Seeing the cardiologist

I’ve been running for 3,5 years now and although I now run longer distances, my overall fitness hasn’t really improved. I’ve done 3 fitness tests over the last 3 years. All of them telling me that it was ok for me to exercise, but none of those could really tell me what was causing the issues that I have while exercising, and what would help me improve.

The point is, when I run, I can run for about 400 meters and then I have to walk to get my heart rate back down again, because it will get very high. So I have to walk about 50% of the time, maybe 40% at times. And that is basically my version of running. Those 400 meter intervals have not improved, I’m only able to improve the total distance, but not the intervals themselves.

I finally managed to get an appointment with my new cardiologist. I had some tests last week, including another fitness test. This told me that my VO2max had gone down again. Three years ago it was 45, 2 years ago 41 and now it was 37 and the sports doctor could not really explain why this might have been the case.

The cardiologist told me today that the issues with my heart have remained the same for the past 5 years. Meaning, it hasn’t gotten worse. Which is good. But she also told me that she doesn’t understand why my heart rate is that high, since based on everything else, it shouldn’t be. So, this basically leaves me with even more questions and no answers. More tests will follow.