Post Ablation Half Marathon

I recently finished my first ever half marathon 8 months after my ablation with Dr. Natale in Austin, TX. Never in my life have I run over 3 miles until last November when I ran 6. I used a run-walk-run strategy and averaged about 12:25 per mile on the half (13.1 miles). It’s definitely not the smartest thing I’ve done in my life but I did it and I didn’t experience anything more than an elevated heart rate for several hours after. I won’t do it again and I’ve reduced my training down to 2 or 3 30 minute runs per week. I still get PACS pretty regularly although I had a good two weeks where things were pretty quiet. I’m doing my best to keep my electrolytes up. Magnesium is easy to supplement with. Challenge for me is potassium. I'm drinking organic carrot juice which is high in potassium. Gave up on coconut water which started upsetting my stomach.

Other than the PACS, I’ve woken up maybe 4 times within the last 4-5 months with a heart rate around 100-110. It feels like it’s stuck in a loop but it goes down on it’s own after 2-3 minutes so maybe not. Feeling reminds me of flutter but not as fast and now self terminating fairly quickly. I don’t know if it’s just adrenaline from dreaming (I’m aware that I'm having an intense dream after waking), atrial tachycardia, or a slow flutter (is that possible in this range) but I’m going to keep an eye on it. Other than that, I’m very happy. I’m glad I can still be active even with mild to moderate stenosis that was given to me my my first doctor! Still upset about that!

Hope you all are well.

Sounds great Alangford and congrats on the half marathon and the wisdom of not going for a bunch of ultra ironman events now in response to the big event :-)... Moderation is the key but the scale of what a solid effective and yet not consistently overdriving your body level of exercise equals 'moderation' will vary a great deal from one person to the next.

The main thing for afibbers, including those who have so far succssful ablations, is not to make an internal competition with yourself where you are constantly pressing to go that extra mile or beat that last best time you had... That kind of constant pushing the edge of the envelope is what so often gets the more compulsive among us in trouble eventually. And with a clear history of AFIB, it is wise and pays dividends to dedicate to a robust exercise program, but also to maintain vigilance not to slide in to pushing beyond the pain zone too often and too deeply, or to the point of seeing 'white spots' level of electrolyte depletion when too often pushing too far too often. It's all
about balance and everyone just has to find their own way and what real balance means for them.

I like George's new breathing protocol where you learn to stay within nose breathing at all times and not over-exert to the point that you are sucking wind through heavy mouth breathing before slowing down. You can still reach an incredible level of fitness this way and very likely will help minimze added exercise infused fibrotic scaring in the heart along the way. Provided you pay attention to robust cardiac calming electrolyte repletion on a daily basis as well.

Glad to hear you are doing so well my friend!

Be well,
Shannon

Thank you for your comments Shannon.

Quote

The main thing for afibbers, including those who have so far succssful ablations, is not to make an internal competition with yourself where you are constantly pressing to go that extra mile or beat that last best time you had... That kind of constant pushing the edge of the envelope is what so often gets the more compulsive among us in trouble eventually.

This is going to be key. "That was really dumb", is what I told myself afterwards. I feel better mentally and physically when I exercise but I've found myself trying to do things at the same level and intensity as before (or even more in the case of running a half marathon!) Not good. However, I have listened about weightlifting. I've completely avoided except for some bodyweight stuff like push-ups and pull-ups.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2016 03:37PM by alangford.

I concur with Shannon's internal competition comment. My son, a Crossfitter, keeps wanting me to attend class with him. I've declined because I know I will have a tendency to push myself harder than I should. Ditto for other competitions. Skiing is normally not an issue for me. However if I let myself, I can easily get in the mindset of "how many laps can I do today." Even this isn't a problem if I stick to groomed runs. However, if I do this off-piste, it can be another story. Normally I do a reasonable job not doing this, but not always...

For me, it is the combination of long duration cardio and pushing myself as hard as I can. I can do short duration high-intensity work without issue. I can do low intensity, long duration exercise e.g. hiking or snow shoeing. I can do high intensity bodyweight exercise and do it to failure over relatively short durations. But putting high intensity and long duration together is not a good plan for me. As Shannon mentioned, nose breathing, even on the high intensity workouts is a pretty good governor.

George