Manguzi

You know you've had a really good weekend when you put on 2 kgs! I had no self discipline! Well not really, I did go for a run on Sunday, but here's how it went down.

It was a 7hr drive to get to Manguzi, which is really the town on the Kosi bay lakes, in northern Kwazulu Natal. So I thought I could go for a run that afternoon, but when we got there, the time was spent shopping and catching up. Then it was an hours drive to the campsite in the middle of nowhere, which was great, except that the roads are all sand pits (4x4 essential) and I'm certainly not a life guard.

By that stage I was starving and when the chips came out, well...my resistance crumbled! Then everyone's drinking beer and wine... need I say more, I was really quite good until a friend poured me, what I hoped was to be a single whiskey (I'm only human) but must have been a triple!

From there on everything just went out of the window, I tried in vain sometimes, but mostly I was weak! Chips, biltong, lots of soft drinks, water etc. Don't get me wrong I had a great time, it will just take me a few days to recover properly!

The really disappointing thing is that when I did go for a run I felt terrible, more because I was bloated and carrying a stack of water than anything else I think. I did 4.3km in 34:15 on Sunday. If I could have gone for a run that first day it could have been quite interesting... well I still have a race in Cape Town in 2 weeks time. 

So the question is this, when you go on holiday, with old varsity friends, how do you refuse alcohol and other things you shouldn't eat (which you don't really want to refuse anyway) without looking like a complete party pooper? How do you only drink a litre of water a day, when you are going from place to place? It's really hard!! 

Week 34 Exercise Log... so far

I won't be able to blog this weekend as I will be in Maguzi, a town just south of the Mozambique border. I will be visiting a friend there, him and his girlfriend are doctors at the local hospital. What a drag... 15km from Mozambique, on the coast. I will have to post some pics :)

I am planning on taking a run tomorrow and on Sunday, it should be interesting, mainly because it will be my first run at sea level since I moved up to Gauteng, and it will be a test of my self discipline. I did go for a hike on the Easter weekend in Cape town and was REALLY surprised at how easy it was... so the next blog sometime next week should be very interesting

So far this week I ran 10km in 1hr19

Monday 20 August 2007
Distance: 5.2km
Total time: 41:14
Intervals: 65/95
Pace: 7:55 min/km
Average HR: 135 bpm
Energy used: 2106 kJ
Route: Premier

Wednesday 22 August 2007

Distance: 5km
Total time: 38:18
Intervals: 65/95
Pace: 7:39 min/km
Average HR: 133 bpm
Energy used: 1905 kJ
Route: Mackenzie

Weight: 74kg

Damn that salt!

I've been thinking of more things I can write about to keep this blog interesting and this one doesn't seem to be that interesting, but I'm going to put it up anyway, just so that there isn't an exercise log at the top of my blog.

So what kind of things do I have to consider? I was talking to someone about this a few days ago, he had a heart attack a while back, and I was quite surprised when he said he can't eat ice cream!! I was a little puzzled, but when I thought a little harder it occurred to me that it was probably cholesterol that was ultimately the cause of his heart attack and to prevent further incidents he had been advised to stay away from fatty foods.

That's good advice, no matter how healthy you are. In my case however fatty foods aren't my major concern. I do watch my diet and the amount, and type of fat I eat. I'm less worried about eating a handful of peanuts, or some olive oil on my salad, than I am about the cream in a delicious pasta or the fat on that a juicy lamb chop.

So what do I need to consider when it comes to my particular condition? I've made passing comments about salt and water already, but here is the full story. I remember clearly the day when my doctor suggested the type of things I should steer clear of... and it hurt. I've never been much of a sweet tooth, so if he had said ice cream, or Bar Ones I would have been happy. But he told me to stay away from salt and the biggest sources of salt in ones diet are those delectable snacks that we all consume with such vigor at get-togethers of any sort... CHIPS and BILTONG!! I could have cried. To say that I don't eat them would be an outright lie... I love them and I'm human. So every now and then I indulge myself with a packet of Salt and Vinegar, or sample the latest addition to the Simba range. Biltong, when offered, is never refused, I just keep on walking whenever I go passed a biltong shop in a mall. It's always the little things....

So I've talked about salt but perhaps I should explain the reason. As I understand it, when your heart doesn't perform at full strength it has trouble processing fluids, so slowly as you drink water, fluid will build up in your body. This tends to pool in your lungs, I'm not sure why. Salt helps your body retain water, that's why all these energy drinks talk about replacing electrolytes. When you sweat you loose salts with that, and an energy drink replaces those salts, helping you re-hydrate better. In my case however if I have too much salt I put on weight...quickly... and start coughing, as the fluid irritates my lungs.This also puts more strain on my heart to get rid of the fluid. Whether I've explained it properly or not is beside the point, all that is really important is that I must avoid salt. 

