Where am I heading with this?
Sometimes my body speaks to me in loud and clear language. Sometimes I choose to listen. Monday morning my resting heart rate was 70 bpm. I was in shock. Only back in the days when smoking was still acceptable behaviour and allowed in restaurants and pubs would I record such a high resting heart rate.
Back then I was an unfit sloth. Today I am an athlete. My 'fit' resting heart rate is somewhere in the low 50ies. After some time off the bike after Christmas I started with a resting heart rate in the low 60ies. That was expected. But when the Tuesday heart rate climbed to 74 bpm - I measured three times just to be sure - I knew that something was up.
I did some Internet based research and I discovered a few interesting facts that I'd like to share:
- Miguel Indurain had a resting heart rate of 28 beats per minute, one of the lowest ever recorded in a healthy human.
- It's not rare for people who exercise for an hour every day to achieve a resting heart rate of 50 bpm.
- Resting heart rate is probably the least important variable in comparing athletes.
- Men usually have a lower resting heart rate than women.
When I'm really fit I envy AMR for his incredibly low heart rate. With my new-found knowledge I will hopefully be able to stop obsessing about the lowliness of my lowest heart rate and stop competing with him on that.
First I thought the high resting heart rate might be just a sign of my increased training load, after all I had spent close to seven hours on my bike last weekend. But when it didn't come down to more normal levels after a rest day and with the general tiredness, a slightly sore throat in the mornings and swollen glands under my arms - symptoms too familiar to ignore - I decided to put my frustration aside and swap this week's high load of 13.5 training hours for an early rest week.
It was a good call as my heart rate remained high all week and I would have struggled through my training.
Now I'm visiting my training program and I've got a few options how to modify my training from here: I'm tossing up between either changing my training program to three-week-blocks to allow for enough rest and recovery or to stick with four-week-blocks but lower my overall hours.
Or I could continue on and give my current slightly ambitious training program another shot before making any rash changes. Your thoughts?
11 comments:
I think you should listen to your body and if it's telling you to take it easy then that's what you should do. Then next week get back to the cycling work and let your body have it. By the way, every monday at work we pass around a blood pressure checking machine then everyone in our group compares their scores. I'm always way lower then everyone in the heart rate category but every now and then it creeps up and it kind of makes me mad. I'm with you on that one.
Tough call. Not sure...
Maybe you just live a little more "stress" than what you normally live? When to rest is always a tough question... Good luck!
groover, i don't know what to say, though we are both totally obsessing over the same things - how much? do i rest? am i really sick? or am i being a pussy? i know my HR has been higher than normal, usually it's around 58-62 and i know it's WAY higher as of recent months. i feel like my hep c can pop up at any given notice - same as you and GF. all i know is we're both older and need to listen to our bodies when they need rest. sometimes it's best not to HTFU, but to sleep, rest, and baby our aging bones.
when i feel good, my rides are good. when i feel bad, my rides suck.
Sounds like you have something going on physically still. Moving up the rest week is a good idea. I would bias workouts towards more rest but might even want to visit the doc again.
BTW: I was in a bike vs. car accident last September. In the ambulance I had to convince the EMTs that a HR of 51 was normal for me. They weren't buying it though but the ER doc understood what real training can do to HR.
I think it is probably a case of listening to your body. If your RHR is high that day then take an easy day. At the moment I am finding I can do a hard week but it is followed by a recovery week when all I do is commute. Although this is not a usual coaching strategy it is working for me. I obviously just need a lot of rest!
Hey Groover
I'd play around with blocks of training time and blocks of recovery time. I don't do the 3 weeks on 1 week off thing any more. I do blocks of days, with 1-3 rest or recovery days (light leg rolling), as required these days.
I changed to this from 2 weeks on, 1 week off, cos 3 weeks of increasing training just didn't work for me. I get sick all the time.
Just a thought :-), but don't feel that you MUST follow the "book" cos everyone else does. Have a play and see what works for you!
All my resting heart rate tells me is that I am half gerbil. But I do listen to my heart - if it yearns to cycle I let it have it's way, but if it needs rest, I rest it.
, I am living proof that a low resting heart rate (40, and low 30's when younger) is not a good predictor of fitness.
But I do strongly believe that a higher resting rate than usual is a sure sign of over-training or need of a rest.
Hang in there, it'll get better.
I had glandular fever when I was 19 or 20 and it took me over a year to fully recover and when I did I had crossed from adolescent youthfulness into adulthood and had a reduced energy level in my normal state.
It seemed for years that I had never really recovered but eventually I did realize that my lack of recovery was primarily due to the age-related changes and I accepted that I had become a less energetic adult. It's a long road back and you do well to listen to your body and take a break if you feel you need it.
Big Mig! Amazing I wonder how Lance would fair riding against him?
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