Dammit

Just noticed week 41 is missing, promise I'll put it up, I somehow disappeared it :(

What the cardiologist said

I had an appointment with a new cardiologist last Friday (the 12th). Why a new one? Because the old one is in Cape Town, and plane tickets aren't covered by my medical aid. It was a bit strange, the procedure was completely different to what I'm used to. I was first asked to get undressed and put on some boxers that were supplied.

Then I sat in a second waiting room, for the semi dressed people. When the ECG lady was ready for me she asked me to stand on a scale, 75kg. Then she asked me to stand in front of her while she stuck conductive electrodes all over my chest. Once she had wired me up to the ECG machine she asked me to sit, instead of lie on the bed, which is what usually happens. It showed my heart rate as 57bpm, which is lower than I expected.

Having removed mercifully little chest hair, I was sent back to the waiting room to wait for the doctor. He then asked me the usual questions: Do you smoke? Drink? Family history of heart conditions? When were you first diagnosed... blah blah blah. I'm not sure I gave him the full picture as I'm so over all that, and he didn't seem to ask all the correct leading questions, hopefully he requests my file from my previous doc.

Once he had got enough history he asked me to lie on a bed while he recorded what he remembered me saying with a dictaphone, presumably for later typing by a secretary. He then listened to my heart, took my BP, checked my ankles for swelling and then listened to my lungs. We then went to the echo machine and he did an echocardiogram. Checking the size of my left ventricle and my ejection fraction.

The good news is that there are marginal improvements in both these measures of cardiac function. That could be due to measurement error, or an actual improvement in my cardiac function. I have some recollection that the last time I went to my Cape Town cardiologist, he said the same thing, that there was a marginal improvement but it is difficult to say whether it is a real improvement because it is such a small change. It's unfortunate that my appointments are so far apart and that I have no personal records. But if my recollection is correct then 2 small improvements make 1 bigger improvement, so maybe I am seeing some real improvements in my condition. My ejection fraction is currently 36%.

The doctor also asked for me to have some blood tests to check some chemical markers that are indicators of heart failure. What they are exactly I'm not sure. I also got myself sorted again for monitoring my INR, that's the thickness of my blood. I have had a pretty constant dosage and have been really lazy about having blood tests lately. Not because I don't like having them, but because, firstly there are no fixed dates for the tests, and secondly because the nurses at the clinic where I last had a blood test seemed really disagreeable.

The problem, which I am very aware of, but have been shoving to the back of my mind, is two fold. If my blood is too thick then a clot could possibly form, getting stuck anywhere in my body, including my brain, which could cause a stroke. So it's a good thing that I'm having it monitored correctly once more. It does mean that there are numerous regular blood tests that I need to have in the near future.

I asked what the doctor thought of me running regularly. He said as long as I wasn't racing it should all be good. As soon as you start competing with people you stop listening to your body and can do some serious damage.

He also said that I may need to consider having an ICD installed. ICD - Internal Cardioverter Defibrillator. I will write an article about what that is soon. He says that they are indicated (that means suggested or necessary) for patients with ejection fractions under 35% so I am very much on the cusp. Because it is invasive and visible, and because I am young, he said we will avoid it for as long as possible. Personally I don't think I need one, but perhaps as time goes on I will.

All said the news and prognosis is good and I should live healthily at least until my next appointment in 6 months time.

Week 42 Exercise Log

This week I ran 9km in 1hr10

Monday 15 October 2007
Distance: 5.2km
Total time: 41:17
Intervals: 75/90
Pace: 8:01 min/km
Average HR:  143
Energy used: 386 Cal
Route: Premier = Hell 

Wednesday 17 October 2007
Distance: 3.8km
Total time: 28:30
Intervals: 75/90
Pace: 7:23 min/km
Average HR: 135
Energy used: 254 Cal
Route: Time trial route

Weight: 75kg 

Feeling a bit lethargic lately, hoping it's just the change of season. Skipped Friday because of the rain. Really stoked that we won the World Cup! GO BOKKE!!!

Running in the rain

While most people were running scared to the shelter of their homes yesterday, I was running around Pretoria getting rained on and nearly struck by lightening. It was awesome!! But I am finding this weather rather annoying, it's interfering with my running dammit. I missed Friday's run and now most of yesterday's run. I only did one 2km loop before we decided that it was looking really ominous, 30 seconds later it started hailing, so we were right.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, because we need the rain, but could it just rain at more convenient times please!

Time trial improvements

I've been training pretty solidly for the past 5 months. I started off pretty slowly, doing about 30km a month and running really short intervals. I started off at about 20s running and 50s walking, which just happened to be the amount of time it took me to run the short edge of a field and walk the long edge. Once I was up to about 4km I was put out to pasture :P. No, I was allowed onto the road. Which was great because it is more entertaining than running in circles.

