Oh Thumper.

Lately I've been pondering a lot about my health.
Exclusively, my heart.
I've been pretty lazy lately when it comes to working out...
I haven't gone running in... let's just say a few months. And at that, it had been a few months since I last ran that time as well.
I really need to make a habit of it, again.
I would really like to be in better shape-
Mostly I just want to build up my heart's tolerance again.
I don't even know what's up with it anymore.
I had a procedure done 5 years ago for the SVT I had.
A year later when Thumper was still giving me issues (though not nearly as severe) we went to a new doctor who told me my heart's fine- I just have a faster heart rate than normal. And to eat more salt in my diet...
I didn't buy his blabber.
I don't see how a heart rate of 200 is normal for running up a flight of stairs.
I don't feel like I'm in terrible shape- most people think I look rather athletic-
200 bpm is not normal, in my opinion, for such a tedious task from a 20 year old...
I'm 20 years old....weird.
Anyways.
When I first got the ablation in 2005, I started running as soon as I could. I still remember the first mile I ran afterwards being the fastest I've ever ran that distance in my life- and I hadn't ran in about 2 months at that point. I ran at least a mile every day there for quite some time.
Then I got lazy...
And the hard part with Thumper is the longer I go without frequent cardio the worse it gets- the easier it spazzes out and the more chest pains I get from caffeine or exercise.
That, in turn, makes it so much harder to get back to where I can run a mile, no problem.

So the current focus in my life is rebuilding Thumper's tolerance.
At least to where I can run a few miles without it stopping me.

Saturday morning I took Rosco to Murray Park to run.
This was a failure.
I need to train that pup to keep to my side. He gets too excited and likes to zig zag in front of my feet and randomly stop to look at me. He's a pro when it comes to tripping me, for sure. so I ended up heading towards the stone bleachers by the baseball diamond. There was noone around so I took him off the leash and ran up and down the stairs. He did really good at staying near but also focusing on where he was going. It took him falling off the stairs twice to realize he shouldn't watch me as we ran.
I had to stop so many times, it was embarrassing. It felt like Thumper was going to explode right out of my chest.
Every time it was bad I wanted to stop and go home, but I'd wait for it to calm down and go again. This cycle repeated itself over and over again.
It feels like I've got some pretty decent shin splints now, but I'm glad. That burn feels good.
That burn represents pregress.
Let's see how long it takes me to accomplish my goal.