Mobiker50

I'm curious as to how many people out there are riding a bicycle for cardio training/weight loss who have suffered a cardiovascular oopsie (such as myself). A CVO (Cardiovascular Oopsie) is my term of art for a heart attack, arterial blockage, stent, angina, arrhythmia, etc.

I personally had a heart attack in 2001, followed by the implantation of a defibrillator the following year. After several years of being scared, false alarms, and just plain sloth, I finally decided in March 2006 that if I didn't get off my a** and do something I was going to die, so I tuned up an old MTB and started riding. One mile at first, then a couple, then 3-4, then 6 then 10.....and on. I've lost 70 pounds, and can now walk around without running out of breath, wear much smaller clothes and feel like a human being.

One of the problems I've encountered has been that there is little knowledge out there about what people have done with cardiac conditions. Note that I say "what people have done" not "what people should do." I mean that very sincerely, because I don't want anyone to tell me "you should." I just want to hear "I did...." And I'm not the only one. I'm currently enrolled in a study about people who do team/strenuous/competitive sports who have an implanted defibrillator, because some doctors are tell folks when they get a defib not to do anything more strenuous than BOWLING!!! And those of us who have this device know that it's possible to do more than bowling (otherwise I'd be dead!).

So, I'd welcome others to post in response to this thread who have similar issues/interests and lets see if we can learn something from each other (besides the difference between a long cage and short cage DR).

UmneyDurak

Just to get it out of the way you already talked to your doctor, right?

Machka 

Nothing quite that serious, but I've got two damaged valves. One was damaged as a result of Rheumatic Fever when I was 4 years old. The second might have been damaged then too, but they didn't discover it until recently. Or maybe they're just deteriorating with age. I believe the two valves in question are the mitral valve and the aortic valve. They don't close properly so some of the blood backwashes into the previous chamber (regurgitant?).

In addition, I've got an irregular heart beat ... I think they called it something like a premature ventricular complex. There was some mild concern about it, but they've decided to "watch and see".

I'm also on a "watch and see" for congestive heart failure. It's possible ... but they think there's a greater chance I've just got asthma.

I go in for a whole heap of tests once every year or two.

As for what I'm doing in the way of cycling .... have a look at my website in my signature line.

Mobiker50

I have a family physician, a cardiologist (for plumbing issues) and an electro-physiologist (for those pesky little ventricular-fibrillation type issues). All of them were useless when it came to starting a fitness regimen, riding a bicycle or losing weight. They all smile a lot at me now, love the idea of what I'm doing, and probably wouldn't recognize a bicycle if it ran over them, let alone have any idea of how to counsel someone with a heart condition on how to use exercise (particularly bicycling) to good effect. That's why I started the thread as "what have you done" not "what should I do".

I just want real people's responses who've 'been there-done that.' I won't listen to anyone's rant about "You shouldn't get such information from the Internet," 'cause guess what? It isn't available anywhere else! Not from your cardiologist. Not from AHA or any other organizations. I just think that if someone has done it themselves, there might be value in it for the rest of us. Especially since I am a firm believer that we have to make decisions for ourselves. The doc's can't do it (and shouldn't). So, I'll take any amount of information I can get, categorical, definitive, subjective, objective, reproducible or scatalogical.

OBTW, besides dropping the weight, improving my CV health, I've had zero incidents with the defibrillator since my bicycling began (compare to three episodes prior to bicycling), my blood pressure, blood sugar, and all other measures of health are vastly improved. All of those things have been reported to the physicians noted above, and other than general happiness with my situation, they've not been part of the decision of what/where/how much I exercise. They just don't know.

Mobiker50

Machka, I can't believe you'd be the first one replying with a cardiac condition; I've SEEN your website! I knew there had to be more than a few folks out there who've seen the inside of the cardiologist's office, but I never would have suspected the randonneur (sp?). Maybe we can start a conspiracy (it takes two for a conspiracy, right?). Or even a movement!

