Racing heart...is this just a stamina thing?

[RolliePollie]

Be patient with yourself, and seek out good advice from the more knowledgeable folks on TE, from books, etc. You will surprise yourself with your progress. You can do it!

Thanks for the encouragement! It's hard to be patient! I guess I should look at cycling kind of like when I was a kid taking piano lessons. It took years to get better. You can't just sit down at a piano and learn it all in one day. I think these types of long-term learning situations are easier when you're a kid though!

My heart must be treating this as a long-term learning process as well. Evidently you can't expect your heart to suddenly be ready for aerobic activity if you really haven't been doing any! I guess another way to look at it would be I'm very glad my heart is working so hard as opposed to just stopping!

[kelownagirl]

Starfish - that's me exactly.

[BikeMomma]

Sara -

Have you had a stress test done on your heart yet? Perhaps you should rule out any medical reasons for the racing heart before you push yourself any further. Better safe than sorry, right?

I recently had some chest tightness with some pain, went to the heart doc and had a stress test done. He found nothing seriously wrong with my heart (called me the "champion of the treadmill"), so I thought perhaps the tightness was due to do bad air and my athlete's asthma, etc. A visit to the lung doc confirmed what I suspected, but I wasn't taking any chances, so I had it all checked out. Heart conditions are nothing to take lightly.

As far as the fitness, each one of us had to start at the bottom to get where we are now. We've all been out of shape at one point or another. So we definitely understand how hard it is to be patient with your training. You'll get there.

Take care,
~BikeMomma