Question: Hello, I am a highly active 37 year old female in good physical health. I have been a runner for years and have noticed in the past extremely high heart rates when "pushing" myself on runs but this only happened rarely (~223 BPM). No other symptoms except I will sometimes have the desire to slow down as I feel a little tired (then I notice the rate by taking pulse manually). Went to cardiologist and did a treadmill test and did well (17 mets), no abnormal rates detected. Told to continue with my running unless I notice the high rate more frequently. Anyways (here we are) about a year later and it seems to have kicked into full gear. Noticing high rate on last 2 runs. Then also noticed that while my heart rate comes fairly quickly it remains high (about 120 bpm or so) for 1-2 hours after rest. My normal resting heart rate is "typically" 68 bpm. Other fact: when I experience this tachycardia my rate is normal (does not skip, flutter, it is just fast).
Questions: does the high resting heart rate after exercise seem to mean that by body is staying in tachycardia but just coming down to a lower 'rate' because I am no longer exercising? does this "sound" like A-flutter, or just SVT? what sort of additional tests should I have done?

Dr. Baghdasaryan,

Thank you very much for the response. Greatly appreciate it.

In terms of the resting heart rate staying at 120 (more like 120-130) for 1 to 2 hours following exercise- is that 'abnormal' as well? (I am very calm, and rested at this point). If so, does it sound like a continuation of the arrhythmia?..I am just wondering the significance of this as I never shared this with my cardiologist because I did not recognize that I was hitting the very high rate (223) AND subsequently staying elevated for hours.

Thanks,
XXXXX