Machka 

I was completely honest with my cardiologist about the type of cycling I do ... and kinda surprised him, I think ... but he said I could continue that type of cycling. He said he'd be more concerned if I were racing and was pushing my max HR all the time, or going from a slow HR, to a fast HR, to a slow HR, to a fast HR, over and over. With Randonneuring I settle into a pace which I can maintain for hours and hours, and my heart rate isn't overly high, nor does it change much (or at least not suddenly) throughout the ride.

And I must say that when my HR does rise suddenly because I'm trying to sprint up a hill, or sometimes even when I'm startled, I get quite a bit of chest pain, and on occasion my arms will go numb. I don't know, maybe that's normal for everyone.

I do have bad moments, psychologically, from time to time ... well, pretty much every time they discover something new, and also sometimes when I think about it. Like when they discovered the second damaged valve, for about a month, I hardly cracked 15 km/h on my bicycle, and was even reluctant to ride. I didn't slow down deliberately, it was sort of subconscious ... half way through the ride I'd notice I was just plodding along. And when they discovered the irregular heart beat for several weeks it was like my heart was as loud as a jackhammer ... I could hear it all the time and could hear and feel every little irregularity ... I just wanted it to quiet down again!

However, although I'll probably never be able to race the TDF, I figure I can keep going with my distance riding!

Rowan

I'll chime in and say I had a heart attack at the age of 42. The specialist couldn't finger the reason exactly, but maybe smoking, alcohol and stress through a relationship breakup were among the top of the list. I later saw the doctor on duty when I was admitted to hospital and she said: "I remember you... a miracle happened".

I sold my car shortly afterwards, not because of health reasons but because it was costing me a lot in repair bills and operating expenses. I used the small amount of money to buy a bike. The recovery and cycling sort of dovetailed coincidentally. I have since toured a lot, ridden a fair few randonnees and still don't own a motor vehicle in Australia 10 years later, so I am still commuting by bike. I don't engage in any specific training because I find it boring and I don't know that I am motivated and structured enough to follow one. But I get by with the type of riding I do.

My website, with this page, https://www.cycling-adventurer.net/pe...e/miracle.html has the details of what happened then and later.

Mobiker50

Ha, sprint up a hill!!! Sorry, I'm a Clyde, and sprinting is not something I do a lot of, especially up hills.

+1,000 on the psychological. One of the greatest drawbacks to having these types of concerns is that you tend to overblow them in your mind, to the point where it's easier to just do nothing, although that's the WORST thing you could possibly do.

Case in point, my defibrillator. I was in cardiac rehab, exercising on a treadmill, when I had a run of ventricular fibrillation, (fast, un-coordinated heartbeat). Which can basically kill you deader than a dodo if it continues. Well, it didn't, but they were monitoring me and stopped me from exercising and off to the hospital I went. Long and short of it, I get a defibrillator so if this bad rythym re-occurs it can shock me and restore (hopefully) my heart to normal rythym. Now I've got a device implanted that will shock me (and yes, it feels just like it looks when they zap somebody on the table on ER). Okay, I'm covered, right?right? Wrong. I spent years walking around on eggshells because I was scared the darned thing was going to go off and shock me! So continued my sloth and obesity. OBTW, it did shock me, three different occasions, so without it, I would probably not be here today.

However, since I started riding almost two years ago, zero shocks. But I don't have to tell you how many times I've been riding, breathing hard because of the speed or slope and just tensed up, wondering if this thing is going to zap me again! And the funniest part is, there's no warning when it does, you don't feel it coming and there's nothing you could do to stop it if you wanted to!!!

The most important part for me (I think) has been to recognize that I'm going to do what feels right to me, and devil take the hindmost. What's that serenity prayer say, "..grant me the courage to change the things I can, to accept the things I cannot change and the wisdom to know the difference."

But I know that feeling of which you speak. And maybe speaking of it would help some folks.

Mike

Roody

I had a heart attack in August, 2000 at age 46. I had 3 stents implanted at that time. I weighed more than 325 pounds. I also learned then that I'm diabetic.

