There are times during a vigorous training workout, that my heart rate exceeds what I would like and I have to briefly pause to recover. When the workout is paused the display box containing the heart rate is covered up with “workout paused”. It would be helpful to still be able to see the heart rate display during the pause to determine when I can safely resume. Thanks for considering this UI tweak for the safety of us aged coots.
A good book to read is “Haywire Heart”. If you are having acceleration of your heart rate, you should get the new Apple Watch, and bring yourself up to the point of heart rate acceleration, and take the one lead cardiogram. How do you know if you are in paroxysmal atrial tachycardia? Do not take risks with your health on the trainer. Exercise induced cardiac arrhythmias can be very hard to detect. The Apple Watch is FDA approved for what it does. Billions of dollars went into that device from a medical perspective. The new Apple Watch is the real deal. No, it is not a Holter Monitor or a Zio Patch or an implantable sensor. But what it does, it does extremely well.
Also, if you are having heart rates that exceed your capability or expectation, even briefly, see a cardiologist and get a base line EKG. Read what Zinn has to say in “Haywire Heart”. The heart rate monitor on a strap is very accurate, but it does not offer us tracings. The stationary trainer has the capability to provide solid diagnosis and rehabilitation but we are not there yet. Most people want to push it, but the longevity data suggests, there is no need to always push it to the edge, winning races is not going to help you live longer. Read Zinns Book.
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Thanks Gary, wishlisted this one for future reading.
I thought this was a great book. Zinn said his tachycardia was supraventricular and was exercise induced. He had a case study of exercise induced ventricular tachycardia, and that I find very scary. Data on over training leads to the conclusion of a U shaped curve, where moderate training leads to higher levels of overall fitness and longevity, over extreme training where the body does not properly recover. I think training for general fitness and longevity and training for competition are two different mindsets. In the field of outdoor fitness, I think John Muir never won a single race, he just kept on hiking and writing.
Thanks for your thoughts. I’ll take at a look at your book rec. Happily I can report my heart is in good shape and trying to keep it there. Normal EKG, Echo, and Zio before starting this recent training revival.
Good to have more data. Time paused and heart rate on the workout pause screen would be useful for me.
Mike,
I hope you continue to do well. The largest single market for virtual training we be medical care rehabilitation eventually, and that will be followed eventually by tax deduction through an HSA once the PHIT Act passes. The current limitation for medical care rehabilitation coverage is that a physician must write a prescription for the medical rehabilitation. Then you have to go through medically licensed rehabilitation specialists.
There is no model for tax deduction for preventive medicine at home for injured athletes. PHIT would allow Zwift to be potentially tax deductible if the goal is health and fitness. If the primary goal is racing, the IRS is likely to say that Zwift would not fit within the boundaries of the deduction. The law has yet to pass, and has been held up for nearly a decade because Democratic Members of the House of Representatives and certain Republicans somehow see this as a subsidy for healthy and wealthy people, which it is not.
I worked with the Zio group before, terrific people, top notch quality and product, extremely innovative, and excellent business acumen. The users of the Zio patch are extremely satisfied overall.
Too much of Zwift is oriented towards competition and not collaboration. I rode Zwift for an hour today on the Jungle Loop. I think the proper length for indoor fitness is 35 minutes to 60 minutes, that is in the medical literature. Yesterday, I ran for 5 miles in new Solomons Running Shoes around West Vally Campus in Saratoga. It was a beautiful run, and took about 45 minutes.
At this point in my life, I have no problem spending money on consumer products or a bike. I bought my family all new I-phones, the I-phone 13, but decided for me, I-Phone SE, I don’t need any more features.
I am interested in the new smaller green I-watch, and for $10 a month it connects to your phone number, so it is a fully integrated device. Normally, when I run, I want four numbers, heart rate, distance, cadence, and time. The cadence is useful because to increase your speed, you have to shorten your stride, and to shorten your stride, you have to increase your cadence. What is useful about Apple Watch device is the integrated features including music. The Heart Rate/Atrial Fibrillation on the Device is top notch. I recommend to patients who have paroxysmal atrial fibrillation to get the Apple Watch. It is FDA approved for this purpose, it can save the data to PDF, it can catch a tachy-arrhythmia that is temporary and extremely difficult sometimes to diagnose.
After everything is said and done, Zwift has many opportunities to improve. Foremost, the largest opportunity is to expand the tent of users. There is almost no model for children (prefer Roblox and Minecraft as open worlds, or PvP, or the typical in game campaign like Diablo III), middle age fitness women (overwhelmingly prefer Pelaton or Yoga), and older members of society (generally prefer walking in parks and being with friends and family in exercise, they are absolutely not competing).
Great to hear from you,
Gary
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