AM Ran the Davis Blvd loop and felt really good. What a great morning for a run. I wore shorts and a long sleeve shirt. Not the normal attire for the middle of November. Total Time: 1:15:08 (7:31/mile) PM Not sure how to count the afternoon miles. Went to the Utah Heart Clinic for a stress echo exam. Showed up, had the ultrasound then hopped on the treadmill. You start out walking on a slight incline then every 3 minutes it speeds up and the incline increases. There are 7 stages to the test and they said that they have never had anybody finish all 7 stages. I took it as a challenge. You have to get your heart rate to 166 bpm and they wanted me to go a little longer because they knew my heart rate would recover quickly and they had to do another ultrasound while the heart rate was elevated. The first few stages were really easy. I think that it wasn't until the third or fourth stage when I actually started jogging. Once I hit the 6th stage my heart rate hit 166 and they asked if I wanted to keep going. I said that I wanted to finish the test if it was alright with them. During the 7th stage, my legs started to get tired and I could start to feel the effort. They were curious to see what the program would do after the 7th stage. Hit 21 minutes and nothing exciting happened so they had me stop at 21:07. My heart rate got up to 183 bpm. I think that I could have gone for another 2 minutes if we had the time. Considering that the people who usually take this test aren't in very good shape I guess that it isn't a great accomplishment but I will take whatever victories that I can.
The test revealed that everything is perfect with my heart so I have nothing to worry about. The discomfort is most likely due to inflammation in the chest cavity. At least I now know that my heart is in good shape.
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