Getting to the heart of the matter

Bob Ferris, our most experienced coach, asked me to post this article, "Endurance Athletes and Heart Risk" by triathlete, Mark Allen. Click on the link to read a thought provoking article.

As some of you will know, Bob has had some heart related health issues himself. He's kindly agreed to share them that others can benefit. Bob states, "According to my cardiologist I have non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, which as I understand it means I have a heart condition but have not had a heart attack or cardiac arrest.

My problem is my heart rate drops too low (Bradycardia) and I was very good at telling the doctors that my heart rate had always been low because I had been an endurance athlete all my life but they told me it was dropping to the low 20’s when I was sleeping which I had to admit was lower than normal.

I started to notice something wrong after having COVID in early 2022 and I am still not sure if Covid or years of heavy training caused my problems. I know of at least seven other athletes/triathletes who suffer similar heart issues and all are local (50 mile radius).

I am more than happy to share any information regarding my heart condition especially if it might help others. Looking back on my running triathlon career l know I trained too hard and didn’t give myself sufficient rest. I still like to do some form of exercise each day but it at a far more relaxed pace or very slow in other words. It was a shock to the system when I was diagnosed because I never thought it would happen to me. Healthily lifestyle always kept myself fit, Mr invincible, how wrong I was." Bob now has a pacemaker fitted and is on medication for the rest of his life.

Bob is not the only veteran member who has heart issues, possibly related to training load when younger. Many of us know that Alan McAdam has recently had a second "procedure" associated with resetting his heart's muscles rhythm. By procedure, I mean a defib shock! Alan's story: "it's a tricky one - having run regularly since my mid 20’s, but only completed 4 marathons, numerous half’s and shorter distances. First diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AF) and atrial flutter in 2017 and had a catheter ablation to correct it. 8 years being OK but not racing apart from Parkrun (which isn’t a race!), then July this year diagnosed with atrial tachycardia. Is the incidence of arrhythmias higher in older runners, triathletes than in 'older people' generally. Not sure what the answer to that is". Alan is far too modest to mention his 2h 53m marathon time (I had to ask)!

There was a very good article in the Cycling Plus magazine a couple of months ago which did indicate that older athletes are more prone to AF or other cardiac issues. So although we can't be sure of whether Bob's and Alan's issues are training related, there's mounting evidence that heavy training loads, without adequate recovery, may be doing lasting damage to our most important muscle, the heart.

Recovery is key here and as someone who was never tempted to do a tri, or marathon, due to the training load required, I recognise that many hours of hard training are necessary to be reasonably good at marathon races or triathlons. The key issue is that the body only gets stronger and fitter when you actually stop training and let it recover and adapt to become stronger.

With high volume training the risk is that you don't. Bob thinks "that the problem with triathletes and heart issues is that they think a swim session is an easier session because they are not using their legs so much and a bike session is easier on the legs because there is no impact but what they don’t seem to consider is that they are still using their heart and unless you are Dr Who you only have one. If you are not a Dr Who fan you won’t get the last remark".

There's a tendency for endurance athletes to train everyday, even when their body is telling them to stop and rest. I hate the expression "active recovery" because, unless it's stretching and a few strides, it's just an excuse to do some more "junk miles", in my opinion. Runners fear that if they miss a session, they'll lose fitness, strength, speed or whatever. But in reality, it's often quite the opposite.

Although not an endurance athlete, Jonathan Edwards set his 60ft triple jump world record 30 years ago, having not been able to train in the gym for over six months in the year leading to his world record jumps, due to suffering from the Epstein-Barr virus.

Not doing gym work for a jumper is a bit like not swimming if you're a triathlete.

But actually what the time away from the gym probably did, was let his body recover fully, so called, "super-compensation" (see graphic above), so when he could train again, his body was really ready for it. His training involved a lot of heavy (PB) lifts so that would have been particularly taxing. So, in his case, the break in high intensity gym sessions actually helped him improve.

So please ensure you take adequate recovery and listen to your body, don't become a dopamine addict, and ensure that if you do feel "out of sorts", you speak to your Doctor about it. Remember, your heart is the most important muscle and damage to it can be 'running career' limiting, if not a lot worse.