Increased RHR After Ride?
 

I did a fairly hard group ride yesterday at 91deg. F at 85% MHR (31 mile ride). About an hour and a half after the ride I put on my HRM to see what my RHR was, and it was about 20-25 beats higher than normal. I believe I was adequately rehydrated at this point, and I'm curious, is this normal?

How -- or at least when -- do you normally measure your RHR? What had you been doing for those 1.5 hours between finishing your ride and taking your pulse? I wouldn't put much stock in a figure taken anytime soon after an effort like you did on your ride. I don't think anybody would call that your RHR. Your pulse when you're sitting down isn't RHR; RHR is your pulse rate when you wake up in the morning. You just have an arbitrary number.

When I've taken my RHR in the past, it's just been in the afternoon with me laying on the couch. I've been getting numbers around 52 when doing this, but last night, my numbers were around 70-77 (same, just laying on the couch watching tv). When I say RHR, I just mean my HR when I'm laying down being inactive.

Sounds like you were still in a bit of recovery mode... I've been reading a little bit about EPOC, or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. Basically, as part of your recovery, the body is still burning calories, etc. even though you've stopped exercising. So your body hasn't truly returned to baseline. There was an article in Bicycling about workouts that maximize EPOC, and what you're describing is what they'd call a longer "Tempo" ride.

I'm just theorizing here, but it sounds like even though you were fully rehydrated, etc. Your body was in that EPOC phase. Hopefully an exercise physiologist can back me up or tell me I'm FOS...

DrPete

Dr Pete,
I think your hypothesis is likely. Different time of day also can have an effect. To get much use out of resting HR, you need to measure it same time of day (preferably first thing in the morning) every day, for an extended period, and track changes. I bet if the Op took his RHR 1 1/2 hours after every hard ride, it's going to usually be elevated over his morning rHR, and above the afternoon nap on the couch HR.

Yes, it is normal.

Same happens to me. When sitting down, inactive, after a few minutes my HR is around 54. After a hard ride it is around 70 and it takes at least 2 hs to go to 54 again. And my 'first thing in the morning' HR is usually 3 or 4 beats more than after going to the bathroom and laying in bed again.

I experience the same thing. I've noticed it on a handful of organized rides where I've driven back and forth to the ride. I put my heart rate monitor on before I leave the house and during the ride over my HR will be between 65 and 70. I ride fifty miles and then drive back home. On the drive back my HR will remain higher - closer to 90 or 100 - for the entire drive. I think its normal for it to remain somewhat elevated for a period of time.

I often measure my RHR before I go to bed, after having laid around for 10-20 minutes. Sometimes the value I get is less than my "first thing in the morning" HR. I've also noticed that it's slightly elevated, but is lower after I use the bathroom. With all the water I've been drinking lately to stay hydrated, sometimes I have to pee so bad in the morning that I think rhr is a bit elevated because of that - but it's not much, like 5 bpm.

The most important thing is to be consistent with how you measure it. Keep it roughly the same conditions, same time of day...