I Won!

Before the test and slightly nervous...

No, not a race.  But I did "win" my stress test.  I'm super competitive so even though you can't technically win a stress test, I'm telling myself that I did.  Because I can. :)

I arrived in my running shoes and clothes.  They took my vitals and my resting heart rate got an audible sigh from the nurse.  It was 45.  I couldn't believe it!  I was not in good shape when I started running last November and while I'm not anywhere near fast, I'm healthier and that makes me happy.

The technician's response: I'm glad you wore running shoes because you are going to have to run.

For my age my max HR is 180.  45 to 180?  That could be a problem.  After 25 minutes running on an increasing incline the tech settled for 80% of my max.  I'm glad he made me run though because he explained that they used to let athletes slide knowing their HR wasn't going to max out but that also missed identifying heart conditions in otherwise healthy athletes.

They also did a resting EKG, an ultrasound and something else that showed the blood flow.  Pretty cool!  They repeated the same tests right after the stress test to see what things looked like when my heart was working hard.

After and much more relaxed...

The good news: my heart murmur behaves exactly the same at rest as it does when my heart is taxed.  There were no blood flow issues, leaky valves, etc.  My cardiologist (who I love, BTW) told me I was free to run all the marathons I wanted to although I might want to get my head checked for wanting to run that far for fun.  Funny guy!

My chest pain was anxiety related so his "prescription": watch my caffeine intake, limit my stress, and manage my anxiety.  He doesn't realize that those three things fuel my work days so thank goodness for running!

So I'm definitely out of my running funk and back to running without anxiety.   I also went trail biking with Steve this past weekend and have the war wounds to prove it... more on that later.