Holly's journey

[dslaughter]

Holly hi just checking in to see how things are going. Your journey and info on the intermittent fasting inspired me to do some research and start doing the fasting approach. Between that and rowing the weight is slowing coming off. Just wondering how things are going for you. Thank you for posting your journey.

[Holly62]

Hi, I guess this thread needs an update, so much has happened since I last posted here.
I stopped rowing, because I just got so exhausted, I was working twelve hour days and sleeping my days off, and a year just drifted by.

On June the first last year I got home from work and fell asleep in the garden, my partner eventually woke me and I headed off to bed, just another exhausting day.
The following morning, I came down to the garden in my dressing gown, it was a lovely warm day and I remember thinking how calm the world seemed, the birds sang and the dogs played around my feet, I lifted my coffee to my lips, looked at my cigarettes and thought I don't fancy one, and suddenly felt hot, my jaw ached, and I suddenly felt like I had been hit by a locomotive, I had never known pain like it, all the tiredness of the previous year was leading up to my heart attack.
I was lucky, three stents later and a few days in coronary icu, and hindsight became very obvious.
That was seven months ago, I'm through rehab, I'm running on a treadmill, and I'm waiting for my second concept 2 to be delivered. I expect it in a couple of days.
Using the concept 2 has focused my mind on what is truly important in life.
I obviously don't smoke any more, I eat a sensible mediteranian ish diet, weighing in at 170 pounds, by my calculations I've lost the equivalent of a nine year old child.
I havnt felt this fit since I was in my thirties and I owe everything to the concept 2 Rower, without it I would not have been able to maintain my focus throughout my coronary rehabilitation.
Thirty minutes three times a week changed my life, I'm no athlete but at sixty I no longer feel like an old woman, all my bloods are in the green, cholesterol 2.9, BP 119/70, and sleeping well.
Never give up ladies, this machine will change your life.
I won't post up a before photograph, I was just a big fat lazy partially deceased lump.
From not being able to breathe walking down the stairs to my current level of fitness in seven months, I feel thirty years younger.

[Holly62]

Nobody has asked about your Erg settings, and I've noticed you've learned different things on the PM5 from other posters, and I'd like to add another useful item to the list for you: Drag Factor

What number do you have the little "damper" arrow set on for your machine, where the wheel spins? This number should definitely be on the lower end, like a 3-5, generally the lower end is a great starting point.
Even better is knowing your exact "Drag factor". Changing that little arrow up or down changes the drag factor, and the PM5 has a screen that will tell you what your Drag Factor is.
Here is a link to how you can see what your current drag factor is
https://www.concept2.com/service/monito ... rag-factor

I prefer my drag factor between 100-115. A lot of rowers row between 100-135 depending on what feels more comfortable for them. Lower than 100 is fine, but I wouldn't go above 135 personally.


People who try to put the damper on setting 10 will eventually hurt their back.

Hi tenshuu, sorry it has taken so long to reply, I stupidly ignored all the warning signs my body was giving me.
Now serious about living....
Yes you're totally right, I learnt everything about the PM5 on this thread, everyone has a favourite workout and they love to share, I've enjoyed my rehab, there is nothing like five concept 2s all in a row and keeping pace, like a crew of galley slaves, yo ho ho .
I think the physioterrorists all trained on galleys in roman times, don't quote me, you'll have historians on my doorstep.

Back to the plot though tenshuu, over the last seven months I set the concept 2 on 4, and never felt the need to change it, just rowed more. I think unless you're green and three hundred pounds of solid muscle I see no need to set it at 10.

I bought a book from amazon which mixes up all concept 2 workouts it's called imaginatively the erg workout book, and it's fun to use.
The Erg Book: 375+ of the Greatest Indoor Rowing Workouts of All Time https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1532936729/ ... UTF8&psc=1

[Dangerscouse]

Hi, I guess this thread needs an update, so much has happened since I last posted here.
I stopped rowing, because I just got so exhausted, I was working twelve hour days and sleeping my days off, and a year just drifted by.

