Countdown to Race Weekend but wait...

But First Stress Test #3

This past Monday I was booked in for my, hopefully, last stress test. My last stress test was done when I was in Atrial flutter so the results were skewed and based on my activity it was hard to give me some solid foundation to build to work on in my recovery.

Usually I give myself plenty of time to get to the Heart Institute, but Monday must have been a major appointment day since I circled the lot and streets trying to find a spot. In fact I can't fathom why they don't let patients park on the side streets. Oh wait the residents don't like cars in front of their home in front of a major medical institution that could save lives <insert eye roll> I ended up going to the Civic parking garage and getting Valet parking. Which really means leave the keys and when a spot opens up we'll pull it in. No extra charge. It's just insanity. I had five minutes to spare to make it to my appointment so I briskly walked form the Civic hospital to the Heart institute and made it up the stairs and overshot by a floor and had to double back and go back down to check in. I was definitely warmed up.

Registration took forever as some person was taking their time asking questions upon questions. I finally got registered and sat down. I'm sure I got the looks of me in my running gear especially a guy in compression calf sleeves were pretty sight! I bet!

I got called in right away and headed to the room. I met Bonnie the tech. and pretty much we got set up right away.

Oh and amidst all this I was doing an Instagram takeover of the Ottawa Marathon story so I shared A LOT of my day in that feed.

Similar to my test back in February it was a steady pace and incline every couple of minutes. My BP was like 154/100 when I started. I think that brisk walk and stair climbing gave me the white coat syndrome of high blood pressure! Oh wait I do have high blood pressure! 😲

Seriously it may have helped as I was pumped up to get going. I kept an eye on the screen and saw my time on the treadmill and notice my rhythm seemed steady so it was pretty good IMO.
I pushed myself as I wanted to know if I could hit the high heart rate to trigger any signs of V-tach. Of course I can't tell, but there may be some, but I'm not someone who can read that sort of thing. I did push as far as my legs could go to about 12 mins. I know the incline was pretty high as my arms were pumping pretty good. By the time I called no joy I slowly came down and walked off and then limped my way to the bed to get rid of all the fun electrodes and belt off my body.

Once I finished sweating on the sheets I towelled off and headed back up to the Cardiac rehab to see my Physiotherapist Guy-Anne. This would be my last visit with her as my brief program is now up. I can say that she has been on my team right from day 1 to let my heart heal and take it easy. As well, I'm not one of her normal patients so I definitely challenged her. So the last visit I had to answer a few survey questions and then rate a score on the care. Also I had my stats taken, weight, BP, waist measurement. Once that was done I was given my blood work requisition and headed on my back to the parking garage where I had to go an pay but didn't want to be one of those guys holding up the line when you forgot to pay before the exit.

Just a few pasties

Ready to roll!

My tech Bonnie!

Survey says!

My PT Guy-Anne

TulipFest

After leaving the Heart Institute I decided to head over to the Arboretum and do a quick run to see the Dow's lake tulips and see a portion of the race course. I started out from the Arboretum and headed down from there along the canal to Dow's lake. Then from there I was off to see what tulips were actually blooming. Not very many from what I saw and then I turned up to see if any others and it seems anything getting some sunlight were showing off, but others not so much. This is probably the latest the tulips must be blooming. Which means that for the runners of race weekend should be able to see some spectacular blooms still.
I did an out and back and detoured for an ahem Beavertail mid run. You know because the necessity for carb loading!
I headed back to where I left the car and then headed home.

Probably the better variety of tulips at the moment

Greening up in the Arboretum

there may have been a few stops along the way

Ottawa ComicCon

After not going last year I decided to go just one day because Tom Welling of Smallville and Lucifer fame was making an appearance.
I won't bore you with my geekdom, but it was the best 7 sec of the day!

Always geeking out!

Tom Welling

Custom made case

Orienteering 101

Well let me begin by saying that orienteering is not exactly easy. I'm not exactly used to using a map since technology has taken over so heading out with a map, compass and a whistle was definitely different. So I connected with the Orienteering Ottawa crew at South March Highlands to give it a try. I met up with the Raz fam and Mike gave me and a few others a 15 min intro. But before that lesson I have to say the registration progress was intense, but pretty organised. Of course I didn't realize that there was a fee attached...oops. Anyhow Mike loaned me $15 SO I owe him.
I decided to start out and Mike was going to come with me, but then he sent his boys with me to get started. So while I grilled Evan and Luke on the finer points of orienteering I set out on my way. It's almost like a game of Amazing Race mixed with trail running/hiking.
It took me about 20 minutes to find the first control. It could have been longer, but lucky Kristi came and rescued me for the 1st couple and then she was gone like a bat out of hell. So much for lesson 101 in orienteering it was every man and woman for themselves. I had help with 5/13 so I was on my own for the rest. I took a moment and decided to try and stick to the path and hope I can figure out the symbols and compass. However, there was a lot of bushwhacking off the trails so trying to figure out where one was and the next was pretty tricky, but by the end I think I figured out some, but sadly I missed one as by the end of the session (two hours later from the start) I found the last and made it back to the finish. Of course I missed the turn so it was tricky to figure the scaling to the map to where the control was.

That is a control that I'm supposed to tag!

Trilliums are blooming

Mossy

The lake effect

the map and the control stick

Final tally and an MP for my first outing. Oh well.