Marathon Question for AVR people

[tennduck]

Really just have a simple question for anyone that has had a AVR and is a current or former marathon runner: I had an AVR six months ago, have resumed running (10k longest), playing basketball and lifting weights. My cardiologist has essentially told me to go do what I want, but said to stay away from marathon running.

I know there are people that have run marathons that have had AVR, but is it a major risk? I know all marathons pose some risk, but how much would I be flirting with disaster? I ran two marathons before surgery and would like to run a post AVR marathon.

Thoughts?

 

[msiwik]

Welcome to the site. Can you share the doctor's rationale, reasoning? There are several members who have run marathons post-AVR and several who aspire to. My medical team from diagnosis onward has been very supportive of my desires in long distance running. But each of us are different; are there extenuating circumstances that your physician is concerned about?

 

[Ross]

Hello tennduck and welcome.

Is there some reason or something else wrong, like perhaps Afib in the picture, going on with you? If not, there is no reason that I can see that you can't participate. We have Ironman competitors here! I kid you not.

 

[MikeHeim]

My problem valve is Mitral, but I don't think it makes much of a difference. I was told "absolutely no restrictions" by my Cardio. Being a former marathoner and frequent gym visitor, I pressed him on both running and lifting. At that point he said that power lifting should disappear from my repertoire. (As a caveat, he also told me that he wouldn't recommend ANYONE power lift because of the risk of accelerating any pre-existing valve degredation.) He wouldn't give me any running restrictions, however. I certainly do plan on participating in at least two more marathons - the first one to prove to myself that I can still do it, and the second because that would give me 10 lifetime. The only change is that I will make sure I have a HR monitor before I start going in to hard-core training mode. If you can keep your HR in the 150-ish range, I can't imagine that you would create too many problems for yourself.

Just my opinion.

 

[Jas0n]

I too would like to know the underlying logic behind his suggestion. One thing I have noticed about some cardiologists is that they simply do not understand athletes, esp endurance athletes. Endurance athletes are a particularly perverse breed because they constantly subject themselves to pronlonged exposure to pain. My current cardiologist is pretty good at understanding my desire to return to my former level of fitness, but he too can add in his own subjective valuations into our converstations. For example, when I was finally given permission to start training 100% again (my surgeon told me to go ahead a week earlier), he suggested I not take up Muay Thai (Thai Kickboxing) as I wanted to - not because my sternum was not strong enough, nor that it posed any special threat to my heart, but because Muay Thai was a particularily brutal art where one can easily break bones, etc ... My responce was that I knew this; this was the reason I decided to get into Muay Thai. Doctors, who seem to be in the position of fixing our problems, sometimes fail to understand that a broken rib or a little knee pain are things we would gladly endure because we get something greater out of the activity as a whole. </rant>

Talk to your cardio, find out why he imposed this limitation! Perhaps there is something he is looking out for. Im not a runner by nature, but in the last few weeks I have been running to keep in shape (and to strengthen/condition my shins further for Muay Thai) as I wait for my new bike to arrive, and the prospect of a marathon has entered into my head once or twice (a mile!). I will certaintly get back into long ridse. Centuries, double centuries! Im not stopping because of something like avr and I dont think anyone should give up something they love without understand why first!

 

[MarkU]

I've got a mechanical aortic valve. I was a serious weightlifter prior to my AVR. After my surgery my cardiologist had me cut out powerlifting, but still allowed to to lift moderate weights/high reps, just no heavy sets or lifting to failure. He strongly encouraged me to do more aerobic exercise. This eventually led me to training for, and racing in, sprint triathlons (typically 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike and 5K run). I've done this for the past three years, with postitive results for my cardiac conditioning: my pre-AVR left ventricular hypertrophy has reversed itself completely and my resting HR has dropped from the high 60's to 44 bpm.

At my recent annual checkout my cardiologist was pleased with everything, but cautioned to primarily stay in the lower aerobic range (Zone 2) during my training. I had my lactic threshold tested last year and found it to be 157 bpm. Using the charts in Joe Friel's The Triathlete's Training Bible, my Zone 2 HR ranges work out to be 134-143 bpm when running and 127-140 bpm on the bike. I always wear a heart rate monitor when training to keep my HR in my target range.

The big adventure I have planned for next year is doing a half-marathon in early March. My objective is just to finish and I plan to train and race utilizing the Galloway run/walk method.

Good luck,
Mark

 

[tommy]

Welcome to VR.com. You've come to a great place. There is very little information available about hard exercise after valve surgery. This is as good as it gets.

We have runners that are just happy to finish, or just happy to improve a little (me). Some are interested in real performance. It's heartening (pun intended).

My cardio ran marathons in college and is very supportive of my running. I didn't start exercising until 2 1/2 years after AVR and it took me 53 weeks to get from couch to 26.2. After a second (to prove that the first wasn't a fluke ), I have switched to triathlons. My cardio vascular issues, other than the AVR history are low HDL, varicose veins, occasional PVC's, and taking Coumadin. No restrictions.

As with the other replies, I wonder why the doctor is concerned. Are there other issues? Maybe it's just that your surgery is recent. Perhaps your doc is not very familiar with endurance sports and shies away out of lack of experience.