On June the first last year I got home from work and fell asleep in the garden, my partner eventually woke me and I headed off to bed, just another exhausting day.
The following morning, I came down to the garden in my dressing gown, it was a lovely warm day and I remember thinking how calm the world seemed, the birds sang and the dogs played around my feet, I lifted my coffee to my lips, looked at my cigarettes and thought I don't fancy one, and suddenly felt hot, my jaw ached, and I suddenly felt like I had been hit by a locomotive, I had never known pain like it, all the tiredness of the previous year was leading up to my heart attack.
I was lucky, three stents later and a few days in coronary icu, and hindsight became very obvious.
That was seven months ago, I'm through rehab, I'm running on a treadmill, and I'm waiting for my second concept 2 to be delivered. I expect it in a couple of days.
Using the concept 2 has focused my mind on what is truly important in life.
I obviously don't smoke any more, I eat a sensible mediteranian ish diet, weighing in at 170 pounds, by my calculations I've lost the equivalent of a nine year old child.
I havnt felt this fit since I was in my thirties and I owe everything to the concept 2 Rower, without it I would not have been able to maintain my focus throughout my coronary rehabilitation.
Thirty minutes three times a week changed my life, I'm no athlete but at sixty I no longer feel like an old woman, all my bloods are in the green, cholesterol 2.9, BP 119/70, and sleeping well.
Never give up ladies, this machine will change your life.
I won't post up a before photograph, I was just a big fat lazy partially deceased lump.
From not being able to breathe walking down the stairs to my current level of fitness in seven months, I feel thirty years younger.

Really good to read this Holly. You're making great progress, and you've taken everything you needed to from the, very significant, warning.

Take care and all the best going forward

[Holly62]

Thanks dangers scouse, you have to be a certain age to remember dangermouse

I think it's all about the right kind of motivation, and making the positive choices that enhance your life.

Motivation, what makes you get up and row?

[Dangerscouse]

Thanks dangers scouse, you have to be a certain age to remember dangermouse

I think it's all about the right kind of motivation, and making the positive choices that enhance your life.

Motivation, what makes you get up and row?

Haha, very true, and you probably need to be British too!

I get immense mental health benefits from rowing, so it's fantastic thinking time for me. I've always found that looking good is just a happy consequence of it all, so I love the process rather than the results.

[Holly62]

Being a mental health nurse I've got to give you a full thumbs up on that one.

When I was ill, and couldn't even walk to the bottom of the garden without being out of breath and feeling that my life was pretty much over, for that read feeling very sorry for myself, it was the phone call from rehab and the welcoming sight of a concept 2 that made me feel that they knew what they were doing.

They stress tested my heart, which means they give you a load of drugs which races your heart, just to see if it blows a gasket. They pushed mine up to 160bpm, a not totally unpleasant experience, and it didn't stop or blow up, which was a relief.
After that they put on a chest monitor, and told me to excersise around 130bpm,rest and repeat, within a couple of weeks my mental state started to improve, and I started sleeping better.

So yes totally agree, positive wellbeing came first.

[Citroen]

If you want to post a picture stick it on https://imgur.com (or some other sharing site), post the link to the photo on here.

[Holly62]

Well here we are deep into February and I'm still pushing the limits of all the stent work the cardiologist inserted into my wrist and groin.
I'm now rowing 5k four times a week, average time 26/27 minutes, best time 26.07mins.
And in training because the cardiologist is going to insert one more stent in the front of my heart, so all the more important that I turn up as fit as I can.
I attended a cardio group and I found two very different kinds of people, now far be it from me to judge anyone, fat lazy lump that I was, but, some took the view that it would have happened anyway, despite smoking,drinking, eating, and laying about at every opportunity,and the other half of the group prepared to take responsibility and positive action.
One gentleman brought his wife who argued quite convincingly and eloquently for listening to your body and going to bed if you're tired, and how did the dietician know that adjusting your diet helped anything.
If I went to bed every time I felt tired, I would not have had the energy to turn up for rehab, I never saw them again.
What I did see was the determination and inspirational can do, from the other half of the group.
I saw a lady in her seventies, run for an hour on a treadmill and a gentleman, post cardiac bypass, well into his seventies early eighties on some kind of ski, climbing type machine work much harder than I was capable at the time.

Keep rowing
Holly.

[Dangerscouse]

Well here we are deep into February and I'm still pushing the limits of all the stent work the cardiologist inserted into my wrist and groin.
I'm now rowing 5k four times a week, average time 26/27 minutes, best time 26.07mins.
And in training because the cardiologist is going to insert one more stent in the front of my heart, so all the more important that I turn up as fit as I can.
I attended a cardio group and I found two very different kinds of people, now far be it from me to judge anyone, fat lazy lump that I was, but, some took the view that it would have happened anyway, despite smoking,drinking, eating, and laying about at every opportunity,and the other half of the group prepared to take responsibility and positive action.
One gentleman brought his wife who argued quite convincingly and eloquently for listening to your body and going to bed if you're tired, and how did the dietician know that adjusting your diet helped anything.
If I went to bed every time I felt tired, I would not have had the energy to turn up for rehab, I never saw them again.
What I did see was the determination and inspirational can do, from the other half of the group.
I saw a lady in her seventies, run for an hour on a treadmill and a gentleman, post cardiac bypass, well into his seventies early eighties on some kind of ski, climbing type machine work much harder than I was capable at the time.

