Welcome to the Get Fit Guys' quick and dirty tips to slim down and shape up.

My name is Ben Greenfield, and I'm the Get Fit Guy.

As I record this episode, I'm just a couple days out from having crossed the finish line

of a hot, humid, and extremely difficult race called Iron Man Hawaii,

which you may be familiar with as being on TV as the Hawaii Iron Man World Championships.

Well, for nearly 20 minutes after crossing that finish line, I laid exhausted and short of breath

in the medical tent, where I was told that I was experiencing a, quote,

unquote, highly irregular heart rate. This isn't the first time I felt my heart skip a beat

or feel funny during exercise. Recently, in a chapter of a book that I wrote entitled Beyond Training,

and you can actually download that chapter for free over at Beyond Trainingbook.com.

I described how during long workouts leading up to my training for Ironman Hawaii,

I occasionally experienced a phenomenon called PVC or premature ventricular contraction,

in which the heart's electrical activity becomes slightly abnormal during physical

exertion. In extreme endurance athletes, such as marathoners and Ironman triathletes, these type of

heart issues have even caused death. For example, distance runner Micah True, better known for his role

as Caballo Blanco in the book Born to Run, died during a trail run.

And the cause was found to be cardiomyopathy due to an enlarged heart, which is a common phenomenon

among athletes. True was just one example of seasoned endurance athletes in particular who have

experienced sudden fatal cardiac episodes during exercise.

Marathoner Ryan Shea and Ironman triathlet Steve Larson are others.

And more recently, professional Ironman triathlete, Torborn Simbali, was forced into unexpected

retirement due to premature wearing of a part of his heart called the bicuspid valve.

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