I'm looking for info from anyone familiar with an echo stress test and the problem described below. Basically, my doctor wants me to have this test. I am not familiar with it, although I assume it's an echocardiogram performed while you're on a treadmill. Has anyone had one of these or know of someone who has?
Here's my situation. I'm 44 and having been running for years. I've had my share of injuries, but I've never had a problem with my heart. In August I decided to forego any further racing this year and just get back to building a base. I was averaging about 40 mpw (I usually top out in the 50's but I thought I'd try to go a bit higher this year). One day I wake up and as I'm taking my pulse I notice that some of my beats are missing. About once every minute my normal thump is replaced by what feels like a rumble, and there's no associated beat in my wrist. This was rather freaky, so I tried my HR monitor, and sure enough, it didn't record those rumbles as beats either. I felt fine but I called my doctor. He does an EKG and there's no problem. He doesn't think it's any big deal. A few days later I'm feeling kind of tired so I tell my doctor that I'd like to get to the root cause of this because, after all, If I've done 2 1/2 hour long runs in the past with no problems, why is this showing up now on 40 mpw? Did I catch some kind of virus? Do I have a nutritional deficit or overload? Do I have some latent mechanical cardiac problem? I have no idea. So that's when he decides to schedule me for the echo stress test.
I'm kind of floating in no-man's land now. Has anyone experienced this sort of thing or heard of anything similar? Any comments?
Thanks!