Keep rowing
Holly.

Great to read this. Tiredness is a by-product of ramping up the effort and intensity, but you need to know when that is more rooted in laziness as your former self fights against the adaptions.

It's a fine balance but you need to recover enough to make it sustainable, enjoy it enough to make it fun, make it hard enough to make progress and focus on what you want / need to get out of it.

The self defence mechanism is a very ancient part of the brain, and you need to manage it correctly, rather than trying to fight against it. Rational self- talking will be very helpful is this frames the effort as exactly that; an effort, but a worthwhile effort that won't always feel that hard.

[Holly62]

Hi dangerscouse,
Glad to hear from you, one of the great things about the erg log book, is that I have a record of all the row time I did prior to my MI.. I was still pushing, and there are several attempts at 500m even, before I eventually gave up, due to breathlessness. Heart attack under a year later...
Of course hindsight is such a wonderful thing, there I was thinking severely out of shape and unfit, in serious need of work, when in actual fact my heart was choked up, and I needed to see my gp.

So see a doctor, if you have any concerns, or you're seriously out of shape, and of errrm a certain age.

But, yes dangerscouse, I know the difference now, I quite happily drift off with my pulse at 120, and my Stoke rate at 22sm, thinking of how I'm planning my day instead of struggling to breathe.
As you say a fine line.

Holly

[Cujo]

Glad you’re doing well, Holly.

[Tenshuu]

Nobody has asked about your Erg settings, and I've noticed you've learned different things on the PM5 from other posters, and I'd like to add another useful item to the list for you: Drag Factor

What number do you have the little "damper" arrow set on for your machine, where the wheel spins? This number should definitely be on the lower end, like a 3-5, generally the lower end is a great starting point.
Even better is knowing your exact "Drag factor". Changing that little arrow up or down changes the drag factor, and the PM5 has a screen that will tell you what your Drag Factor is.
Here is a link to how you can see what your current drag factor is
https://www.concept2.com/service/monito ... rag-factor

I prefer my drag factor between 100-115. A lot of rowers row between 100-135 depending on what feels more comfortable for them. Lower than 100 is fine, but I wouldn't go above 135 personally.


People who try to put the damper on setting 10 will eventually hurt their back.

Hi tenshuu, sorry it has taken so long to reply, I stupidly ignored all the warning signs my body was giving me.
Now serious about living....
Yes you're totally right, I learnt everything about the PM5 on this thread, everyone has a favourite workout and they love to share, I've enjoyed my rehab, there is nothing like five concept 2s all in a row and keeping pace, like a crew of galley slaves, yo ho ho .
I think the physioterrorists all trained on galleys in roman times, don't quote me, you'll have historians on my doorstep.

Back to the plot though tenshuu, over the last seven months I set the concept 2 on 4, and never felt the need to change it, just rowed more. I think unless you're green and three hundred pounds of solid muscle I see no need to set it at 10.

I bought a book from amazon which mixes up all concept 2 workouts it's called imaginatively the erg workout book, and it's fun to use.
The Erg Book: 375+ of the Greatest Indoor Rowing Workouts of All Time https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1532936729/ ... UTF8&psc=1

Great to hear back! Also, that book sounds really cool, I think I'll add it in my Amazon list

I'm happy to learn you've found a comfortable and safe setting on your erg. You've clearly been taking things more seriously for sure!

I'm just rejoining my time with the erg right now for March Mud Madness. I go quiet from spring to February most of the time on these forums.

[Holly62]

Brilliant to hear from you again tenshuu and on the mudd thread, what else can we do but try, bit stoic but hey ho

[Rick]

Hello Holly,

I started my C2 journey between your original post and return to rowing following your heart attack. I can empathize with much of what you felt on both sides, having been fit and healthy and letting that slip near to totally away. I’ve found that adopting the lifestyle changes around being fit, and having that as a “from-now-on” mantra rather than a “until-I-weigh-X-pounds” plan is the winning way. I’m glad to hear you are succeeding, and getting healthier every day.

Keep it up! Your work might just be inspiring someone else to avoid a heart attack, or to recover from one in a positive and permanent way. Either one fits well with your regular job as a life saver. As a recently retired career cop, I can’t begin to tell you how much those in my profession appreciate those in yours.

Best,
Rick