5 days after the best race of my career at Busselton 70.3, I had a dizzy spell while running with a PT client. I had had these before, a series of 3 spells about two years ago and once 6-8 months earlier. Tests at the time couldn't find anything, so I had become a little complacent when the latest spell occurred. I stopped and walked for a few minutes and it passed, like every other time.
A couple of hours later I hopped on the bike and headed out for a hills ride. Nothing fast, although my legs had started to come good again. Heading up Welshpool Road, nice and steady (HR about 10bpm below threshold). Then as I approached the turn my chest felt like it was exploding!
I put my hand to my chest and it was beating super fast and also seemed to be beating higher up in my chest than normal. I looked down at my Garmin and it was at 184 (just below my max) and it was rising rapidly. Every second it would go up another 4-5 beats. I knew exactly what was happening, I was worried, but still calm.
A drain up ahead just around the corner was the closest safe place to pull over. As I approached my HR was now 210bpm and still climbing! I pulled the bike over and by the time I got my phone to call my dad (Dr) my HR was back down to 90bpm.
Above is the Garmin graph of my HR. Ignore the HR at the beginning, as it usually jumps around a little early on my rides. You can see the HR start to climb around 45minutes as I start to head up Welshpool Road and then it heads skywards rapidly and then drops as soon as I stopped.
After a chat with my dad, I road home without any issue, but was worried. The only reason I knew it was a tachycardia was because I'd read it in Greg Welch's book. It ended he's career...
I had a chat with a few people over the weekend and lined up some more tests. I had had tests on my heart two years previously and found nothing. Tachycardia can only be diagnosed by an ECG monitor, so on with a 24hr holter belt and go bring on another attack.
I had gone from supremely confident in my fitness / body to having none at all, in just a couple of days. It was a strange place to be in. Cairns Ironman was only weeks away, do I pull out?
The tests found nothing, but the best guess was Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT). Not the kind Welchy had thankfully. I did a bit of research and found a few articles on Erin Densham. She had been diagnosed with SVT and told to train and race as normal until it became a problem. It did eventually in 2009 after many years of training and racing. That gave me alot of confidence reading that and it hadn't reoccurred.
Cairns IM was a go... probably should've just gone for the holiday. It wasn't my best race as I pulled out on the bike. Pacing, bad prep, bad day, take your pick! My heart was fine.
I kept this pretty quiet at the time as I knew the standard response would be "don't stuff around with your heart". That would've had an effect on me eventually, I decided to listen to the experts.
I haven't had any issues since and have a pretty good warning sign with the dizzy spells. If they come on, I just back off the pace and cruise home. aka listen to your body.
Mike
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