Limiting salt consumption goes hand in hand with limiting the amount of fluids I drink. Even without too much salt, too much fluid in my body is still a strain for my heart. So I am advised to only drink about a litre of water a day. In the week, while at work this is no problem, I have a cup of coffee in the morning, and two or three more cups of whatever I feel like for the rest of the day, and maybe something more when I get back from my run or after supper. In the week there is no problem. Come social events, it gets much more difficult, that's where nursing a glass of appletiser or coke becomes an invaluable skill which I haven't yet mastered!

What's next? Probably a blog about all the other stuff I can't eat. I'm away next weekend, so the chances are that I won't be able to put up anything next weekend. The challenge is really going to be to go for 2 runs while on a weekend away. I won't be around from my Friday or Monday sessions... Self discipline will have to prevail... oh and the wrath and/or disappointment of the friends who read this blog regularly :) 

Week 33 2007 Exercise Log

This week I ran 18.2km in 2hr16

Sunday 12 August 2007
Distance: 2.2km
Total time: 15:56
Intervals: 55/90
Pace: 7:14 min/km
Average HR: 132 bpm
Energy used: 775 kJ
Route: Time Trial Route, 1 lap

Monday 13 August 2007
Distance: 6km
Total time: 44:54
Intervals: 55/90
Pace: 7:29 min/km
Average HR: 135 bpm
Energy used: 2294 kJ
Route: Spiral

Wednesday 15 August 2007

Distance: 5km
Total time: 37:22
Intervals: 55/90
Pace: 7:28 min/km
Average HR: 135 bpm
Energy used: 1880 kJ
Route: Nicholson

Friday 17 August 2007

Distance: 5km
Total time: 37:50
Intervals: 60/90
Pace: 7:34 min/km
Average HR: 133 bpm
Energy used: 1876 kJ
Route: Lynwood

Weight: 74kg

Below is a graph of an exercise session. The red squiggly line is of my heart rate over the whole, in this case, 6km run. The triangles at the bottom show the intervals. If you look closely you can see that in this case my running interval was 55 seconds and my walking interval was 90 seconds. But my heart rate varies very little, it stays at about 135 bpm, and the max recorded rate here is 142 bpm. I would like to get a comparison with someone who is relatively fit to show the difference, but I would assume that someone of my age would normally have a much more varied heart rate. It should probably vary from the high hundreds to the low hundreds running these intervals. I think because of the medication I am on the response is much slower, and my maximum heart rate is also much lower.

Exercise graph: please click for better resolution

Resting heart rate

I was wondering what my resting heart rate really was the other day, I know it is best to test it in the morning, but I rarely remember to actually check. So what I did was to wear my heart rate monitor all night long. It turns out that my average resting heart rate for the 8 hours that I slept was 63bpm, which is pretty much where I want it to be.

As far as I know this would be a lot higher were I not on medication, and it's also really unfortunate that I didn't check it before I started running regularly. From now on I will do a night's sleep with my monitor on, once a month. That way I can keep track of changes.

Am I being stupid or irresponsible... is this wishful thinking?

I've been asked whether what I am aiming for is safe, or a good idea. I think it is a good idea, but it depends on how I go about getting there. I will take it very gradually. I listen to my body, when I need to rest I rest. I have no desire to push myself to the limit, I just want to finish a half marathon, no fancy time, I just want to cross the line, and in so doing keep fit and healthy. If I push myself too hard to the detriment of my health then it will all be in vain!

I haven't spoken to my cardiologist about this goal specifically, but perhaps I can relate it to some cycling I have done. When I told him a few years back that I had just completed a 79km cycle race and wanted to enter the Argus Cycle tour, he asked me how I had felt in the race. My response was, "not too good", towards the end of the race I had felt terrible, the wind was in my face and I was very tired, I had had to stop every 2km to rest for the last 10km! He looked at me unperturbed and having done a longer version of the same race himself, he said that I was probably hypoglycemic (my body had run out of fuel). In that particular race there was no juice given to participants, only water, and I had only brought 750ml of Energade, by the end of the race I was literally out of fuel. I probably shouldn't have driven home, I remember very little of the drive!

Anyway, he said I should go ahead with the Argus but that I must just make sure I take in enough fuel, a bite of an energy bar every 15 minutes, from the start of the race, not halfway through. It worked very well, I had to stop, as I knew I would, on all the big hills, but I never felt exhausted. I would stop for 1 or 2 minutes half way up the hills, when I felt I should rest. I recovered quickly and once I felt good again, it was no trouble for me to climb the rest of the hill.

The main points have always been: listen to your body, increase things gradually. So I think I will do my running in exactly the same way, no pushing myself too hard, I will do what I am comfortable with, make sure I am enjoying myself and if my body says stop, I will stop.

