We received this from Greg. Its his story of how he came across a medical issue by monitoring his Heart rate monitor. Hope you are on the mend Greg. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

The little story below as to what happened this week when riding.

About 10 days ago I was out on a ride and my HRM went up to almost max Heart Rate. I felt pretty good but slowed down a fair bit but the BPN didn’t correspondingly drop. A bit concerning but as I felt ok I thought the HRM was telling untruths.

So the Monday just gone out I went again for a gentle ride around Romsey. All was ok for about 15 mins with the monitor showing 120 -125 bpm. I then was pushing up a small hill and the heart rate jumped up rapidly to 167 bpm and the monitor screeched at me to cease time trial. But I wasn’t in a time trial !!!!!.

I stopped and physically checked my pulse and it did not seem overly fast so I concluded that it was telling lies again. I waited for about 3-4 minutes for it to drop which it usually does but it only dropped to 155 bpm. Very unusual for me. Any how thinking that the HRM wasn’t kosher I continued but it quickly indicated a very high HR again. By this stage the was a small amount of pain going from the centre chest up to the back of my throat. Had not experienced this type of pain before although I had felt a dryness before and thought it was thirst.

I rode a further 2 – 3 km and the Hr was still up there although I was not riding hard. The pain was not decreasing so I decided to ride to the local doctor’s surgery. I was taken straight in as I mentioned that my HR would not go down. A Dr checked me out and asked the heart attack questions but I was not experiencing the (normal) symptoms. So an ECG was done and even after about 20 mins, the HR was still at 155 or so. A couple of sprays of stuff were sprayed under my tongue. An ambulance was called and the next thing I was off to Royal Melb Hospital. After the spray, the pain went and the HR came down.

After the initial examination, I was moved to the Melb private next door and scheduled for an angiogram. The upshot of this was that a narrow small artery was found on the top of my heart that was considered to be genetic because I did not have the other risk factors such as diabetes or high cholesterol and a stent was inserted. As a consequence, I have 8 different types of tablets to take for a minimum of 3 – 4 months and after that hopefully will be taken off a number of them but I’m on low dosage aspirin for life.

I’m feeling great overall but with a sore groin. Can’t ride for about three weeks until I see the specialist again.

Moral of the story? Believe what your HRM is telling you!!!!!!
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Regards,
Greg B

Other articles of interest:

Slow Down To Speed Up Your Hill Climbing – Cycle Up Hills Fast

Difference Between Training with Heart Rate and Power

How To Work Out Your Cycling Heart Rate Zones

What Does Your Resting Heart Rate Mean?

Heart Rate and Performance Parameters in Elite Cyclists