Yesterday I did a short training push of 12 miles around Statesville that took me in the last 3 miles to the bottom of Hospital Hill (Hartness Road at Iredell Memorial Hospital). I have been training on that hill for a while and have been noting my heart rate at the bottom and then again at the top to get a comparison of the increase in load that hill has on my cardiovascular system. I have been working on trying to manage my heart rate on that hill so that I don't get so far in the red zone that it basically shuts me down for the rest of the push. I have also been paying attention to my recovery from the peak heart rate as I continue on down to Stockton Street and up the hill at 1st Baptist. (I am making these same kind of mental notes on all the big hills I push regularly to assess my fitness based on recovery time, max heart rate, average heart rate etc.).
In yesterday's route I had already climbed a bit in my neighborhood on Race Street, up Hedrick Drive, up the frontage road that comes out behind Burger King on 90, and up Museum Road from the museum past the ball fields so I had some hills in my legs before hitting the bottom of Hartness. I had also averaged 9.5 mph for the entire push and had an average heart rate of 156 bpm to that point. When I hit the bottom my heart rate was at 145 bpm and when I reached the summit it was 183 bpm. (I had gone a bit too hard up the last 1/3 of that climb). As I crested the top I saw what appeared to be a patient from the hospital sitting on the wall at the sidewalk outside of the cancer center talking to 2 other people who I guess had been walking by. He didn't look like he was doing too good and had an IV catheter in his hand. I started to continue but that voice once again said I needed to go pray with the man.
I immediately turned around and pushed over to where he was and asked him if he was alright and if I could pray for him. He said he was ok but that this was the designated smoking area (there are no signs that indicate such). He agreed to let me pray and I did a very short and simple one asking for healing for whatever he was dealing with (I assumed cancer based on the way he looked and his location at the time) . The whole exchange lasted less than 4 minutes and as I rolled away I looked down at my heart rate and it had dropped all the way to 120 bmp! Thats a 63bpm drop. I am starting to get more fit now but still need to lose about 15 more lbs mininum. I was shocked at the huge drop so quickly. (Keep in mind for the last hour my heart rate had been at an average of 156 bmp for the entire hour). The only thing I could contribute it to was the fact that taking the time to pray calmed me down so much that my heart just slowed down more quickly than it normally would.
I am sure that there are a lot of factors involved and this one episode is not a scientific study on the effect of prayer on heart rate but as I push more I am going to become more aware of it.
My point in sharing this story though is to encourage all of you to use prayer to calm the storm in your life, calm your heart rate down when you are jacked up over all the challenges you are facing, and calm your mind and heart so that you can find peace.
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