, and after 2 days of not running it always is a bit elevated, so that's okay.

Chances are you won't get rid of me so easily and I'll be okay. I will take it very easy for a while and forget about training for a World Championship. I still suspect that virus from Lola has something to do with it, but I will have to wait and see until I get my appointment with the cardiologist to get some more professional feedback. I've had some HR spikes before, on an almost annual basis in fact, but nothing for over five years. I read through my blog entries from those happenings and felt rather reassured; they had felt very similar and did not stop me from running or developing into a more serious runner.

4 Dec

10 miles, 1:22:03, 8:12 pace, HR 147

5 Dec

0

6 Dec

0

7 Dec

5 miles, 38:48, 7:45 pace, HR 143

Analyse That

I guess 10 miles races are long enough to deserve a bit of an analysis. I didn’t get round to connecting my Garmin to the computer on Sunday, and I got a real surprise when I finally caught up on Monday. Have a look at it.



Firstly, you can ignore the HR reading over the first mile and a bit, that’s a false reading that happens when the contacts aren’t moist. Secondly, you can see the slow pace at the start. The first quarter had an average pace of 7:20, at least a minute per mile slower than what I would have run on an open road. And since I still had to weave around plenty of people after that point I estimate that the start cost me about 20 seconds. Not enough to get anywhere near my mallow time, but I most likely would have ended up under 64 minutes. Ah well, never mind.

But what really struck me was that HR spike at 3.5 miles. If you remember the race report you can see that I actually noticed something funny happening to my heart at that point. I had no idea this actually showed up on the HR monitor. I googled for tachycardia and hear rate spikes, and the answers are reasonably reassuring, so I don’t think I’m about to drop dead. As I’ve mentioned, this has happened before, but never during a race, and I did have a medical check-up that came up blank. I have no idea what exactly is going on, but I honestly think it’s not as serious as it sounds.

Anyway, the other bit of information I gathered from the data is that I did not run hard enough! I know the HR is not an exact replication of effort, but the average HR of 176 in Mallow was significantly higher than the 172 in Ballycotton, and I can only conclude that I could have pushed an ounce harder. My easiest mile was the fifth, for which I actually have an excuse because I was sheltering from the wind behind a group. Apart from that, most miles should have been a tad harder. I only pushed hard enough on the last 2.

There were some photos as well. I didn’t spot myself at the start, but with 2500 other runners on a narrow street that’s not very surprising. I found one with about half a mile to go, which won’t win a prize for beauty. Well, I was redlining at the time. There was also an official photographer at the finish, where you can see me with the two guys I had just outsprinted. According to the SportTracks software I was doing about 4:40 pace at the time. It looks like I have finally acquired a finishing kick; all those 30/30 workouts have gained me two places on Sunday.

Following the possibly flawed theory that running on tired legs builds your endurance I went out for 15 miles on Monday. I chickened out of doing 20, but resisted the temptation of cutting it even further. Richard had made a comment on Sunday that my bed must be really uncomfortable, otherwise I would never get up so early. Well, that night Maia had been with us since 4 o’clock, and if you have to share a pillow with a thrashing toddler then getting up at 5:30 gets a lot easier, I can assure you. I was labouring badly up the steep hills, and the wind up there was less than inviting, but at least it wasn’t raining at the time. That came at the halfway mark, and for the next 2 miles I was distinctly cold and uncomfortable. I did question what I was doing, and I wondered how many other runners of Sunday’s race were stupid enough to be out and about at this time of morning. I felt a lot better once the rain subsided and had enough willpower to speed up over the last 4 miles, but not enough muscle fibres to do better than 7:25 pace. Coming home was a massive relief, though.

I finally got my recovery run today with 8 easy miles, again ever so slightly compromised by the wind and the odd rain shower. We’ve had it easy, weather wise, in February, and now it’s payback time. According to the weather forecast the worst is already behind us, but it didn’t feel like that today. The legs are as stiff and tired as I expected them to be. Tomorrow’s effort level will depend on how I’ll feel in the morning.

