From Cardiac Ablation to the Great North Run
- arthurd
- Mar 7, 2020
- 9 min read
Updated: Jan 20, 2024
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On 15/7/20 the organisers of the Great North Run announced that this year’s run has been cancelled because of the COVID19 pandemic.
I now have a guaranteed place in next year’s race.
In order to continue to increase my fitness I need a target to aim for. I have therefore decided that I will run 13.1 miles on 13 September 2020, the day that the Great North Run was to have been run.
Start of original post
It is now two weeks since I had a cardiac ablation procedure on my heart and I have now been informed that I have a place in the Great North Run.
The last time that I seriously ran was in the Liverpool Marathon in 2013. After about 12 miles I started to feel a pull in my groin. I continued. The pain wasn’t too bad. When you are training, listen to your body. In a race tell you body to shut up. This was my 15th marathon and I had always finished. I wasn’t going to give up this time.
And so started six years of injuries. After the Marathon I did my usual rest for a week followed by short slow runs but the pain in my groin came back. I had a rest for two weeks and started back training. The pain was back so I had a longer rest and then an even longer rest. I finally went to a sports physiotherapist. She diagnosed my problem was my running style. I was over striding. When I was younger my body could accommodate the over striding. Now that I was getting older I would have to change my running style.
The new running style used different muscles. It took some time to adapt to running this way. My hamstring and glutes certainly felt the difference. It took a few months to be able to run just a few miles. Then came a pulled calf muscle so it was back to resting. The next few years I seem to be alternating between groin problems and calf problems.
I eventually got to the point where I could run a few miles without any problems. Then in February 2019 I was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat. Almost a year later, on the 29th of January 2020, I was admitted to hospital to have an ablation procedure to correct the irregular heartbeat. An ablation procedure is where they kill some of the cells inside the heart.
On 11 February 2020 I received an email informing me that I had a place in the Great North Run. I completed the run in 2011 in 1hr 54 min. Since 2011, I have applied every year but failed to get a place. And now, two weeks after the ablation procedure I am told that I have a place.
On 19 February I was informed by my doctor that I could start training again but it had to be slow and easy at first. I decided that I would start my training by running slowly for a mile. After about 100m of slow running on my first run I was so out of breath that I had to stop. I walked most of the rest of the mile. I tried running again, a few times, during that mile but with the same result.
Completing the Great North Run was going to be a lot more difficult then I thought. I decided three things that day.
I was not going to run in the Great North Run unless I was completely sure that I was fit and healthy enough to attempt it.
I was going to have a positive attitude and I was not going to admit that I might not make the start line.
I would need a new training plan.
New Training Plan
This is just a rough outline of targets along the way to see how I am doing. It is not my in-depth Training Plan so it does not include stretches, number of squats, etc.
The Great North Run is on 13 September so I have seven months. For the rest of February and March I will continue with the one mile running and walking. Hopefully by the end of March I will be able to run the one mile without too much difficulty. During April, I will extend this to two miles. May will be three miles and will include Park runs. June will be five miles. Seven miles a few times during the first two weeks of July and eight the second two weeks. Nine miles a few times during the first two weeks of August and hopefully ten miles a couple of times towards the end of August. I recon that if I can run ten miles before the Great North Run then the occasion will carry me during the race.
How has the plan been going?
End of February. I have been able to go out most days. The length of time being able to run have increased marginally but my body objects most strongly. My weight is 83.5kg. I am hoping to reduce this to 75kg before the race but my first target is to reduce it to 80kg.
7 March. I have been able to go out on five days. The length of time being able to run is getting longer and recovery time getting shorter. My resting heartbeat is 72 or 73 beats per minute. Before the procedure it was about 60. No wonder I get out of breath so quickly. Just walking increases my heart rate to the high 80s.
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14 March. Five days running again this week. In total, I am running a over half of the mile. I can definitely run longer at the beginning than the end. Recovery time continues to decrease. When I read possible side effects of the blood thinning tablets that I am taking it says that increase in heart rate is likely. Hopefully when I finish taking them things will get easier. Eight weeks from the 29 January means that I stop taking them on 25 March. I wonder how long it will take before my blood returns to normal.
