Good news

I'm good to go!... Apparently, my low pulse rate (33 bpm at rest) combined with pretty persistent palpitations looked pretty concerning to a couple doctors at first glance. I've never had them before, but I was told that palpitations (PVCs) are pretty common and benign. My heart is otherwise 100% healthy. The doctor believes the PVCs are connected to fatigue and that I was basically taking on too much. The major change is I have cut out caffeine completely whereas I am usually looking for two large cups every day. I wasn't too thrilled about losing my morning wake-up but it was a fairly easy change in the end. Thanks to the people who reached out in support. Now for the hopefully-not-so long road back to health. Hey, at least I'm safe to run.

Update... It's not pretty!

I had a few good weeks of training...

And then I had a sudden and severe case of fatigue. The fatigue corresponded with a pretty irregular heartbeat and palpitations. All that was followed by dizziness and nausea and I checked myself into an ER.

Things improved and I was allowed to go home wearing something called a Holter monitor. A week and a half later I learned that the monitor showed, apparently serious, irregularities in my heart rhythm. "Pauses" in the electric activity.

Since then I've had a few tests and more are coming. I called off training for a marathon this Fall (obviously) and I didn't register for Boston when I had planned to.

I can report that I feel pretty good and the PVCs I had for a few weeks are slowly but surely going away. I'm not sure what else to say! I'll know a lot more soon.

Since this blog is public, I won't go into detail. However, yes, it's all a little scary, and I'm taking it in stride. Teaching and coaching are a blast and serve as positive distractions. So are my two, thus far losing, fantasy football teams.

Yesterday was a little tough as I missed out on the Lone Gull 10k. Hopefully I'll see many of you out there on the road eventually, but at this point I can't predict when.