I went to cardiac rehab after the heart attack. I can remember being barely able to walk 1/2 mile with a lot of fear and fatigue. I gradually got up to walking 5 to 15 miles every day with little fear or fatigue. Like Rowan I got rid of my car and that helped me stick to the daily exercise.

A couple years later I started riding. I average about 90 miles a week, 52 weeks a year. I also walk more than 10 miles a week, lift weights and do other exercise. I even shovel snow. My weight fluctuates between 210 and 220. Blood sugars, blood pressure and cholesterol are all low normal. I take a statin, aspirin and an ACE inhibitor. I stopped taking a beta blocker because it was interfering with my riding. I had some mild arrhythmias (PVCs) last year. With more sleep, less caffeine and stress reduction, I've not experienced the PVCs since then. I've never had angina since the heart attack. I've felt lightheaded with exertion a few times, which can be a serious symptom. I have stress EKGs with cardiolyte imaging every year, and echocardiograms a couple times. I see my internist every six months and my cardiologist once a year.

Obviously, I feel that heavy exercise is compatible with coronary disease. I don't think this will be proven scientifically for some time, mainly because WE are among the first people in history who have ever tried to pull it off. We are pioneers of the heart, lab rats of exercise. They are studying us to learn more to help future heart attack survivors.

ken cummings

www.bikescor.com Specialized training for bikers with heart problems. Randy Ice started it.

I knew of a man in Cheyenne who had a heart attack and was put on a bike training program. He came to love biking with friends so much that he said, "if I'm going to die I want to be on a bike ride, with friends, under a blue sky with fleecy clouds." He got his wish on the Front Range Century Ride some 80 miles into the century. I was involved and made sure his lovely bike got back to his family.

Machka 

Nice.

I kinda figure that's how I'll go. I just hope that someone will bring my bicycle home.

Rowan

I have read in the media (the venerable title that covers just about every truth and untruth) that doctors are now deciding exercise is a good thing for serious heart attack victims, rather than discouraging exercise of any sort because it might bring on another attack.

This goes along with something I read some time ago that doctors in South America were experimenting with cutting the dead tissue from the hearts of attack victims and that there was improvement in the patients' cardio efficiency.

I was on Aspirin for quite a while, but lost the habit. I have what amount to biennial check-ups, and every four years I get a once-over as part of the Paris-Brest-Paris 1200 randonnee conditions of entry -- a doctor's certificate to say entrants are physically capable of completing the distance within the 90-hour limit. All I have had is a blood pressure check and the usual roam across the chest and back with the stethyscope, and my weight is OK, usually hovering between 83 and 87kg. I had a blood test for cholesterol about four years ago, but the surgery never contacted me about it... so it must have been fine.

I stupidly took up smoking again for a short while after my heart attack and was still an ample drinker. But then one morning while riding to the shops I started to experience those chest pains that were all too memorable, and I instantly stopped smoking permanently (on 1 April 2001). I started riding really long distances on randonnees a short while afterwards. I dramatically reduced my alcohol intake well over two years ago, and the side-effect of that was disappearance of a case of rosaecia (a nasty and painful skin complaint) across my forehead.

I've never been healthier!!!

The thing about my health is that really... no-one else is going to look after it except me. One of the key motivators for me in quitting smoking and excessive drinking and car ownership and avoiding fast-food outlets except as a very special treat, was...

The big multinational companies and governments that run or endorse the supply networks for nicotine, alcohol, gasoline and fast foods are faceless, extremely wealthy and have virtually no community ethic, least of all caring about me individually and personally as far as my health and well-being are concerned.

Once I had grasped that basic tenet, all those things that impinged on my health were much easier to give up. Giving away those sins has paid for quite a few overseas trips and bike parts. And I am stopping the Australian government from picking my pocket with excise and taxes everytime a packet of cigarettes, a bottle of grog and a tank of fuel is bought. Legal tax minimisation is verrrrrry satisfying!

