Recovery time for running oldtimers

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Hi
I am 79, very active. I do windsurfing and run about 5 km 3-4 times a week, sometimes almost every day…

I must say that I am currently under medication with a betablocker for occasional cardiac arrythmia and one or two isolated episodes of atrial fibrillation over the last two years, without any discomfort or symptoms, though.
Just the HR on the watch races for some time and then gets back to normal in a few hours.

I even ran to the hospital once because the hr rate was up to 160 bpm at rest, but the cardiologist who took the EKG didn’t seem too worried as long as I don’t have any symptoms, like exhaustion, breathing difficulties, etc. He recommended I continue exercising regularly.

The point is that the betablocker, by depressing the adrenalin production, also depresses both my minimum and my maximum H.R. by about 20 bpm. , which means that 110-115 bpm correspond to the nominal hr of 130 bpm before going on medication, which was the normal hr for my age and I could easily sustain.

There are a few points I’d like to make.

  1. Looking at my new Polar watch reports, I notice considerable fluctuations in my avg HR and speed, sometimes by as much as 20% from session to session.

This week, for instance, I trained for 1 hr, about 30% of the time in the top cardio range approaching 140 bpm. The next day, I could no longer keep the top range: my avg hr had gone down to about 115 bpm and I could hardly increase it.
The avg speed fluctuates, too: from 6 kph to 7 kmh from one session to the other, with the same subjective effort perception. .

I wonder why. Perhaps at my age my recovery time is too short and I should train every 2nd day…

  1. The fitness test I took with the Polar watch. gave me a VO2 score of 27, which according to the Polar fitness chart is FAIR for the 60-65 age range.
    I wonder how does it fit into my age . I have a sense that I have reached a physiological ceiling. Or is it perhaps the medication that affects my Vo2 score and the fluctuations I mentioned above?

I wonder if anybody can comment on this

Thanks

Ittiandro

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After about 45 you can probably disregard the a lot of what’s seemed healthy for younger people. I’m 51, so can attest the downward spiral.

I hate going to my drs for check ups, because the last few years have been nurses pulling horror faces because my blood pressure has been higher than normal, which then freaked me out to send sky high!

When an actual Dr saw me they said normal for my age, but then again before it was always borderline low.

You seem to be doing well, that’s all else I can say. I used to run, but have ankle injuries from when my feet decided to turn under me instead of stepping normally off the last step, as you do.

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As Teacup says, sometimes doctors don’t really take age into effect. I was on beta-blockers a couple of years ago and regularly going to the gym. I could check my resting heart rate sitting down at home and it would be 45 to 48, which I thought was low enough to be possibly risky. When I mentioned this, the doctor said “That’s great! That’s about the level of an athletic teenager”. I replied, “Maybe so, but I’m 64 years old and while I am reasonably fit I am not an athlete!”

They let me stop the beta-blockers and now it’s a more normal-looking 65 or so. Not really the same problem you have, but more to illustrate the age thing.

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I don’t know which resting rate is the reference point : at wake-up, when I’m still half asleep, it is about 58-60. A few minutes after, after getting off the bed it is about 65 and it can go up a little bit even without starting training… Anyway even with the betablocker it never went down to 45 or so. If so, I’d see the doctor.

Actually, even before going on betablocker, a couple of years ago, it has always been around 65 because I train regularly and my heart must have gained some efficiency by becoming larger.
In fact, if I stop training, in a few weeks the rest rate goes back to regular 70-75.

It is true that the betablocker may be a limit for top training, like doing a Thriatlon or… climbing Mt Everest, but at this point I don’t care. If I did, it would be silly and perhaps deadly.

I do see the benefits of moderate training,even at my age ( 79) because I can do things that not very many people of my age and even younger can ( or perhaps don’t want to) do.

Last year I traveled to Sardinia( Italy) with my son, who is 36. WE hiked up a steepy mountain , to see the famous, mysterious Nuraghe, that seemed to have been built by …goats just for goats…
I didn’t run, but he had trouble following me. If I didn’t have all that regular, albeit moderate training behind me for years, I wouldn’t have made it. Yet, subjectively, the effort was moderate and I am too cautious about overexerting myself at my age…

Sometimes I thought asking the doctor to go off the betablocker, but I didn’t because I had a couple of episodes of atrial fibrillation in the past and the betablocker can be a life-saver. One has to chose the lesser of the two evils.

I am fighting hard to delay as much as possible the onset of real old age, with its lot of decreased mobility, loss of energy and, God forbid, mental or physical diseases. But it will come. Until then, I do my best to have as good a quality of life as possible by keeping fit.

Ittiandro