Cardiac Events

Hi Everyone,

Recently I read an article about Triathlon deaths.  It's amazing how cardiologists, journalists and the American Heart Association can't put 2 and 2 together. 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/03/triathlons-and-marathons-are-amazing-fitness-feats-of-fitness-but-neither-one-is-without-risks-dehydration-exhaustion-bro.html

Article(s) seem to minimize talking about the swim and prefer to remark about triathlons as a whole.  We know that the swim start can be far more stressful than any footrace start (especially when physical contact comes into play).  Couple that with the fact that most heart attacks occur in the MORNING between 6am and noon (when all swim starts occur) and that most do not come from a swimming background,  it becomes fairly obvious why there is a higher incidence of cardiac events in the swim portion of a triathlon.  

I decided to play guinea pig here and ran a few tests of my own.

I have no preexisting condition, have below normal BP and my RHR is 54 and slowing as training progresses.  I understand that my data comes from running and not swimming but I don't have an aquatic research facility.  I can only theorize/extrapolate that it may also happen in a swim.

I have noted that when I run early in the morning I get a significant momentary HR spike on a 4% grade incline that I never see during any other time of the day for any training session.  It lasts no longer than 20 seconds.  I thought it was a problem with the monitor but I tested it over 2 weeks and I could not dismiss the results as anomalous.  Granted a max heart rate for 20 seconds isn't necessarily dangerous or fatal but in an unfit or untrained individual it can have adverse effects.   Distances were 6 miles and 24 hours of rest were between each workout in series.  In each case the hill was climbed in 2 minutes.

Morning Temp/Max HR on the 'hill' on a tempo run RPE 4-5  (6:30am-7:30am)
70F/210
67F/206
68F/202

Evening Temp/Max HR on the 'hill' on a tempo run RPE 4-5  (5:30pm-7:00pm)
78F/172
83F/175
72F/167

Under normal circumstances and time trial testing I have never been able to get my HR above 192 (Per Joe Friel -- Total heart rate training) and it required an RPE of 8 or 9 at an air temp of around 90 degrees.  I've eased off of early morning tempo/speed runs and save those for the evening where the HR stays in a normal range. 


Has anyone else noticed any morning cardiac "Anomaly" in their training?