ATHLETE WITH AFIB: My Personal Journey

NOTE: In my 30+ year career as a Sports and Executive Coach, my goal has always been to share my experiences in order to help people grow and optimize their personal and professional performance. This is a short story about my experience with AFib (atrial fibrillation), a debilitating heart condition suffered by many. Business is about people and we're all faced with challenges that impact our performance both personally and professionally. Please forward it to anyone you know who is faced with a similar condition.

My parents got me into sports at a young age. Starting at eight, I remember playing Pop Warner Football and baseball each year. In high school, I played both football and wrestled from my freshman through my senior year, serving as the captain of both teams. I even played football for a season in college.

Then, I discovered the sport of triathlon and did my first one at the age of 19, The Columbia Triathlon. I was hooked on endurance sports from that point forward, racing as an elite age grouper and professional throughout the '90s, including 15 Ironman distance events (2.4 mile swim / 112 mile bike / 26.2 mile run), around 30 'half' Ironman distances, several marathons, and dozens of sprint to international distance events. To compete at the highest level possible, I trained year-round and, during peak training periods, logged 20-30 hours per week swimming, biking, and running.

"I’d rather wear out than rust out."

As life evolved into my early 30s and family and work obligations took priority over racing, I still remained very active with cycling and running, dabbling in racing here and there. My late 30s and early 40s found me embracing high-level competition again, including a trip back to Kona for the Ironman Hawaii World Champs after a couple of successful seasons as a Master's athlete. I even did an ultra-marathon, the Leadville Silver Rush 50 miler.

Another lull from competition took place, but I still stayed near competition-level fitness with high-intensity training. In my mid-to-late forties, I decided it was time for a change, so I got into 24-hour mountain bike racing, eventually competing in the solo, single-speed division. I've done this for about seven years to date.

This is all to say that I’ve placed my body under lots of exercise-related stress since I was young and extreme stress since my late teens. Back in those days, high volume training was 'the way' and recovery wasn't as emphasized as it is today. The thousands of miles logged and the wear and tear add up over time, and now, at the age of 55, the chickens have apparently come home to roost!

About five years ago, I wanted to get back into racing triathlon again. I started swimming (my least favorite sport) and noticed that my heart rate would spike quickly, even with just a little output. As any athlete knows, we are very in-tuned with our bodies, and abnormal feelings are easy to recognize. Also, as any athlete knows, we sometimes ignore discomfort because we’re wired to overcome it by pushing through.

The incidences of high, irregular heart rate were intermittent at first. They happened most during bouts of hard training, and after. It was noticeable but not concerning to me. I usually chalked it up to being out of shape and my aging body.

After a while, though, it became more frequent, uncomfortable, and annoying. Even lying down, my heart rate seemed to jump all over the place with no defined rhythm. I finally made myself see a cardiologist (I’m not big into seeing doctors or taking medications), and he said I had AFib, a condition where the electrical impulse that regulates heart rate rhythm and contractions goes haywire. In the endurance sports community, especially among those of us who raced in the 80's and 90's, heart issues seem to be common.

Since that original diagnosis several years ago (and several 24-hour solo mountain bike events and the associated training), it got worse. I noticed that my heart was always jumping around erratically, and my performance on the bike seemed to be diminishing. Upon wearing a heart rate measuring device from the cardiologist for five days, I was told that I was in constant AFib and that my heart even stopped during sleep. Yikes!

Apparently, you can live with AFib, but you run a 5X risk of stroke due to blood pooling in the atrium, a chamber of the heart, which could clot. Therefore, blood thinners are recommended for those with the issue.

Needless to say, after four years of dealing with the symptoms, I was ready to do something about it. That something is a procedure called a heart ablation.

Essentially, they take a catheter that goes up your femoral vein in the groin and into the heart chamber. There, the electrophysiologist creates scar tissue in the heart to reroute the electrical current and hopefully put the heart back into a regular sinus rhythm. The procedure takes around 90 minutes as you are under full anesthesia, followed by a 4-5 hour recovery. Usually, patients go home that same day, as I did.

Interestingly for me, the day after my procedure, I had severe fluid build-up for some reason, gaining over 10 lbs of fluid. Very unsettling, especially that night when I felt like I couldn’t breathe, drowning almost. A diuretic the next day did the trick as I lost most of the fluid weight in hours. Weird.

I resumed light activity 48 hours after the procedure, and now, 2+ weeks later, I have a normal sinus rhythm and a resting HR back under 50 bpm (it was over 70 at times during my AFib days). I’m able to get back into regular workouts but am advised to avoid high-intensity interval work. That’s fine with me because, after decades of high-intensity, zone 4-5 work, I’m tired of it anyway! LOL

I now wear my HR monitor during all exercise, working to keep my HR under 130 bpm. I also wear my Whoop Fitness tracker to monitor my sleep and related metrics. It’s interesting how my body is adjusting in a positive way now due to the normal heartbeats.

To be clear, you don't need to come from an extensive endurance sports background to suffer from AFib. There are many reasons why someone might get it.

I also know that sometimes AFib can come back, and more procedures are required. That sucks, but I’ll be more mindful in the future and will address symptoms immediately. My next heart-related issue to tackle one day is that of a bicuspid aortic valve, which is genetic and only 2% of the population has it (not the 2% club I wanted to be in, LOL!). The issue is with calcification of the valve, which often needs to be replaced. Not looking forward to that eventual reality.

Despite all of this, my overarching philosophy of “I’d rather wear out than rust out” still stands true. I remain very optimistic and intend to get my fitness back up to some level of competition state and resume my 24-hour MTB racing someday soon. And who knows, maybe another IRONMAN in the 55+ Age Group is in the cards! In any case, I will still strive to be the best version of myself within the scope of my new limitations.

My key takeaway from this experience and the advice I’d like to give you is to listen to your body and treat it as if you truly love yourself. If you’re a young person dedicated to endurance sports training, give yourself time off and focus more on recovery. Also, don’t drive yourself into the ground in training or do lots of ‘hero’ training sessions. Save that effort for race days only. Finally, recognize that no matter how well you take care of yourself or how invincible you might think you are, life has other plans that you don’t control. Be present, be kind, do things for others, and tell the people in your life how much they mean to you.

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An Executive Coach and business consultant, Troy Jacobson is the Managing Partner for the 3-Pillars Performance Group, an organization that helps leaders and organizations optimize their performance. Learn more at by emailing him at [email protected] or www.3pillarsperformance.com