Posted by Anders Kingstedt on April 27, 2001 at 19:30:16:
In Reply to: QUESTION FOR POST MAZE EXERCISERS posted by THOMAS C. GLASS on April 27, 2001 at 19:27:42:
Since Tom posted his question, I thought I might as well post my response! (Hope this is OK with you Tom!)
Tom!
What you have experienced sounds very similar to what I've felt, i e a
marked initial "resistence" (of sorts) during the first stages of a running
session. And, yes, I'm pretty sure this is related to the post-op "healing
process", caused by the trauma the heart was subjected to during the op. It's taken me (I'm sure
there are individual differences) roughly two years to come back to
"normal", in this respect. For me, the first 5-15 minutes has been pretty hard,
especially when running uphill. For some reason, running (or walking) hills
is especially hard, perhaps due to the accumulated and "doubled" need for an
effective blood/oxygen transport, which is hindered by the post-op
inflexibility in the heart structure (caused by the scarring). And, yes
(again), I believe the raised heart beat plays some role too. My resting
pulse went from 45-50 (in NSR) before the Maze to 85-90 post op. Today (2 years out), the resting pulse has
gone down to about 60-65 again.
So, I guess, just hang in there and keep training, even if it does feel kind
of hard in the beginning. You WILL feel better, I'm sure.
Incidentally, when I started to run (or, rather, jog), I used a heart beat
monitor. I was instructed by my doctor to keep the pulse at 165 bpm max. So I set the
upper limit to this value. For me, running 5-6 K on a flat course took me to
165 bpm. After that, I simply reverted to walking if necessary in order to bring me back home (but I tried to plan my runs
so that I would be close to home when reaching the "peak pulse"). After 6 months I was allowed to run "all
out", which made me skip the HRM. I will, however, dust it off and check out
the status today.
Best regards,
Anders