Treadmill Run

There isn't much I dislike more than running on a treadmill.  Well, with the problems I've been having with my heart, I knew it was inevitable.  Today I had my Treadmill Stress Test.  I lasted 10 minutes!  Boy, that should tell you that there is something going on with my heart.

If you've never head a treadmill test, they hook you up to a heart monitor and start you off at a walking at a minimal incline.  Every 3 minutes, the speed and incline increase.  Within 39 seconds of walking, my heart rhythm changed to quadrajeminy.  Every 4th beat is a Premature Ventricular Contraction. (PVC)
About 2 minutes after that, my rhythm converted to bijeminy:
 (These are from a website, not my actual test.)

What's happening here is that every other beat is not perfusing - sending oxygenated blood to the muscle.  Now remember, I'm running on a treadmill here, so my HR should be around 120.  (In the above photo the HR is about 60).  On the monitor going twice as fast as that, it looks pretty crazy.  Only 1/2 of my beats are perfusing, so if my running HR is 140, I'm only getting the circulations of 60 beats - the same as if I'm sitting in a chair!  No wonder I get tired so quickly when I run!

So, I failed that test miserably and will meet with the cardiologist soon.  At this point, my doc says I can keep running - just cut the intensity.  I'm running so slow lately that if I cut the intensity, I'm not sure I can still call it running!

From A Dog's Point of View

In honor of Mother's Day, Karma the Dogma will be writing this entry...
Today is a great day!  This morning my momma took me for a run at Bluff Creek.  Sometimes when we run there we meet up with the short girl, or the one with dark hair, or the one that falls a lot.  Sometimes other dogs come today, but today was just me and my momma.  I didn't have to deal with those squawking birds at our house or that other dog, or even my dad.  It was just us.

Sometimes I think she is part dog, too.  When she runs, she's like that great ancestor of mine that lived with Pavlov.  She'll run for a while, then hear a beep and start walking.  Then she walks until she hears a beep, then starts running.  I think she's one of Pavlov's dogs.  She's well trained.  But, she never stops to sniff!   That I just can't understand!  There are some many great smells out on the trail that she misses out on.  I try to tell her, but she just keeps on going.  Occasionally she stops to look at something, but I think she's too tall to small all the cool stuff down here.

Speaking of smells, I smelled one of those weird cats today.  I've met one once before and was quite offended.  Usually when I see a cat, or they see me, the RUN.  Last year I met the most beautiful cat.  She was black with a very fluffy tail.  She had this great white stripe that traveled the length of her body.  She didn't run when we met.  I tried to be friends with her, but she turned her back on me and FARTED!  Oh my what a fart that was!  Mom and Dad wouldn't even let me in the house.  I smelled one of those farts today but didn't go investigate.



The things she collects!


My mom does this other crazy thing when she runs.  Whenever we come to a little yellow sparkly thing, she stops to pick it up.  Today she got, umm, what am I saying?  I can't count.  Not sure what she does with those things, but she sure has a lot.  If I had hands, I'd help her carry them.

Before we even started running, mom filled my bowl with water and tried to get me to drink.  But, I wasn't thirty then.  Oh, mother knows best.  Halfway through the run my tongue was dragging on the ground.  Thank goodness she carries a drink with her.  I used to be afraid of that bottle.  It splashed in my face.  But, there's some good stuff in there!  Today it had a little grape flavor. 

I came across a rock that I think was alive.  It smelled like some kind of creature, but it didn't move.  I was puzzled.  A rock that smells alive?  I looked at my mom and she said something that sounded like "Turtle."  Whatever that means...  We ran on.

Eventually we came to my favorite place on the trail!  The pond!  I swam, drank water, and my mom didn't even yell at me for getting wet and dirty.  Oh, how I love it here.  Trail running with my mom!  OK, she's not my actual birth mother, but she IS MY MOM.  And I'm so glad I got to spend Mother's Day with her.