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!