On to the Ultras...with Heart Problems

This year saw an increase in my running. More running than I've done my whole life. Distances up to 50 miles...at one time. The ultramarathons. Any distance longer than a marathon is considered an ultramarathon, but the majority of these races are 50k, 50-mile, 100k, 100-mile.

I never thought I'd be one to care about running marathon distances. It was too long and after my first disastrous attempt, it didn't seem likely that I'd ever be running that distance or any distances again. But after my second time running the marathon distance at CIM, I wanted to run farther. I didn't feel that I pushed myself at all and wanted to see if I could go longer. I felt that I could have gone faster at CIM or ran farther at that pace.

After a short break after CIM due to injuries from improperly training for it, I spent most of the remainder of 2011 training for the ultra distances. To date, I've ran four 50k distances, a 50-miler and I'm signed up for another 50k this weekend and a 50-miler in October. My best 50k was my first ultra, the Way Too Cool 50k, up in Auburn. 4:28 and change. American River 50-Mile was my next ultra, finishing that in 7:53.

But then I started getting burnt out. At least that's what I think. I jumped in way too fast. Wanting to run longer and longer until my body just broke down. I felt sluggish, my legs were always heavy and I eventually eased up my mileage and didn't take training for races seriously. Then I started having some cardiac issues during the last 3 50k distances I've ran which have resulted in multiple cardiac tests that have yielded no unusual results thus far. With Coastal 50k happening this Saturday, I'm a little nervous about the cardiac issues returning. I was having an extremely fast heart rate (over 240 bpm) with palpitations followed by dizziness, near syncope, and this last time, some shortness of breath.

I am wearing a neat little device called the Zio Patch that is currently recording the electrical activity and rhythm of my heart as I'm writing this blog. So if anything were to happen during the race, I can press on the little button and it'll highlight the section for "them" to read and interpret..whoever those "them" may be. I suspect cardiologists. But who knows. Then if something does happened, they can see what that rhythm is and hopefully I can finally have something done to fix it.