My experience post mechanical aortic valve replacement

[Jeff Lebowski]

I ran a 5k in under 20 minutes and had done marathons and triathlons in my teens and early twenties. I exercised 6 days a week and never noticed any symptoms.

Greetings, first of all, I am very glad that you have recovered your health. How is your sports life progressing after aortic surgery?

For 12 years before my surgery last year, I was doing marathons, ultra-marathons and long and brisk road bike rides. I was chasing degrees in my age group in marathon and ultra-marathon races. However, as you can imagine, running, especially trail conditions, are very impactful sports. In the preoperative period, I had accustomed my heart to long-distance and brisk conditions, so let me put it this way, I was finishing a marathon with a pace of 4:50 km and my average pulse rate was in the range of 135/140 bpm.
To put it bluntly, I was hesitant to go back to running after the surgery, firstly because I wanted to put too much strain on my heart, and secondly because, as you can imagine, you haven't run for a certain period of time, and your heart works at very high pulse rates and with difficulty in the training you will do until you get back to your old self. I didn't want to do that, so I only focused on road cycling and I continue my long and partially brisk road cycling rides.

 

[Jeff C]

Greetings, first of all, I am very glad that you have recovered your health. How is your sports life progressing after aortic surgery?

For 12 years before my surgery last year, I was doing marathons, ultra-marathons and long and brisk road bike rides. I was chasing degrees in my age group in marathon and ultra-marathon races. However, as you can imagine, running, especially trail conditions, are very impactful sports. In the preoperative period, I had accustomed my heart to long-distance and brisk conditions, so let me put it this way, I was finishing a marathon with a pace of 4:50 km and my average pulse rate was in the range of 135/140 bpm.
To put it bluntly, I was hesitant to go back to running after the surgery, firstly because I wanted to put too much strain on my heart, and secondly because, as you can imagine, you haven't run for a certain period of time, and your heart works at very high pulse rates and with difficulty in the training you will do until you get back to your old self. I didn't want to do that, so I only focused on road cycling and I continue my long and partially brisk road cycling rides.

Hey Jeff,

Thats a great pace for marathons! I did one marathon in my teens and finished in 4 hours so was never at the level you were.

I have started back running slowly in zone 2 only. I train with a HR belt rather than relying on the wrist sensor on my Garmin. I saw my cardiologist yesterday and he was happy with me slowly building up my running fitness. He has advised in the long term that I avoid any sports that require long periods of high intensity as there is a very small chance (he said approx 1%) that people can get an arrhythmia post op. Worth noting that even people without valve disease have a chance of arrhythmia with sustained high intensity endurance training. I found this study interesting

 

[pellicle]

I found this study interesting

indeed ... thanks for sharing that ... I found this interesting (same paragraph as your highlight):

CV benefits of vigorous aerobic ET appear to accrue in a dose-dependent fashion up to about 1 hour daily, beyond which further exertion produces diminishing returns and may even cause adverse CV effects in some individuals.​

as this fits with other things I've read (and observed) where its been reported that 45min seems to be another "sweet spot" with some even reporting that HIIT peaks after 15 min

I've been eschewing my eScooter for my bicycle more and more lately

 

[tjay]

Hey Jeff,

Thats a great pace for marathons! I did one marathon in my teens and finished in 4 hours so was never at the level you were.

I have started back running slowly in zone 2 only. I train with a HR belt rather than relying on the wrist sensor on my Garmin. I saw my cardiologist yesterday and he was happy with me slowly building up my running fitness. He has advised in the long term that I avoid any sports that require long periods of high intensity as there is a very small chance (he said approx 1%) that people can get an arrhythmia post op. Worth noting that even people without valve disease have a chance of arrhythmia with sustained high intensity endurance training. I found this study interesting

Good job with your recovery. I'm now 6 months post-op (Bentall procedure with On-X mechanical valve) and have been enjoying running. You can review my previous post at the link below. Unlike your cardiologist, my surgeon actually urged me to resume running after 5-6 weeks. Cardiologist does not put any limits on me either.
I've been running 6.5 miles in my 1-hour runs lately, but now slowly switching to weight training.

Lot of valvers here on this platform do high-intensity endurance sports, just FYI. You can search and read about their wonderful experiences too.

Keep running.

https://www.valvereplacement.org/threads/12-week-update-work-in-process.889789/