Week 32 2007 Exercise Log

This week I ran 15km in 1hr53 

Monday 6 August 2007
Distance: 5km
Total time: 37:55
Intervals: 50/80
Pace:  7:35 min/km
Average HR:  133 bpm
Energy used:  1901 kJ
Route:

Wednesday 8 August 2007

Distance: 5km
Total time: 38:17 
Intervals: 55/85
Pace:  7:39 min/km
Average HR: 134 bpm
Energy used: 1922 kJ
Route: Boys High

Friday 10 August 2007

Distance: 5km
Total time: 37:45 
Intervals: 55/85
Pace:  7:33 min/km
Average HR: 131 bpm
Energy used: 1825 kJ
Route: Clarke

Weight: 74kg

Strange that....

I went for my run yesterday, I was on time, there were no items lost in transit. A few minutes in to the run I noticed that I wasn't feeling too strong, my heart rate got up quicker than usual, and then was elevated more than usual (136 vs 132bpm). It should have clicked but I rather tried to justify this with many things.

Firstly I had had a pie for lunch, shock shock horror! I'm a bachelor, I cook for myself, usually low fat, low salt, low GI type food. The trick is to make it go as far as possible so I don't have to cook often. I quite like cooking, but I hate cleaning up afterwards. So I usually make as much as possible and freeze leftovers in meal size portions, taking these to work for lunch or I eat them when I feel too lazy to cook in the evenings. The point is that I usually don't eat pies, they are full of fat and salt and they give me heart burn... but once in a while they are SO GOOOD! I thought perhaps the pie was cramping my style... something to do with blood sugar levels.

Next I thought I could have some trouble with the amount of fluids in my body, as I have mentioned this needs to be tightly controlled. Too much and I start coughing as it starts draining into my lungs. Too little and I get headaches. I was leaning towards the too much fluid side of things, the amount of fluid I retain is directly related to the amount of salt I eat and it just felt like perhaps my salt consumption had been too much this passed week. But this was also not a very convincing argument.

Then I thought that perhaps I was increasing my running interval too much. I had increased it from 45s on Friday to 50s on Monday to 55s on Wednesday, of course there was a matching increase in my rest interval, but still it is almost a 20% increase in running time in the space of 6 days. So I thought perhaps this was ambitious.

Anyway I didn't feel like I couldn't carry on, I just felt like there was something slightly amiss. I continued to do the 5km run, and as I found out later it was slightly better than my previous time for the same route. My routine when I get back from a run is to take my meds for the evening and then go for a shower. I take quite a few tabs so I dish them out into one of those weekly container things, so I only have to do it once a week... sounds like I should have a walking stick, I know! Anyway I picked up the container and noticed that I hadn't taken any meds yesterday morning! So there was my explanation, I take 4 types of meds, the first is an anticoagulant, preventing blood clots forming in my heart and getting stuck anywhere else in my body. The second is a very mild diuretic, which helps with fluid retention. The third is a vasodilator which increases the diameter of my blood vessels, lowering my blood pressure and making it easier for my heart to pump blood around my body. The final drug is a beta blocker which basically slows my heart down. 

So I guess the reason I wasn't feeling too strong was that my heart was beating harder and faster, to push thicker blood through smaller blood vessels. But it's not the end of the world, it's not like I do this every day...

The temptation... the disappointment

I started my run really late yesterday, I got home from work, later than usual. I fumbled with the lock, holding my laptop in my other hand, then I double pressed one of the alarm buttons so the damned thing wouldn't disarm! Once I had sorted out that mini crisis, I got changed into my running kit on the double. Once I had my shorts and T-shirt on, I sat down on the couch to change my shoes and socks... then I put on my HR monitor and was ready to go, not to be late for the stretches before the run. I grabbed my car keys and my wallet... but where were my house keys? I spent a full 10 minutes looking on my bed, in the kitchen, under the cushions on the couch that I usually toss my keys on... I even looked in the bathroom and in the cupboards in my bedroom. My place is actually not that much of a mess and things don't usually get lost that easily. Anyway I found them on the couch I had sat on to change my shoes, they had slid down the side. 

I got to RW4L as everyone else was heading out. This means I need to do my stretches myself and then head out on my own after them. The first I see of them is on their way back from either the 4km turn around or the 5km turn around. I continue on to the 5km turn, I'm feeling good, strong, I'm keeping to my intervals, I'm not short of breath, my legs aren't burning... much. I turn around no problems. I've done about 3.5km and I'm jogging back down the long gradual hill that I climbed on the way out. One of the stronger runners comes up behind me in one of my walking intervals, on a normal day he would still be on his way out... he says "come it's not that far back", an interval starts... I run, we chat... it's great! I love running with people! He asks me how far I'm doing today... 5km...that's great he says... we run...I ask him how far he's gone... 8km... are you training for anything? I ask... no, just keeping fit through winter... oh... I will do the two oceans next year though... cool!! The full marathon?...Ja... my running interval ends, we carry on running, it's downhill and I'm still feeling strong, the temptation is to carry on running, it's feels so good, our footfalls keep pace, I'm breathing easily, I feel great, I glance at my watch, HR normal, my rest interval ends! We carry on running, I feel fine...

