I had open-heart surgery (ascending aortic graft and aortic valve replacement) one month ago. Surgery went well and the medical professionals tell my my recovery is way ahead of schedule. Started walking as soon as I was home from 4 nights in hospital, and up to 40 minutes twice a day at Z1/2 HR.
This week began a formal cardiac rehab program this week where you wear a 3-lead ECG device and they watch your heart real-time in their center. They have me working in Z2 (11-12 Borg RPE scale) and I noticed on the recumbent stepper I’m doing all of 105-110 watts. They tell me later in the 12-week program they may introduce intervals and more intense activities.
Will be interesting to see one I’m cleared to do on-the-trainer work at home how what TR recommends fits with what the rehab folks recommend. I did note that AI FTP dropped me to 179w after being off the bike for 5 weeks with no TR-registered activity, and that actually puts my 110w in the ballpark for recovery rides.
Curious if anyone else has experience with rebuilding after a similar surgery and how well TR helped you build back.
Edit: FYI, the surgeon and the cardiac rehab folks say I should be able to do everything I did before now that we’ve dealt with these issues. I’m hopeful they’re right!