It was a holiday today here in Korea, Children's Day, and while I did have the day off I was very limited with what I could do or where I could go. My house key was in Snickers' truck and he was hours away down south, fishing. This meant I was limited to whatever I wanted to do in the club and immediately around it outside.
No worries, I am most happy when I'm at Hulk's so it's the perfect place for me to be locked in... hahaha.
On a more serious note, perhaps it was best that I was locked in Hulk's and forced to miss my run that I initially intended to do -- an intense long run in the sun. I say this because in preparation for my run, before I knew I had no house key on me, I popped to Ripped Fast pills from Universal Nutrition. I've taken them before and have never had a problem with them but I can't remember when that was and my body has since changed. My tolerance to things such as medicine and whatnot is so different. My absence to taking medicine for even so much as a headache means that when I do take it it's all that stronger so I end up having to only take half the dosage.
The recommended dosage for the Ripped Fast is 1-4 pills a day, so I took 2 -- my 1st mistake.
Then, upon realizing I didn't know where my key was, I then searched the club high and low. Called Snickers and it was then that he and I both realized my key was sitting in the cup holder in his truck.
Admitted defeat with today's run so I made myself a cup of coffee and relaxed -- my 2nd mistake.
Relaxing with a cup of coffee and two Ripped Fast pills swimming through my system means there was no real relaxing. Instead, my heart rate went up, chest pains started and consequently I was short of breath because with every full breath I took came a sharp pain in my chest.
Resorted to becoming zombie-like for the rest of the day, going from lounging on the club sofa to laying in bed with my laptop and pups surrounding me. No big movements, no deep breaths, and no straining myself with exercise or even so much as trying to pick up Pacquiao.
By the time Snickers arrived back at the club my heart rate had lowered and my chest pains weren't as sharp or as frequent, but I was still uncomfortable. Snickers wanted to take me to emergency but I'm rather stubborn when it comes to asking for help and especially when it comes to taking meds. I much rather wait it out and my rule of thumb is if I can't stand it or it continues more than a few days than I seek out help. So Snickers wanted to take me to the hospital and I didn't want to go, so we negotiated and agreed to at least visit a doctor whom Snickers knows works nearby. The first thing he asked was whether or not I am athlete and if I train more than an hour a day. Yes, I'm a professional athlete and I train 1.5-3hrs a day, depending on if I'm doing both running and then boxing/weight training that day, six days a week. And while he said yes taking those pills were dangerous I had noted that I experienced similar chest pains before I took those pills. Then he took my heart rate.
He thinks I have Athletic Heart Syndrome.
Athlete's heart is a result of dynamic physical activity such as (more than 5 hours a week) aerobic training, rather than static training such as weight lifting. During intensive prolonged endurance or strength training, the body signals the heart to pump more blood through the body to counteract the oxygen deficit building in the skeletal muscles. Enlargement of the heart is a natural physical adaptation of the body to deal with the high pressures and large amounts of blood that can affect the heart during these periods of time. Over time, the body will increase both the chamber size of the left ventricle, and the muscle mass and wall thickness of the heart.
It's nothing dangerous, it basically means my heart's walls are thicker and my resting heart rate is slower, and it doesn't really account for my chest pains but it was interesting to hear. My marathon definitely helped promote this because my dynamic training most definitely skyrocketed for those many months I was training for it. It's nothing serious and I had a good laugh at this because I've been accused of being cold-hearted by friends back in the day regarding the guys I dated during university. Turns out I've got a bigger heart than all of them.
Just recently I've really increased my weight training efforts, making sure I put in as much effort and time into my weight training as I do my boxing. My weight training had become more of an accessory to my boxing and then with my marathon training both my boxing and weight training took back seats while I slaved away at getting in my mileage. The doctor thinks that the drastic increase in my weight training has put much stress on my body and those Ripped Fast pills definitely amplified the stress. No more Ripped Fast, doctor's orders.
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