Quoted message said:I had a heart attack (LAD blocked 100%) in December
2002.
Wow, I just dissected mine during a race in Apr,
aint that a pill,..!!!
Quoted message said:During the longest climbs and fastest sprints I have been
unable to raise my pulse rate above 125. Most of my
bikeing is done in a fairly hilly area.
Maybe you are concentrating too much on the HR and not
seeing what's happening to you in other areas.
Just some food for thought here,..
- Bet your legs do not "load" lactic acid hardly at all
though do they,..??
- Run out of "breath" before you run out of
anything else,..??
- Able to ride "farther" without the same "pain" as the
rest of the group,..??
- Becoming more of a "cruncher" than a "spinner"
now,..?? ( Hit that
53/11 !! )
- Maybe those TT, crits, and RR don't look as good as
those brevets do now,..huh,..??
With my dissected LAD, the DO told me I would never race
again, period.
I first I was beat down, but now I realize how close I
came to tearing it all the way though, and never
"breathin" again,...so all of a sudden, never racing
again did not sound so bad. I mean after all, I'm 42, I
am not Lance Armstrong, never rode anything
professional, and never would. But, I did come from
where Lance is from DFW, Texas. So I'm hard headed, and
hard to convince of anything.
So when I really thought about it, racing was not paying
any bills, so for the most part it did not really
matter. My teammates, however noticed a *lot*. They
noticed how much "power" I was able to ride with, and
how much "more" they had to put out doing the same route
than I did.
I'm kinda like Jan Ulrich,,....a diesel. Slow to start,
but when I get up to speed I can hold it there,...for a
long, long, long time. Can't sprint anymore, but can be
something of a steady "monster".
My heartrate, *always* at least 20-30 point lower than
everyone else's. They jealous, mainly because they are
in pain, and I am not.
Quoted message said:I believe I will be taking Lopressor for the rest
of my life
because
Quoted message said:of the good effect it has in preventing additional heart
attacks.
I know what you mean. I was on beta-1 and beta-2
blockers for a while. *Always* ran of out breath FIRST.
Never loaded, never had a heart rate above 140-150.
I asked the Dr about it, he said the aerobic blocker was
really unecessary, and took it away and gave me a more
selective blocker that let me elevate my HR, and man,
did it. I regularly saw 170-180's, but man, could I
sprint. I really put the hurt on them all. They just
hated to see me stand, cause they knew what was
coming,....
*BUT*, man could I load, and man did I tear my LAD
20mm,...and man, I did not know it was coming,....
So now, I'm back on beta-1 and beta-2 blockers, and like
you will be for rest of my life.
Quoted message said:At the same time I have been told to exercise vigorously to
prevent additional heart attacks. The two seem to be at
odds with each other. The
Lopressor
Quoted message said:"seems" to be preventing me from increasing my fitness
level. Maybe this is ok if the Lopressor is protecting my
heart in a way that is more important than being fitter?
No doubt. A catch-22 if all you are measuring your
fitness level with is HR.
There are many others way to measure your fitness, and
they are just as easy to find if you just notice them.
I have actually started "recording" my rides with a
Specialized P-Brain computer. It has all the normal
cycling stuff, but also has a heart rate monitor
built in and records the whole ride and lets me
download it to the PC afterward. The best one out
there is the Cyclimiso HAC4 if you are interested,
even USPS used them,...
Quoted message said:I had a pacemaker installed in February 2003.
Except for a brief interruption to my exercise
program the pacemaker has not affected my maximum
heart rate.
I would not expect it to, after all, all it replaced was
your sino-atrial-node (sp) right,..??
Doc Chung could address that much better than I
could,...but I would expect that the device delivering
the "electrical discharge" would not effect the heart
rate at all, it either provides a rate or not, and not
the regulation of it, again, ask the DO,...
Many cyclist *dream* of a low heart rate, when what they
really should be dreaming of is a "large *range* of
heart rate to operate in". Sure, Lance's resting is 32.
But he can also ride at 210+ for hours. ( * Freak * !!!
). His lungs hold a 1/3 more than the rest of us,....he
finishes a climb with a lactic level of 2.4, (most are
11-14 or so).
He's just not human.
Now that you an I are more machine, and meds, we'll just
have to measure differently. I'm struggling too, but at
least we're both still here TO struggle. I have too many
friends that either didn't notice, or chose NOT to
notice, and now they are not around, period.
Just damn glad to even get to sit on my Fizik
Aliante,....
JG
