This could go in both cycling and running, but since I’m getting back cycling again, this makes more sense to me.
The links between endurance running and cycling with AFIB is well known and widely talked about. Here are a few if you’re not familiar with it.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/resource-center/managing-afib/athletes/a/39504
A lot of this goes along with Mark Sisson (Primal Blueprint) who long said the worst thing we can do is “chronic cardio”, and his example was to get on your bike, get your heart rate up to 80% of max, and just leave it there for hours.
Here’s where I’m going. I’ve decided to get back to road cycling once it cools down a bit (around here, the date is August 44th, not mid-September). To start getting in shape, I resurrected my dusty road bikes and started riding indoors on my trainer (which used to be for prolonged rainy weather only). So far, so good, although only a week.
The “EverydayHealth.com” link and the “Cardio May Cause Heart Disease” links both suggest that the U shaped curve of risk is lowest for low intensity riding/running for about 3 hours a week (not day). I’d like to get back to what always used to be my tradition of “Riding my Age” in miles on my birthday in February. I’ll be 65. Ordinarily, I don’t think of going from zero to 65 miles in 4-1/2 months as being a particularly difficult goal, but it absolutely means more than 3 hours a week on the bike - and more than 3 hours every day on the bike as I get closer to 65 miles.
The only things they say that don’t add significant risk are walking or very leisurely biking for an hour a day.
The wild card is that, like the examples those articles talk about, I’ve been diagnosed with AFIB. I either don’t usually have AFIB episodes, or it’s so mild or intermittent that it only happens a couple of times a year.
I guess I’m looking for other cyclists who have AFIB to tell me if it has gotten worse, or even better, or just what has happened. Any experience out there?