End of Chapter?

Hmmm, long day today. One of those days full of adulting, which isn't a whole bunch of fun but needs to be done from time to time. I suspect it is going to be one of those weeks. Joy. Lucky I am taking things easy on the training side of things this week, not sure I would have time for much of it the way things have been going.

Speaking of the training side of things, nice easy paddle this morning, just what I was after. To be honest the motivation and energy levels wouldn't have allowed much more. Good to get out and be active, but also good to not be trying to push myself. All about giving myself a bit of a break as I wrote about yesterday.

Tomorrow the plan is similar, although the exercise is going to be a bit different and slightly more formal. This is because tomorrow I have another Stress Test.

For those unfamiliar a Stress Test is where they hook you up to an ECG and get you to do exercise, in my case run on a treadmill. The idea is to try and determine whether your heart is going to behave under load, which is where my cardiac issues first started way back in the beginning of 2017. I have done a couple of stress tests and so far they have all come back clean and showing no problems. Win. Hopefully this next one is the same.

I haven't done a stress test in quite some time (about this time last year was my last one), in fact things have been very quiet for me on the cardiac side of things for a while, no recent appointments and no recent symptoms.. This is a lack of appointments is actually a good thing and in many ways deliberate. Last time I saw my cardiologist he was pretty happy with how things were going and felt that my symptoms had settled right down and were most likely 'under control'. Off this finding he felt we probably didn't need to see each other for a while (which we haven't). He also felt that it would be worth doing 'one last' stress test to see if things were still under control and if they were I was probably okay to continue on with life for at least a year before I saw him again. That stress test is what I have tomorrow.

It is fair to say I am a little excited and apprehensive about the test tomorrow. The test itself will be unpleasant, but they are generally pretty short and my running has been going okay recently so I am not too bothered about that. I am also pretty confident it will come back clear because I haven't been having any symptoms during training for a long time and some of those sessions have been hard. The apprehension comes in because there is always a slight risk that the test won't come back clear and this whole dance will continue spinning on for a little while yet. Generally though I think a poor rest result is unlikely and that is where the excitement comes in. This whole heart thing has been going on for over two years and while this test won't signal a complete end to it, I think this will bring this particular chapter to a close. It will be a chapter I will be more than happy to move on from.