I may not have told you this, but I’ve been bothered by what I thought of as ‘heart palpitations’ for a while now. It got particularly heavy after getting back from my last Alps climbing weekend with John, so I decided to see what the French health system had to say about it.

After 1) a blood test 2) an ECG 3) an echo-cardiogram, and 4) a 24-hour ECG, I got to ride my bike with my shirt off! This last test (stress test) was to confirm that my palpitations didn’t occur under stress, which, my good doctor assured me, would be cause for souci. 

The test was kind of fun, as you can imagine. It involved pedaling at a steady cadence of 70, while resistance increases at two-minute intervals. This resistance, by the way, is measured in watts, so as a bi-product, I could also see what kind of power I am producing without forking out €500 on a power meter. Here are the results. I like the numbers, even if I have little idea how to decipher them.

   Power     Heart Rate

• 50W         89
• 100W      107
• 150W      121
• 200W      158
• 250W      155
• 300W      168
• 350W      165

Then, just as was getting warmed up, he pulled the plug 😉

But back to my heart. Dr. Tailland says that I have Premature Ventricular Contraction (PVC), which is pretty common and, according to him, nothing to be alarmed about. No medication, don’t need to change my training, nothing.

So, thanks great French health system that pays me back nearly everything I pay out (a little over €300 for everything, including this test that the doctor needed to travel to do). And thanks, Dr. Tailland, for taking the photo. It’s perfectly framed!

 Y