9 Mar

15 miles, 1:59:54, 7:59 pace, HR 146
last 4 @ 7:25 pace

10 Mar

8 miles, 1:05:05, 8:08 pace, HR 141

Good News and Bad News

Look what arrived in Monday’s post. On the back side it says that I am accepted into the 113th Boston marathon, and to confirm this, a search on their website has me listened as one of the entrants. I guess it’s time to book a flight; and to check the Visa requirements.

I’m slowly cranking up my mileage and I can already feel an improvement in my fitness. Those runs of 2 hours seem to have a magic effect on me, I can feel a drop in the HR even one day later. Surely I’m not imagining the figures on the Garmin, especially now that the new battery seems to have fixed the problems. I noticed a lower heart rate last Tuesday, and the same happened again today.

Monday’s run was not without difficulties. The forecast frosty temperatures never arrived, but the wind and rain did. I had fallen asleep listening to the storm outside, and when the alarm sounded at 5:25 am it still didn’t sound any better. As I was getting ready I could not help looking out of the kitchen window into the darkness and thinking that it felt less than inviting. Of course I went out anyway, and it wasn’t as bad as it had sounded. This was my first lap around the lake since the marathon, and beforehand I had been wondering if I would be able to run all those hills and still remain under the HR threshold. I needn’t have worried. The HR alarm did beep at times, but I was always able to get it back under control without problems. In fact I reached the high point in a time that I would have regarded as decent in the previous training cycle despite being careful not to exert myself; admittedly I may have been assisted by the strong wind pushing me from behind. Then I had the chance to test my downhill running skills, which will be sorely tested in Boston. I felt a bit awkward at times; I guess there is room for improvement. The second half of the run was a lot more challenging against the blustery wind (average wind speed 30mph, gusts of 40 mph), but I was surprised how well I felt, even on the last miles I was not the least bit tired. What did bother me was my left hamstring, which started tightening up badly with a few miles to go. When I reached home I felt like I could run a second lap without problems as long as someone took care of my left leg in the meantime. This area kept bothering me for the entire day. I’m not sure what to do. I can easily reach my toes without bending the knees, so tightness should not be a problem; I keep stretching it regularly, and that does provide some relief, but only for a short while.

As already mentioned, today’s reward for running 2 hours on Monday was an improved heart rate. I managed my first run under 8:00 pace since the marathon which pleased me no end, but then disaster struck. I was doing some exercises afterwards (bounding, skipping, high knees, …) and about 5 minutes into that my heart went mental. The HR on the Garmin went beyond 220, and when I felt my pulse it was extremely fast, shallow and irregular. It was a bit scary, but this has happened twice before and I wasn’t worried about dropping dead. Of course I stopped exercising immediately, but didn’t feel quite right for another couple of hours.

The whole episode could be caffeine related, but that is only a theory. After the last episode, two years ago, I completely cut my coffee intake and did not experience any more problems afterwards. In the last few weeks I have drunk between 1 and 2 cups each day, which isn’t exactly a lot, but it’s one or two cups more than I used to drink before the marathon, and eliminating coffee is the first thing on my list. Back then I had a health check which stated that I was completely healthy and that my heart was perfectly fine.

I have a sore throat at the moment (like Shea and Niamh, and Cian had been sick already), which might have something to do with it. I was also quite tired because Maia had woken at 4 am and kept torturing us for the next 90 minutes (most likely she’s got a sore throat as well), and the sleep deprivation did get to me. As far as running is concerned, I’m not too worried. The last time this happened was during the warm up for a half-marathon; for some reason I still decided to race, and subsequently had my best ever race up to then. If anything, regular exercise should be beneficial. Anyway, it’s definitely not a heart attack, it doesn’t fit any of the symptoms. I’d still like to know what it is, though, but the doctor didn’t come up with anything last time. I’m not a complete idiot (I said complete, right?), if I thought there was something seriously wrong I’d stop running immediately.

24 Nov

15 miles, 2:04:16, 8:17 pace, HR 146

25 Nov

8 miles, 1:03:32, 7:57 pace, HR 147
subsequent heart palpitations