Cardiac Event

I raced outside for the first time this year over the weekend. Didn't do great in either of the 2 races I joined, and figured I'd do a little self-flagellation on Zwift to atone for my sins and hit the Alpe. It was never intended to be a crushing attempt at it--just a low threshold effort of ~250W, or ~3.8W/kg. The kind of effort that should put my heart-rate at about 165 bpm and just hold steady.

Things did not go to plan. I was fine for the first 20 minutes, then started to feel really sluggish. I fought to maintain power, but my heart-rate for that 250W was averaging 173, making me even angrier at my poor training for this season.

Power dipped in the 2nd 20 minutes to ~230W, and my heart-rate stabilized at 170. Ok, groovy, but then THIS happened. 

Rolling close to the top, about 40 minutes into it, I felt a flutter and a gasp. HRM de-trained and started dipping, which happens sometimes, and usually I just back off power and it catches back up after a moment. Only this time the flutter was still there. I started feeling like boiled garbage and watched in horror as the number on the screen bounced to 200, then 210, then 224, and it STAYED there for a few seconds while my chest felt like a purring cat. After a solid minute of wild readings ranging from 155 to 224 and ending around 180, it finally dropped back to 165 and held there.

I've had tachycardia episodes my whole life. They usually make me feel like I'm out of breath and self-resolve after a few seconds. I've only caught them in ride data a couple of times, and this is the first time I've *ever* experienced an episode at an already-high heart-rate, and it did not feel good.

It was all I could do to finish the ride, which was probably a very stupid idea (but dammit I've done the Alpe 24 times now and I need that "masochist" badge), and all night long if I stood up for more than a minute or so I'd get woozy.

Not gonna lie--I was a little scared going to bed that I might not wake up this morning.

So my ride title "Accelerate to Cardiac Event" was not a joke, and I'll be sure to bring this up with my doctor*

*in a few months