running again

I am just getting back into running after 2 months off to give time for my PM to heal properly.  It was installed April 25, 2012.  My heart rate has been preset to 50bpm because I have Bradycardia.  I went running twice the past few days and I find that I do not recognize what is happening to my body while I am running.  

When I start running my natural pacing is slow to leave 50 and seems to climb much more slowly than it used to but then spiked hard on my first run and I had to slow down!   I feel more winded and feel my heart is working harder even though I am running more slowly than I used to (1:45 for 1/2 marathon).  Perhaps it is just that I have stopped running for too long??? Anyone else with any experience resuming running after PM installation?

3 Comments

Some thoughts

by IAN MC - 2012-06-26 05:06:51

Hi den ... welcome to the club and I hope that you are feeling better than you were before April 25th.

There are fairly frequent questions from runners on here ;most along the lines of " Why can't I run as well since having a PM ? " If you do a search in the "Exercise & Sports " section you will find some useful stuff.

First of all , if you haven't been running for some time you will have lost much of your running fitness and a PM is no substitute for training but I think in your case this is only a small part of the problem.

You don't say if you have had your PM settings adjusted yet or not . Often we are given PM's with the settings straight from the factory and they are rarely set right for people who take part in endurance activities like distance running.

I suggest you get a PM checkup a.s.a.p. and explain your lifestyle and your current problems. There are 3 likely changes which may help you :-

i) Is your Rate Responsiveness switched on or off ? As your heart rate is not responding quickly to exercise, it sounds as though your RR is off. This is fine if your sinus node is working OK but if it's not then you need RR switched on.

ii After trying RR switched on, they can program your "level of activity" , this will determine how fast the PM will respond to exercise. If you have a "high" setting the PM assumes you are a well-trained 1hr 45min half-marathon runner so it will not increase your HR too quickly, the reverse applies to a "low" setting

iii) It sounds as though your Max HR setting may be too low. I am a runner and have had to have mine increased from the original 130 bpm to the current 165 bpm. This is better for me, but we are all different.

If you don't have any joy from the technician doing the check-up ask to see somebody else and demand check-ups till you are satisfied that all sensible setting options have been tried .

Best of luck ( I see you live in Winnipeg; I have a sister who lives there ... I can't imagine running with hypothermia but somebody has to do it ! )

Best of luck

Ian

what Ian said

by Tracey_E - 2012-06-26 07:06:49

They don't usually send us home with settings that will support heavy exercise and even if they do, there are a lot of fine settings so it may take some tweaks to get it right for you.

What is the cause of your bradycardia? Brady is simply a low heart rate, it can be cause by a lot of things and they all have different solutions.

Running Again

by engineeringden - 2012-06-28 11:06:38

Thank you for the comments Ian. My Rate Responsiveness is switched off. I need to try some more running before deciding about changing that. On thing I forgot to mention is that I have been taking Nadol for about 4 weeks for high BP and I just realized that as it is a beta blocker it slows heart responsiveness down! So I need to start my runs slowly and see what happens after I get my cardio back in shape Then I may need the RR.
I just had a PM checkup today and there is some concern that my Ventricular sensor's responsiveness is not a good as it could be but adequate for now and they need to see if it is ok again in about 2 months. As far as I can tell so far my own natural PM can still bring up the heart rate but it takes longer. It does not get to 165 yet but I need to give it more time. I had some joy from the technician doing the check-up today she seemed good.
As far as the Hypothermic experience you have o try it at least once which I have done and it was a snowy slippery run very difficult but fun.!
I hope I am doing this comment thing right!
Take care

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