Running?

Hello everyone. So here's my deal. I've had PVCs since about March, some days are worse than others. I told my cardiologist all the relevant information (I get them when I exercise) and he said to not worry about it and encouraged me to keep working out. So, I have. However, I have toned down the intensity a bit. I used to love running, but now I tend to stay on the exercise bike so I can keep an eye on my heart rate. The problem is, I miss running and want to get back into it, such as 10ks and maybe marathons, but I've heard a lot of bad stories about people with heart conditions running long distances. Should I steer clear of something like this? There was one guy, Ryan Shay, who died during an Olympic qualification race due to some heart attack (I believe he had an enlarged heart and palpitations.) So, I know doctors aren't infallible. Just would like some other opinions on strenuous exercise and heart palpitations.

By the way, I am a pre-med college student, and I am taking a mini-mester this January where I can shadow a doctor for three weeks. So, if anyone could set something up for me with a doctor in the Dallas area it would be much appreciated.

[Jerry_NJ]

Reading along the Shay case came to mind and, yes, he had a known enlarged heart condition..I don't recall anything about palpitations.  This clearly raises concerns for heavy duty running.

I suffer from AFib and my cardiologist always encouraged me to exercise, even run. But in my case, a senior, running is better described as jogging and only a few miles at that. Still, after heart surgery a year ago, I have not gotten back to even jogging.

But I degress, I respond mostly to keep you post on the top of the list a bit longer.

Greendave, a member of this community, may respond.  He is an advocate of high energy physical activity as I recall.

[greendave]

Hi there and thanks jerry for keeping this one visible.
Bit of a delayed respne as i've been taking advantage of the snow on the mountains so missed a few days.
So a two pronged respnse - I am keen on 'triggers' which I know will definitely result in either an SVt incident, usually the early hours of the next day, or sustained PVC's. So I live (most of the time) by avoiding 'triggers' and pushing myself hard physically.
Can you think of anything that you have been doing differently since March as for instance recently I had bad PVC's again and it turned out to be dental abcesses and i could perhaps have thought that overdoing it in the mountains was the cause.
One useful tip is to use the heart rhythm tracker to record your resting pulse at regular times before and after meals. If you have some kind of low level infection then you wll fimd your resting pulse will be higher than normal. or if you have a reaction to certain foods or drink then you will in time be able to spot it.
Also it is important to listen to what your body is telling you as some days I can climb up and down several mountains doing say 6000 feet over 8 to 9 hours whereas on others i have had enough with half that ascent and just take it easy and enjoy the views. Sunday was like that in atrocious gake force winds, fog and hail I found a route that I have done before hard so took heed and came down within 5 hours.
I firmly believe in hard physical exercise but again my view is that it should be outdoors and with a point. Climbing mountains is good as there is a lot of planning, hard physical and mental demands and a definite objective which is not a bleeping exercise monitor.
Running is also great as it definitely makes you feel good but remember to listen.
I am really interested whether it is the running or somrthong completley different so will you keep in touch.
dave