Feeling Frustrated and Like I am Going Backwards-Update

[dindy]

Hi All. Decided to take a trip to doctors as had heart palpitations for about 1 hour ages ago but never for over 24 hours so thought best to be safe than sorry. Doctor asked lots of questions listened to heart beat + nurse wired me up and showed the doctor the printout. His opinion was there was nothing wrong with heart to cause palpitations and conclusion was anxiety but come back if it happens again soon.

Anyway it was back to training with a clear head and no worry. Cat –Garage & Spiders. Well I have a young 2 year old pure white (well not when he goes into mud) male cat who likes to follow his dad into garage to rid it of all spiders. He did watch me but got bored and went to find more adventures.

I do mix treadmill & running outside but only decide what I am going to do once I get up, the cat day was a treadmill day. Must admit since the frost & snow I have kept indoors although not any warmer in garage.

Thank you for all your support but got to admit it was GoogleMe who got me to really look at myself and how I am approaching this. Yes I did think I was doing “less than running” by only jogging. I am now happy with what I am achieving whatever speed I am going at.

Anyway done 3 runs since all on the treadmill. 1st one was a straight 30 mins. Now the second run I broke the rules of 10% and any other rule that advices us gradually increase distance.

I started off with 30 mins run but this time I tried purposely walking for either 30 seconds or stopping for 30 seconds just to see what happened. When I have tried similar in the past I have always tagged on the extra time I spent walking at the end of run.

I have been trying different BPM podcasts to see which one suits my speed. The beat of the podcast I used today was spot on. As the beat went 1-2 -1-2 1-2 my feet were touching the treadmill belt exactly on time and I was on a roll and perfect harmony. No breathing hard, no high heartbeat or aching muscles. I decided to go onto 40 mins and was so relaxed that I started dancing!!!

What I mean by dancing was as my feet were in beat with the music I started waving my arms all over the place also in beat with the music. Anyone who would of seen me had I been outside would of thought I was bonkers, which I think I was. Basically I was relaxed & happy. Now the naughty bit!! I carried on till I had run 55 minutes & 3.3 miles!!!!!

This was a slow but steady run and I was not feeling tired. I was fully expecting the rest of the day to stiffen up but I did not. Even the following day I had no stiffness in muscles or lower back which did surprise me. Today I decided not to push it so only did a 20 minute run + the warm up walks.

Maybe next runs/s I will not be able to do that again but it goes to show it is possible for me just as long I enjoy & accept what I can do. Thanks for all your support.

[runswithdogs Graduate10]

Sometimes we just have to be naughty. Congratulations on your 3.3 mile run, that is a real achievement. I just read your last post and am glad you have reframed your definitions of running, it makes a world of difference when you let go of expectations. And good idea on the BPM music, I really find my feet move to the beat so I have to be choosy about my music choices lest I run my legs off and loose all my steam.

Happy running and I hope you're walking tall all day.

[dindy Graduate10 in reply to runswithdogs]

Good to be naughty sometimes (-:(-: My kind of music is no good for running ,blues and Bob Dylan + other similar types of music. I do download a lot of Podrunner music which goes from 120-185 BPM for fixed tempo or they have a lot of varied tempo as well. Not really my kind of music but it is the BPM I am looking at. They are all free to download and you can even hear them b4 u download .

Took me several goes before I found BPM that suited my speed.If you have not already done so just type Podrunner into google.

[Sandyscroll Graduate10]

I've been stuck with going to they gym and using the treadmill since the ice event. Last Monday not even the gyms were open...not one! I am so very, very slow on a treadmill...even slower than my usual slow! Well done to you for doing 55 mins. I think 45 mins has been as long as I can take, although i'll run for 75 minutes outside and up hills. I'm in awe of anyone who can treadmill!

As for the palpitations, I had a couple of bad years with that. A few nights a week I'd be completely debilitated to the point where I couldn't catch my breath, my heart would stop for up to 6 seconds then start beating mega slowly from 20bpm back up to 55 or 60...and believe me I hadn't done a shred of exercise in 35 years so my resting heart rate shold have been 70+. Mostly it would misfire, dip down to 40ish, beat in a weird irregular pattern for a while, then kick back into it's regular rhythm. I used to measure it with a phone app. I would be aware of sounds but was so light headed and exhausted I couldn't talk, sit up, move...it was awful. I went for ECG's had a 24hr heart monitor which picked up bits which they said could be accepted as normal misfires, but i'd had a pretty much clear day that day. It was impossible to prove because I wasn't bad every day and it was usually evening that was worst. In the end I started tinkering with my diet. It was when I removed the caffeine that it went back to normal. It's decaff everything for me these days (except for the odd crafty posh coffee), but when I get palpatations at least I know what it is. I'm sure there is an element of stress for me too, but I can't do much about that.

[dindy Graduate10]

Sandyscroll sounds like you had a bad time and very very interesting what you say about caffeine,never gave that a thought.Many years ago I was getting a lot of heartburn and just bending over to tie shoes laces was bad for me. I had no idea what could be causing it until I mentioned it to someone. They asked if I drunk much coffee and at that time I was,he advised cutting out coffee completely for 2-3 days.

Once I did that my heartburn went away.Fast forward to about a year to 18 months ago and my coffee consumption had crept up so I restricted my self to just 2 cups a day. However since I was feeling ok my consumption has crept back up to way too many cups a day.

It just could be my intake of caffeine has become too much and my body reacted. I think from tomorrow I will cut coffee out for a week to see what happens as I am also starting to have heartburn again.Thanks for reminding me.