Note: I should add that the way I treat my heart attack is not a recommendation for anyone else. The surgeon, on examining the angiogram, said I was very lucky, and there was no identifiable narrowing of the arteries supplying the heart -- that the clot solvent appeared to have done its job. He said I had minimal heart muscle damage... that is, I could resume a "normal" life. Other people with heart conditions need to be led always by the opinion of their medical team whether it supports athletic training or not.

roadie gal

I have a pacemaker. It took over a year to figure out what was wrong with me, but it finally came down to the fact that my sinus node, which paces your atrium, had given up the ghost. I couldn't get my heart rate up over 120. If I walked up a flight of stairs, I had to sit and rest at the top. Since getting the pacer 3 years ago, I've started doing triathlons and am in better shape than I was in my 20s. (I'm just shy of 48.)

After going through something like that you definitely learn to pay more attention to your body!

My cardiologist just smiles and shakes his head at me. But he's a skier and kayaker and overall health conscious guy. So he understands. He's worked very closely with me to find the best settings that allow me to maximize my exercise.

elysdean

I'm racing with a heart arrhythmia. My heart had a tendency to go into PVCs, sometimes two or three in a row before I would have a normal beat (caused me to pass out mid-ride 3 times, I really don't recommend that). My doc didn't seem too worried about it though and put me on a medication that seems to have taken care of it. I've been racing fine since.

Mobiker50

Yeah, lab rats unite!!!
I wonder how much they are actually studying this phenomenon? I say that because I've looked around a lot and had trouble finding much information about exercise for heart attack survivors, and forget about those of us with defibrillators! I am now enrolled in a study of persons who have defibs who take part in strenuous exercise, and they're basically trying to figure out what a person with a defib can do, 'cause there's no medically accepted answer to the question "What CAN I do?"

Mobiker50

It must be nice to have a doctor that understands and supports your athletic endeavors, even to the extent of pushing you to maximize exercise. Although my cardiologists both like what I have done, they never offered any supportive advice or recommendations that would have helped me start or maintain an ongoing exercise regimen.

Mobiker50

And I thought I had big huevos With all the fun I've had, I've never passed out. When the defib zapped me I almost **** my pants, but didn't pass out. It's amazing how many meds they have to correct things like that, but sometimes finding the right combination is a challenge. Glad to hear you're able to keep on competing.

Machka 

Do you ever find you have to start coughing (actually, it's almost a reflex reaction) to get your heart back to beating normally again?

Mobiker50

I did look at your site, and both your story of surviving the heart attack and your initial trip was fantastic.

I was 44 when I had a heart attack, so I know of what you speak. There was no narrowing or blockage in my arteries, I had what they referred to as the widow-maker, a clot that formed because of a break in the plaque inside the artery. It was not something that built up over time, but something that happened very quickly, and with no perceptible warning signs. They call it the widow-maker because most people ignore it or figure it's just acid reflux or something and go on about their business until it's too late.

I only wish that I had discovered that I could ride a bicycle or do some other exercise like that shortly after my heart attack. I did cardiac rehab, and started to rediscover the joy I had experienced in the past in physical pursuits, but then I had an arrythmia while exercising and subsequently was implanted with a defibrillator. And after that episode, I was too scared to even breath hard for several years. It was only when I got to the "Do something or you're going to die" stage that I finally got on the bike.

elysdean

I haven't really noticed that, but then I was born with this arrhythmia, so for like the last 28 years (6 years of it racing) I didn't know anything was wrong. I always thought my heart was suppose to pound and beat like that. It wasn't until I went on the meds that i realized how my heart beat was suppose to feel.

I know what you mean when you talk about having a doctor that listens to you. My first cardiologist wanted me to pretty much quit all my activities, or at least cut way back on them. My second cardiologist use to be a professional tri-athlete, so he understood where I was coming from a bit better.