21 March. Five days running again this week. Continuing to improve both length of time that I can run for and the length of time it takes before I can start running again. Resting heart beat is still 72 or 73 beats per minute. I will finish the blood thinning tablets this week. Possibly won’t see much difference this week. If I have to self isolate then at least I will be able run because I run on my own.
28 March. Five days running again this week. Can run about 0.5 miles before I need to stop. 0.75 miles running overall. Not as good as I had hoped. This week I am going to start running / walking for two miles. Stretch myself a bit further. I stopped taking blood thinning tablets this week. A bit too soon to see if it makes a difference. A lot more people seem to be out running and cycling. Not sure if it because people have more time, they are more aware of the importance of fitness, or just because the gyms are closed.
4 April. Four days running and one day on my bike this week. Felt stronger at the end of the week. Not sure if stopping taking blood thinning tablets or the end of a cold made the difference. Could also be that I am getting fitter. Resting heart rate seems to have come down in the last few days – 70 on Thursday and 68 on Friday. Hope this trend continues.
11 April. My resting heart rate continued to decrease to 62 on Tuesday but has since started to increase again. It is now 65 beats per minute. Not sure why this is happening. This week I have increased the distance that I walk / run to 2 miles. I have been able to run the first mile without stopping most of the time. I am beginning to wonder if this is the right strategy. Should I be running a set time rather than a set distance. Would it give a better indication of my level of fitness?
18 April. I have continued to be able to run the first mile, most of the time, without stopping. Even on the days that I am unable to run the first mile, I feel that I am running further after a short walk. I do not feel that I am making sufficient progress. From this week I am going to run / walk for one hour each day. As I get fitter, the distance that I cover should increase. My resting heart rate changes each day but only very slightly (between 64 and 66).
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25 April. I started on the new training plan this week - running for an hour. I have been out on 5 days and ran / walked for one hour on each occasion. Monday was the first time in more than a year that I covered more than 4 miles. By Thursday this had increased to 4.6 miles. I am hoping to increase this to 5 miles this week. Rather than increasing my speed, I am hoping to be able to walk less. My resting heart rate remains at about 65 beats per minute.
2 May. I continued to run for an hour. I didn’t quite make the 5 miles that I wanted. The best was 4.9 miles. My resting heart rate remains at about 65 beats per minute. Finally reduced my weight to 80kg. My next target is 78kg.
9 May. This week has been a strange week. Sometimes I felt great and other times I felt like I was really struggling but each time I would end up covering about about 5.1 miles. My resting heart rate fluctuates between 66 and 67 beats per minute. I feel that changing to running for one hour was the right move.
16 May. Felt better this week. Running consistently about 5.25 miles in the hour. The Government announced that we can have unlimited exercise so tried going out morning and evening but did not get very far in the evening. No energy so spent most of the time walking. I think I will go back to just mornings but extend the time to 1 hr. 5 minutes a couple of times a week. See how it goes. Looks like 66 to 67 beats per minute resting heart rate is my new norm.
23 May. On the days that I have run for 1 hr. I continue to be able to cover about 5.25 miles. I am looking forward to Gyms opening again. At least on a treadmill I will be able to run at a constant speed. Currently I loose concentration and find that I am running at a slower speed than I want. This week I ran for 1hr. 5 minutes on two occasions but was only able to cover an extra 0.1 mile. I am going to increase this to 1hr. 10 minutes. My resting heart rate has been mostly 65 beats per minute. Looking back at my original posts, I have made quite a bit of progress but still quite a way to go. 16 weeks to the Great North Run. I suppose it will still be a few more weeks before we hear whether it is going ahead.
30 May. I have had a very frustrating time this week. Went for a run on Sunday. That evening I had a pain just below my left ankle on the outside of my foot. Rubbed Ibuprofen gel into it. On Monday the same thing happened. I decided to rest for the remainder of the week. This week I received an email from the Great North Run. Up till now it is still going ahead.
Have you had the cardiac ablation procedure and then gone back to running? I would like to know if my experience is normal and what to expect in the future. Please let me know on the form below.
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