Today would have been the 43rd birthday of the young man pictured above. I didn’t know him very well but I miss him a lot.
The title of today’s blog post is unrelated to the above photograph. As some readers may know I’ve been having heart problems that come and go with the presence or absence of atrial fibrillation. Yesterday it was present and today it was absent.
Today in the absence of Afib, I decided to try a dosage of L-Arginine Alpha Ketoglutarate. The instructions on the bottle say to take 3 tablets two to three times a day. I’ve had the same bottle for more than 10 years and it’s expiration date is May 2010 but the tablets still seem as potent as they were more than 10 years ago. I only took one dose and it was taken with a meal about 2 hours before today’s rowing session.
The tablets are supposed to both provide energy and also to make it easier for the heart to pump blood. Today’s rowing session was done at a pace which normally results in a higher heart rate than it did today, even when the heart rhythm is normal. But heart rate was barely above 100 most of the time, with only a few brief exceptions when heart rate seemed to go off its “leash” and wander a bit far astray before settling down again. Those off-leash exceptions are the spikes in heart rate on the graph.
I don’t know what to think of the L-Arginine compound’s effects but from what I’ve read L-Arginine is something we all need so as long as I take it in moderation it might do some good if it helps make it possible for me to work a little harder without heart rate skyrocketing.
Below is a chart of heart rate during today’s workout. Below that chart is a chart of yesterday’s heart rate during yesterday’s much slower workout. The two charts might not be worth comparing though because yesterday I was experiencing atrial fibrillation and today I wasn’t.
Today’s and any day’s workout sessions can be seen in even more detail via this: link to the online logbook. To see a session’s data & interactive graph click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for that session.
Happy rowing to you!