Today is the first day of Navaratri Festival. One week ago, I ran Sekhon Indian Air Force Half Marathon with a timing of 1:47:55. Not bad for someone who had stopped the training completely for a full month right in the middle of a marathon training. Right before I stopped, I had hit a 200+ km monthly mileage for the first time. Training was going great - running, strength trainig. I was sticking to my promise of staying consistent. But then...

End of August - beeps on the watch

Saturday, the 29th of August, I ran 25km as part of my training. Saturday is the long-run day. I had tried the gels for the second time during this run. 2 gels during a distance of 25km. Run was satisfactory. I could hold the pace as per the plan. Usually on Sundays, I don't do anything much. Just sit at home, scroll, or read, play with friends' kids. This Sunday was no different. Suddenly, I felt a fluttering or pounding effect on my chest, right below the throat. It was as if I was scared of something or anxious about something. I checked my Garmin and it read my heart rate around 35bpm.

This is not normal at all! My usuall resting heart rate during sleep has been around 50 - 59bpm for last 3 years. Dropping from there to 35bpm in one night was not normal at all.

Confusion that followed

First, I was worried a little bit. Then I thought "is this an adaptation to training?" But no adaptation happens that quickly. As most of us do, I started Googling. And these days who really Googles? One just goes to Gemini and asks instead. That's what I did too. Gemini initially said this could be Vagal Nerve activation or Athlete's heart and so on. That was all promising. But, my concern remained.

Health checks

It came back to normal the next day. I slept well. Everything looked OK. I followed the training that week too. As I was travelling over the weekend, I ran my long run on the Friday, the 4th September - 29km. Same night, I travelled by bus. The night I was supposed to really rest well, I did not sleep at all. Despite this, next day, heart rate dropped to 35bpm on multiple occassions. And it did not come back to normal on Sunday. This kept repeating on a daily basis.

After suggestion from friends, I decided to go for a full body checkup combined with ECG, 2D Echo and so on. Blood tests came out to be normal. Looking at the abnormalities in ECG report, doctors suggested for 72 hour Holter Monitoring.

It was the day before Ganesha Chaturthi, 13th September, when I got the holter monitor delivered at home. To the shock of my parents, who had no clue about what I was going through, I got the holter affixed on my chest. To my surprise, my father had already seen something of that sort and said "I have seen it with one of the senior citizens here and he stopped living alone and went to live with his son". What he meant to say was "what was the problem I was going through". I brushed it off saying it was nothing but a routine health checkup and doctor just suggested to take it.

Everything was normal but...

All the blood and urine tests came back normal. Nothing even on the borderline anywhere. After 3 days, I went back to the hospital with holter monitor report. Cardiologist there, after dicussing with a senior cardiologist, told me I should take a Tredmill test. I said I will get back.

In the mean time, a friend's relative, who was also a cardiologist, suggested a meet Dr. Sathish at Jayadeva. The Monday after that week, I went to see him. After much waiting, he said "you are an athlete. Athletes have low heart rate, nothing to worry at all, go enjoy your life".

He seemed too busy to tell me "why" it had all started all of a sudden. Coach said it would be prudent to get to know "why" before resuming training. He suggested I consult Dr. Vikram Kolhari. So I did at Apollo Hopspital, Sheshadripuram. He sat me down, patiently looked at the reports and said there was some kind of AV Block but nothing to worry since I did not have any symptoms. He also susggested I go through CTC Angiogram. He said, most probably it would say everything was normal. That report can be used as a baseline test for any future health issues.

The final test, I hope

After a week of deliberation and confusion, I took the courage of going through CTC Angiogram at the Bengaluru Hospital near South End Circle. Staff there were very polite and the procedure itself got over within an hour. As the dye was pumped into my veins, whole body went very warm. The staff had already warned me of that. As I was lying on the CTC bed, my heart rate fluctuated rapidly between 45bpm and 125bpm from second to second. They tried to calm down. I told them I was not tensed at all. But the heart rate did not agree with what I was saying.

At some point in time, they said they would try to take snaps anyway.

Report came by evening on my whatsapp and said "normal" against every single aspect they measured. A week later, I went to the hospital to collect the physical copy of the reports and the negatives. I felt a kind of strange feeling in me as I held the colorful images of my own heart taken from 4 different angles. I took the report and consulted Dr. Manjunath.

Dr. Manjunath, probaly around 55 years old, seemed to be a very nice person. He sat me down and answered all my questions. He explained everything, literally everything is normal. But, there is something called a SPVC burden which is around 8.5%. It should not be more than 1%. He said there is something called Wenckebach heart block, also known as Mobitz Type I second-degree atrioventricular (AV) block which is a delay in electrical condution from top chamber of the heart to bottom chamber (in my layman terms). He took the ECG report and showed me how that's happening in my case. This all sounded really harmless. What he said next made me nervous!

He said, in case the delay between 2 beats goes beyond 3 seconds, ever, I would have to get a pacemaker. I asked himm "how would I know that?". He said "imagine you are sitting with a coffee mug in hand and such a delay happens, then the coffee mug would slip from your hand and fall on the floor. After a second you would come back to your senses and would not even know how the coffee mug fell down". When I told this to my wife after coming back home, she said what if this happened when I was driving?!

Back in the hospital, Dr. Manjunath also told me that it's not life-threating. Of course, it doesn't soud so, unless in situations like my wife mentioned! He also explained how pacemaker works and I could lead a normal life with it.

What next?

It's been a week since then. I have been experiencing a very high level of stress overnight and non-restorative sleep for more than 3 weeks now. Running feels more and more difficult every day. But, I am back to full fledged training again. Friends are urging me to reconsider my participation in Adani Agmedabad Full Marathon in November.

To be able to sleep well is the key in recovery. Since I have not been able to do that for more than 3 weeks, a cardiologist also suggested I take Petril Beta 0.25 /20 at 10pm for 15 days. I have not started that course yet, waiting to see if the sleep goes back to normal naturally.

Today is 18th October and it has not.

I have technically consulted 5 cardiologists and gone thorough an array of tests all of which suggest that everything is normal. Except, everything is NOT normal. The day-to-day feeling of exhaution, improper sleep, going through the days like a zombie, constant irritable mood, not being able to training like I could 2 monthgs ago - all of these suggest everything is not normal. Or, is this suggest the stress and anxiety?

What do I do?