Once out on the road I was expected to take part in time trials, which entails running around a 2km loop. At the moment I am still only doing 4km time trials. Once I'm more comfy with running longer distances I'll start doing 6km time trials as well. I have only completed 3 time trials so far, I missed one because I was in Cape Town.

So my first time trial took me about 32mins which is 8min/km, my second took 29mins, which is a pace of 7:14min/km, the time trial I did this past Wednesday took me 27:24, which is a pace of 6:51. I would like to be able to run at a pace of 6min/km. I'm pretty sure that my running pace is about that fast, it's just that I walk too much, so as I increase my running times relative to my walking time I should get closer to that 6min/km goal.

An interim goal, before attempting a half marathon will be a sub 1hr 10km, I've wanted to be able to do that for a long time. So that will be the next thing I will work towards.

Week 40 Exercise Log

This week I ran 9.2km in 1hr07

Monday 1 October 2007
Distance: 5.2km
Total time: 40:02
Intervals: 75/90
Pace: 7:41 min/km
Average HR: 138 bpm
Energy used: 2098 kJ
Route: Boys High + Hills

Wednesday 3 October 2007
Distance: 4km
Total time: 27:24
Intervals: 75/75
Pace: 6:51 min/km
Average HR: 135 bpm
Energy used: 1340 kJ
Route: Time Trial 

Weight: 75kg 

As I said in my previous blog, Monday was the first time I decided to include myself in hill training, and even though I think I was still a bit tired from the Saturday race, it still felt really good. Wednesday was a time trial, I seemed to be struggling with shins this week, not sure if it was because of Saturday's race or because I was trying to walk too fast.

I didn't run on Friday because of the weather, I went to the school that I run from and waited till 5:30 hoping the rain would abate. It's all good when it starts raining while you are running, but starting to run while it's raining sucks, so I gave it up for a bad job.

Hill training and cardiologists!

I was less than delighted yesterday when the coach/manager suggested that we do hill training. The Boys High route has a nice hill half way through the route, with 0,100 and 200m market out. So we were expected to do this hill 4 times. I had some serious shin splints on the way out and was not a happy camper. We just continued as we would, running when my watch beeped, walking when it beeped again, not caring if it was uphill or down.

Inevitably there was one running interval that started at the bottom of the hill... I ran the whole 200m hill! I was so surprised, I just went, there was no ragged breathing, no faintness, no burning legs. The ladies started walking one after the other, but I just ran, it was the most awesome feeling!! The simple things in life.

There's no doubt that I'm getting a lot fitter. I remember struggling to walk up 2 flights of stairs! Well I hope to keep that a thing of the past. I'm going to see a cardiologist next week, not because there is anything wrong. It's just time, I think it's been almost a year since my last visit, and the paranoid dude inside me says that this can't be right, something must be going wrong. So hopefully he puts me on a treadmill, wires me up and then tells me I'm nuts, but my heart is fine (well within limits). Actually chances are that he will just do an ECG and an echocardiogram.

I'm actually a little nervous, I've done this a hundred times before, been poked and prodded by cold hands. Had what little chest hair I have ripped off by those super sticky electrical pads, oh and a lot more of my less sparse leg hair! I've even had shock therapy :P ... no not for the madness... read the article about the various procedures I've had in particular cardioversions.

So why am I nervous? What if he tells me to take it easy, or to stop running? I'm enjoying this so much! That would seriously suck! Wish me luck. 

The gang is growing!

I started off running alone and that was all good, especially in the beginning, because I could go at my own pace and feel comfortable doing how I wanted to. But about 2 months ago someone joined me! She decided she liked the interval training and would run with me, then about a month ago another lady joined me.

This was the trio that ran a 10km last Saturday. But for the past few runs there has been another lady that has been trying to join me as well. It seems like yesterday she joined us properly, so now we are a gang of 4. I've had numerous requests from the runners to join them, but at the moment I'm quite happy doing what I'm doing and it seems that this is making other people happy as well.

The bonus is that I have control of the reigns, I tell them how my watch is set, but that doesn't mean I have to stick to it. On Saturday in the race I'd set it up for 1min running and 2min walking. But towards the end I started running earlier, so that the running interval was longer and the rest interval shorter. I think it allowed us to catch up some time, and no-one complained. hehehe

Exercise log for September 2007

This month I completed 66km in 12 sessions and just under 8hrs40mins of exercise.

Week 36 2007: 1 Sessions - 5km 0:39
Week 37 2007: 4 Sessions - 20km 2:43
Week 38 2007: 4 Sessions - 15km 1:51
Week 39 2007: 2 Sessions - 26km 3:27

I'm so bleak! I was hoping to get 70km again this month, and I had written that today was the last day of the month. I was planning to do a 4/5km run today. But alas! Today is October!!

Other than that I am really satisfied with this months progress, I am up to running 6km training runs and I completed a 10km race on Saturday with ease. The real dent in this months performance was my Cape Town trip, where I missed 2 runs. I'll blame it on lack of self discipline and laziness.