The downside of my arrhythmia is I can't use a heart rate monitor to train (or at least not a Polar hrm, I haven't tried any other brands). As soon as I start working out they just "freak out" and give a really low reading. oh well, at least I can still ride and race

Az B

One of the guys I ride with has an almost completely blocked anterial (?) artery. Apparently it's genetic and all the years of cycling allowed his body to create collateral arteries around the blockage.

Meanwhile, about a year ago the docs decide to try to fix it. They try twice and determine the artery is too small. In the process they nicked the nerve that controls his right lung.

So now he has one lung and an almost completely blocked anterial artery. He's on meds that won't let his heart rate go over 100 and his resting HR is like 30. When asked about exercise, the docs pretty much said "Well you could die any day, so you might as well enjoy yourself".

Last October he and I rode 200 miles in 2 days. He's not fast, but he still manages ~15mph.

I don't know if this info helps you any...

Az

FatguyRacer

I spent a few days in hospital back in 1993 after feeling really awful. Turns out I had an arrhytmia. My doctor (same guy 27 years so far, im 44) read the ekg sheet, cancelled the rest of his office appointments and personally drove me to the hospital and had me admitted. They used drugs to settle my heart back to normal. Turns out my high caffiene consumption was to blame. I was drinking fresh brewed strong iced tea by the quarts per day. I stopped that immediately. I still drink coffee. But not by the pots. I started racing again in 1995 and have had no problems since. I've only had one reoccurance of the arrhythmia and that happed when I tried Dexatrim diet pills. We dont do that no more either. I'm 15 years removed from that incident now. I saw my doctor this week for a check up. He hooked me to an ekg and drew blood for the normal tests and testosterone levels. He says i've got a pretty strong heart. Leaving nothing to chance, I had him schedule an echocaridiogram. Im concerned about the enlarged heart thing i read about in Sports Illustrated a couple weeks ago. The condition where the heart wall between ventricles is enlarged and people who have this just drop dead with no warning. I go next week. Hopefully he'll have good news on the blood tests too. I havnt heard anything yet.

Machka 

A number of years ago, I was going through a series of heart tests and I was in for the ultrasound. They started the test, with a heart specialist observing, when all of a sudden the heart specialist got all excited, and called in an entire class of interns or something. Then they proceeded to start to talk about my heart as though it wasn't in me lying there in the room with them.

What they said was that my heart was slightly enlarged ... the Dr called it an "Athlete's Heart". Evidently the muscles are stronger, and slightly larger, than those of the average couch potato. At that time, there was only one damaged valve, and what was happening was that my heart was pumping more than the normal amount of blood through the valve, the valve wasn't closing properly, some of the blood was backwashing, and the normal amount of blood was continuing through my system. Essentially, because of the exercise I do (mainly cycling) my heart was able to compensate for the damage.

So like Rowan said above, it would appear that exercise is a good thing for the heart ... even a damaged heart.

In another story ... a pastor I knew many years ago had been diagnosed with a hole in his heart. Apparently he should have died at quite an early age, but when I knew him he was in his 60s. He walked long distances every day, and had been doing so since he was young. His Drs attributed the fact that he had lived long past his "due date" to the fact that he exercised.

roadie gal

"The downside of my arrhythmia is I can't use a heart rate monitor to train (or at least not a Polar hrm, I haven't tried any other brands). As soon as I start working out they just "freak out" and give a really low reading. oh well, at least I can still ride and race [/QUOTE]

I can't use a heart monitor either. Once I start exercising I zoom up to about 150 and just hang out there. My programmed max is 160. The few times I've hit that, I've felt pretty crappy. So I just go by perceived effort. It works for me... or maybe it just gives me an excuse...

Mobiker50

I can't use a heart monitor either. Once I start exercising I zoom up to about 150 and just hang out there. My programmed max is 160. The few times I've hit that, I've felt pretty crappy. So I just go by perceived effort. It works for me... or maybe it just gives me an excuse...[/QUOTE]

Interesting info about the heart monitors. I bought one (admittedly a cheap one) about three-four years ago, never was able to get it to work or give me a consistent reading. I just figured it was a cheap POS, it might be ME that was the cheap POS!!!