First off, triathlons kind of suck. Everything about them is bad and if given a choice, I would only run. Thing is, I have a very small build and when I was over 300 pounds, even walking was a lot of impact. Running was impossible - I simply did not have the dynamic strength to run with any kind of form. So, I got into biking and swimming as ways to improve my cardiac health without the constant pounding. Problem is, I hate swimming or more accurately, I don't like drowning. So if I don't have events to claim, I won't do it.

I'm still a significantly better runner and don't think I'll ever graduate up to a full Ironman. I have never even done an official triathlon, only self measured events. But having biking and swimming as part of my fitness package have been incredibly valuable. Swimming, for example, has done amazing things for my lung capacity (though again, it's not the swimming, it's my aversion to drowning). :)

Now I'll give you some raw numbers.

My resting heart rate has gone from a weekly average of over 90 to a weekly average of under 50. Simultaneously, my heart rate variability increased significantly. Raw numbers with HRV are a little misleading since it varies so much, but I am 43 years old. At the beginning of my odyssey (I had just turned 40), I had the HRV of the average 70 year old. Today, my HRV is way above average for a 20 year old.

Oxygen saturation is interesting. I went through a battle with covid in December and the nurse practitioner commented that she had never seen anyone as sick as me with such a high oxygen saturation level. When she asked me how I cared for myself, I told her that I had been working on speed all fall, doing sprints and running hills. Her reply was that she was going to start running up hills everyday on her way home from work.

My cardiologist talked me out of trying to actively track and monitor VO2 max. He explained that while it's a decent metric, I'm unlikely to be accurate enough at home to gain anything from it. Back when I used to get regular stress tests, I had a good number every 3, 6 and then 12 months. At my current fitness level, there isn't a particularly good reason to give me a stress test other than personal curiosity and the really fit, incredibly competitive health care worker who actually chirps me out after my stress tests. Next official marathon, I'm beating his ass by thirty minutes.

Mind if I share something that both my cardiologist and psychiatrist have told me? I'm not the typical cardiac patient. Instead, I'm deeply obsessive to the point that after my OCD screening, I went home to rewrite my resume as the screening did a far better job of explaining my talents than anything I had ever written. There is no particular need to take things as far as I have. I'm just 'special' and not necessarily in good ways. A lot of my fitness has come out of fear and if I could spare you anything, it would be to spare you that fear.

Heart problems are emotionally hard. If you want to talk to someone relatively young who has been there too, my email address is on my profile. We can keep everything anonymous if you'd like to feel more open to talk. I've been through a lot and friend, I've seriously got your back.