HMF

well, after 8.5 hours of sleep and 2 days of rest and easy riding, RHR was back to the normal range this morning, and I felt pretty good. Watts on the commute were about where RPE was telling me the should be. We'll see how 2x20's go today.

thechemist

Correct me if I am wrong but I thought one of the main ideas behind a "build phase" was getting your body adapted and used to the "suffering." Your body will handle the lactic acid an anaerobic intensities better when it has been under a little bit of stress. So to me, resting until RPE is back to normal may be taking all the fruits out of the labor?

sstang13

Good point, I too, also notice that my HR is in the 130's when I'm on an easy ride, it's about 60% of my max, but I could do it all day long. I'm going to have go do a LTHR test..

HMF

Being able to complete the intervals at the right intensity is what matters most for training purposes. If you go out with the intention of doing 5 v02max intervals but fatigue stops you at 2.5, you probably would've been better off riding easy so you could nail them the next day, lest you get caught up in the medium intensity trap

Stacking, or back to back hard days have their place, sure. But knowing when you can and can't complete the efforts is pretty vital too.

HMF

Workout went very well. HR was very responsive to power, but seemed to topout at a lower level for a given steady state effort (fitness gains, maybe, or perhaps just being rested). Legs felt good. 2x20's were spot on. 1st interval IF 1.00, 2nd interval IF 1.05. I was able to push power to upper v02max range for the last 90 seconds of the 2nd interval and HR followed along nicely.

kenji666

As long as it's not zero when I wake up, I'm good to go.

dnuzzomueller

When that happens I am going to go hide in my zombie apocalypse shelter.

Creakyknees

To check my waking HR would presume that I have any discipline or structure around my "training" and that just won't do.

sstang13

How about HR while you're sleeping?

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/337767746

Lmuir

My resting heart rate is always a bit high on race day due to anticipation/excitement. dials in/normalizes about 2 min into the race though.

Alaska Mike

I did a sleep study last fall, and the tech mentioned that my heart rate got low enough to set off the alarms a few times during the night. She said it was nothing to worry about, as each time it was consistent with the patterns of my sleep cycles. I never asked what the numbers were, as it was more trivia than an actual data point I could use. I was more concerned about the cause of sleep issues than another eWang.

Despite being wired up like I was in the Matrix, it was the best sleep I had that month. Turns out it's likely my sleep environment instead of a health problem that causes sleep issues.

cannondale125

I may be confused here. ) but I googled normal resting heart rate is 60 - 90 anything below signals there might be a problem?

revchuck 

I think those alarms are set at about 40 bpm. My RHR is ~45 bpm, and often causes raised eyebrows at the doctor's office. According to med school, it should be ~65 bpm for a guy my age (62).

cannondale125

Ya I'm 43 and mine rhr is around 60?

revchuck 

That's among non-active adults, though there is a medical condition - brachycardia? - which causes low RHR as well. Endurance athletes have lower RHR due to having stronger, larger hearts. It's not unusual for professional cyclists (and distance runners) to have RHRs in the 30s.

cannondale125

That's cool you learn something everyday. So I been cycling steadily for about 6 months. Will I notice mine change sometime? Probably takes years!

revchuck 

That's a big "it depends." If you ride a good bit (>100 miles/week) it'll probably slowly decrease. It's nowhere near an overnight change.

cannondale125

Thanks! I have aways to go. Lol!!

Ygduf

I only ever "use" RHR as an indication of fatigue. If it's more than 4-5bpm higher on a day than usual, I know I'm tired.

cannondale125

I need to start riding more and jump in on some races.

ovoleg

never look at it, useless AFAIK

Creatre

I don't really care to track RHR. Or most heart rate for that matter. The heart is a weird muscle and can tell you a lot. Unfortunately it's hard to determine where the a lot comes from, since a lot influences it.

FWIW, my RHR was like 55 when I would consider myself most fit about a year ago. Not sure why mine isn't as low as most cyclists. /shrug

rkwaki

Catching up on old posts...
Heart rate is kind of useless as everyone is different.
When riding my RHR is 32 when I wake up and 40 when sitting working at my desk. Doctor gives me crap about it but I just say it is what it is no need to worry its always been like that.
I wouldn't worry about it much.

spectastic

studies have shown that serial killers have low resting heart rates, and cyclists tend to have low resting heart rates, therefore cyclists are serial killers.

gsteinb

if I use my heart rate how can it be resting?