THIS is the temptation. To carry on when I really shouldn't, but I really don't want to tell him why I won't carry on either... the next running interval ends... we carry on running, I'm loving it, but I decide to stop... I say I'm going to walk a bit, he hesitates, I can see his disappointment, I really want to explain, but I also don't, so I just let him believe whatever it is he thinks... he carries on running.

I finish my run, I walk up to the guy and say thanks for the chat, he says "You must go for longer next time", I nod and smile.

Where did it all probably start?

I bet it seems like this story will never stop and this guy MUST be talking crap, but this is really what else went down...

I was born in Cape Town at Somerset Hospital sometime on September 18th 1979. From there on it went a bit pear shaped. I got ill, really ill, I was two weeks old when my mother took me to a nurse friend of hers and was she was advised to get me to hospital ASAP! So I ended up at Red Cross Children's Hospital. I had contracted a viral infection and it had caused myocarditis, my heart was inflamed and I was in heart failure. Apparently there was a problem with the sanitation of the maternity ward that I was born in because 4 other babies died who were born around the same time as me, from the same virus!

I was lucky, I still have the scar on my chest where they drained fluid off my lungs, apparently in young babies diuretics aren't safe. I was hospitalized for many months, I believe, but by the time I was 2 I was off medication and given a full bill of health. However I was 5 or 6 when my mother decided I was ill again and she was right, I was once again in heart failure. More medication and many ECG's and echo's. I got better, but I was not allowed to play any competitive sports in junior school, no rugby or athletics or swimming races etc... and people wonder why I'm a bit uncoordinated at times :P

When I was 13 I was told everything was hunky dory again and when I asked if I could take part in sports I was told to go ahead! Although I was given a full bill of health it was suggested that I be seen a year later at Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH), because at 13 you are no longer allowed to receive treatment at Red Cross, however that follow up appointment was never made. So for high school I chose some of the more strenuous sports, namely waterpolo (which I sucked at) and rowing (which I was slightly better at). I also played some hockey and did some cross country running. In the 6 years between the age of 13 and 19 I didn't see a cardiologist, didn't take medication, basically lived like any other normal teenager.

I can distinctly remember in matric feeling palpitations, I remember sitting in the TV room at the hostel and asking a friend if his heart ever did this kind of thing. It was probably that I was starting to go out late at night, drink alcohol, get exposed to lots of cigarette smoke that had brought it on... I think. Listen to your body! If there's something strange going on check it out, a stitch in time saves nine.

So I asked my cardiologist if the fact that I was ill was due to my cardiac history. He told me it was likely, but that it was impossible to tell for certain. There are numerous causes for dilated cardiomyopathy with atrial flutter. It is a chicken or the egg situation, a rhythm problem can cause cardiomyopathy and vice versa. So it really is impossible to say for definite why I have this condition, however if I had been seen once a year in those 6 years... well... things could be different, but this is how it is, so I'll deal with it.

Week 31 Exercise log

This week I ran/walked 14,2km in 1hr47.

Monday 30 July 2007
Distance: 5km
Total time: 36:57
Intervals: 45/50
Pace: 7:23 min/km
Average HR: 133 bpm
Energy used: 1863 kJ
Route: Lynwood

Wednesday 1 August 2007

Distance: 4km
Total time: 28:59
Intervals: 45/60
Pace: 7:14 min/km
Average HR: 131 bpm
Energy used: 1436kJ
Route: Time Trial CCW

Friday 20 July 2007

Distance: 5.2km
Total time: 41:19
Intervals: 45/70
Pace: 7:56 min/km
Average HR: 132 bpm
Energy used: 2056
Route: Premier

Weight: 74kg

Note: The first Wednesday of every month is a time trial, a 2km lap is used as the route. I am still doing a 4km time trial. I have improved my time by 2 minutes since last months time trial for which I took just over 31 minutes.

Premier, the route I ran on Friday, is hell on tar. It has a hill in it that curves up exponentially, it seems for about a kilometer. I had to stop and breath about 100m from the top of the hill, but the route back was awesome.

Interesting links:
Weight Lifting For Health And Heart
Pump Up Your Cardiovascular Health with Weight Lifting!
Why Aerobic Exercise Helps the Heart