Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
You've massively detrained. That's all it is. Most likely. Do you have other symptoms, like muscle or joint pain? Overcooking it always results in a lower HR during hard efforts. Continued attempting to force a high HR with hard efforts while HR remains unusually low results in overtraining if continued long enough. Resting HR OTOH will increase by as much as 10 beats during the process of becoming overtrained. The difference between resting and resting standing HRs will also increase during this process, becoming as high as 20 beats or so. It's really easy to tell what's going on from these markers. They are very reliable. Upon quitting training for a long period to recover, HRs will very slowly come back to sedentary levels. Resting and working hard HRs both will come back to higher than trained levels, which is what you're seeing. Normal.
Afib is very noticeable with an ordinary strap-and-watch or Garmin type HRM.
I think when you were doing recovery rides at under 100 HR, you were already overcooked. I never do them at less than 105. When I'm totally overcooked, I can hammer the pedals without HR going over 105. One week completely off, then resuming at a reduced level fixes that. It's good to find where your limits are and learn to recognize them.
As I've mentioned many times, it's good to take both one's resting and resting-standing HRs and keep track of them and the difference between them, one's orthostatic HR.
I think it's possible that your MHR now is higher than it was at previous sedentary levels because you still have some aerobic ability in there.
As always, appreciate your insight.
Honestly, the more I think about it, the less inclined I am to think it's de-training, no matter how much I wish it were. After riding off the cliff, I ignorantly continued to ride, but trimmed back volume by 50-75% and eliminated intensity entirely. 90% of my rides over these 9 months have been 20 miles or less and so my endurance would have of course dwindled for that reason, but nevertheless, I continued to ride and reap
some form of health benefit. As recently as the last week of December, I was able to make it 45 (slow) miles, but after that, I parked the bike and have only been out twice in the ensuing two months. A few years back, I would take the entire winter off, 4-5 months solid on the couch, and wouldn't lose much fitness...I could still average 18-20 mph without fault. But now I'm working myself to the bone to go 16 mph. Even on the first day I picked up a bicycle, having never exercised in my life, I was significantly faster than I am now. Just doesn't seem like de-training, particularly as my body doesn't just get sore, but completely shuts down/feels depleted and cramps up after ~15 very slow miles.
It's been an interesting (and extremely unpleasant) experience as some of the common markers aren't there, while some others are: no rise in resting HR, no illness, no loss of sex drive, no weight gain or loss of appetite, no rise or fall in cortisol, no suppressed active HR...but have had a complete loss of power and endurance, poor sleep, low T, daily fatigue, and achy legs.