waking heart rate

[chill123]

i've read that taking your heart rate every morning can be a good tool to:

- see your fitness progress as it hopefully reduces slowly as you get fitter
and
- helps you spot signs of overtraining or illness (indicated when it is higher than usual)

I took mine over a few days (with minimal cycling miles) and the results were:
56, 56, 54, 65. Interestingly enough the day before the 65 i did a 35 miler at a brisk pace.

A couple of questions:

1) if you do it what is your waking heart rate?

2) Would the 65 above indicate i need more recovery and should avoid riding long or hard that day?

3) what king of variance from the norm would be considered normal? i.e. would not indicate illness/overtraining

btw my maxHR is 191.

[kuan]

Correct correct correct. The variance is a personal thing. For me, 4-5 bpm higher than normal isn't much since I get a lot of rest anyway, and I can really feel it if I'm sick. There's not much harm you can do if your HR is elevated 5% for a coupla days in a row, you may be in the middle of a block of intensity. Just make sure you're able to recover. Again, that's a personal thing. You can only find out by pushing yourself and experimenting.

I know, a HRM is a great tool for avoiding overtraining, but use it too conservatively and you'll have no fitness gains.

[Carbonfiberboy]

My morning resting heart rate (MRHR) is between 46 and 55, depending on recent training load. I use 48 as my "normal," so if I'm 54 and up, I figure I need to take it easy for a few days. That's personal. Yes, I'd say the 65 means "take it easy."

Interestingly, I'll get a more elevated MRHR from several days of long mileage at moderate HR. Just one hard day usually lowers my MRHR for a few days.

[chill123]

well yesterday i took it easy - 40 mins at about 70% of HRMax and this morning i was back down to 60.

think i'll definitely keep monitoring it to see how it varies with my workload.

it's a bit of a pan having to 'strap up' every morning though!

[Hammonjj]

While I don't have much experience with this, I've always been told that 10 BPM above your norm is when you need to step back, so I would so your "on the edge".