Looking for cardiac athletes. I belong to a couple online groups of athletes who all have had some sort of heart surgery. Bypass, stent, pacemaker, valve replacement, or aneurysm. They are mostly runners, but many cycle, ski, climb mountains, play team sports, etc. We wrote a book about our experiences. I'm wondering if anyone knows of any swimmers who have come back to competition after heart surgery.
www.amazon.com/.../1500159638
I had a mechanical aortic valve replacement 25 years ago and continued to do road and track races and shot put. I only recently got more serious about swimming and wonder whether there are any others.
I'm an old friend (marku) from valvereplacement.org. (Only visit there on rare occasions any more)
Had my aortic valve replacement surgery 15 years ago. Started doing triathlons in 2004, but have been morphing into pretty much a full-time swimmer over the past year or so due to some orthopedic issues that limit my running.
Was an age group swimmer until I was 15, and now at 62, have enjoyed getting back into masters swimming competition after a forty-some year break.
I swim with the Sarasota Tsunami Masters team at 6AM 5 days per week. I've logged just under 100K yards so far this year.
We've been fortunate to have Sheila Taormina coach our masters team since last June - She's really helped my stroke mechanics.
I've done four masters meets in the past six months and am planning on at least four more before the end of the year.
Been swimming 50 & 100 meter free, 50 ***, 50 fly and 100 IM in competition.
My cardiac fitness is excellent. With all the endurance training I've done the past 15 years my resting heart rate is down to 49 bpm.
Still building specific swimming endurance, but that has been improving rapidly as I've gotten some of my technique issues worked out.
Mark
I'm an old friend (marku) from valvereplacement.org. (Only visit there on rare occasions any more)
Had my aortic valve replacement surgery 15 years ago. Started doing triathlons in 2004, but have been morphing into pretty much a full-time swimmer over the past year or so due to some orthopedic issues that limit my running.
Was an age group swimmer until I was 15, and now at 62, have enjoyed getting back into masters swimming competition after a forty-some year break.
I swim with the Sarasota Tsunami Masters team at 6AM 5 days per week. I've logged just under 100K yards so far this year.
We've been fortunate to have Sheila Taormina coach our masters team since last June - She's really helped my stroke mechanics.
I've done four masters meets in the past six months and am planning on at least four more before the end of the year.
Been swimming 50 & 100 meter free, 50 ***, 50 fly and 100 IM in competition.
My cardiac fitness is excellent. With all the endurance training I've done the past 15 years my resting heart rate is down to 49 bpm.
Still building specific swimming endurance, but that has been improving rapidly as I've gotten some of my technique issues worked out.
Mark
