Monitoring your resting heart rate.

I’ve been doing this casually with an Android app. For a while. It might not be hugely accurate but it has been a fairly consistent 45 bpm first thing in the morning. However, after a pretty full on week, it’s now up to 60. Not the end of the world but I’m not commuting in today as my legs feel heavy. How easy should you take it in this situation? I assume you don’t stop altogether. How long should I expect it to take to get back to normal? Should I consider skipping the run tonight? I’m not training for anything in particular, just like to be active.

rest a little.

You can over do things.

Thanks, that’s what I’m thinking, but just wonder how much rest to take. Stop until my hr is back down? Do the same training but at a lower intensity or half the number of sessions this week?

It could be a sign that you’re coming down with a cold.

But if you weren’t monitoring it you wouldn’t be bothered, so I could say MTFU 🙂

On past performance, mtfu is exactly what I do until something fails!

Rest until your HR gets back to normal levels, or ride / run at a very low intesity ie <60% MHR, until it does return – if you read the books about training with HR that is. IMHO it’s what I’d do……….

A fluctuation of 10 beats would mean your getting/are “ill” or slightly overdoing it. Do you have a cold ? Rest up for a few days to let it clear and then take another 2 days rest or really steady riding (let granny past you on her shopper) to let it clear fully.
As long as you spot the signs early, once youre fully recovered it should only take a 1-2 weeks to be back upto pace.

I dream of a resting heart rate of 60! My resting rate in hospital was 108.

No sign of a cold or anything like that. Bit shocked that it was up by 15 bpm on Sunday morning but we were in Wales and riding Llandegla so I had to do that. I did skip the morning run before it though.

Thanks for the advice. Guess I’ll take it easy (not something I’m very good at if I’m honest). If you spot me at Lee Quary on Thursday, remind me to slow down!

108???, my resting rate is 38

108???, my resting rate is 38

in his defence, he was ill though.

As a matter of interest, what app, and how is it reading your heart rate? Polar bluetoooth band?

wwaswas – Member

108???, my resting rate is 38

in his defence, he was ill though.

I got it to near 140 on the morning I was given a wheelchair to play in.

I’d put a 15bpm fluctuation on what is a low resting heart rate reading down to [insert some completely irrelevant and wonderless cause here like having a dream about a cabbage factory or being a bit warm].

Completely ignore it. That’s my advice. I am not a doctor.

As a matter of interest, what app, and how is it reading your heart rate?

+1, interested as well… 🙂

Mine jumped from 45 to ~60 when I was ill a month or so ago. It can be a sign of infection or inflammation. I’d rest a bit. It’s very rare that I get ill, so I thought I’d try some gentle training. I’m sure it knocked my recovery back a few days.

The point of monitoring your RHR is to identify early if you are ill or overdoing it. So use the early warning system ans as others have said ease off for a day or two and it should come back down. If you keep pushing on when your RHR is high then that’s when you do get ill.

If it was just the one day, I’d ignore it but it’s been two days. The app is called i9nstant heart rate. It works like a pulse ox metre by measuring the light of the flash through your finger using the adjacent camera lens. While perhaps not that accurate, I think it’s reliable enough for this purpose (ie, what’s my HR first thing in the morning).

Just downloaded this

http://www.instantheartrate.com/android_market_issues.jsp

How the hell does it get my HR from putting your finger on the camera?

Clever isn’t it!

The flow of blood in your finger tip will impact on the amount of light recorded by the camera lens. Just like the thing they clip on your finger in hospital.

I dunno how accurate this makes it, but it’s gives the same results as my blood pressure monitor when used one after the other.

That’s pretty good I’d say. It’s not actually a difficult thing to measure.

If you/ve got an iPhone, have a look at this[/url] – it’s an app called ithlete that measures HRV. Effectively it monitors your recovery state like a more sensitive and more sophisticated version of looking at RHR. Gives you a green, amber or red light, plots your levels over time etc. Takes some of the guesswork out of deciding how you feel and is brilliant if, like me, you have a tendency to ride yourself into a deep, dark, hole 😉

Is there an Android version?

My resting heartrate is normally in the 40’s also but now its around 51-52 but I am just getting over a chest infection after a course of antibiotics.

Is there an Android version?

Nope, they’re talking about doing one at some point, but right now it’s iPhone only. I find it really useful, it’s made me much more flexible about how hard I ride and when and it’s invariably right about how I go on the bike.

Is there an Android version?

search for “instant heart rate” free and seems to work ok. Mines 38 btw

I found one that gives instant reading but nothing that tracks.

op just take it easy till you feel better, light exercise only for me.

Thanks for all the advice guys. Found something yesterday evening that linked raised rhr to dehydration. Made a point if drinking more water last night and I’m pretty much back to where I was.

Pretty useful tool this rhr monitoring.

Thanks again.

I need one that tells me I have a low resting rate instead of the 70+ I wake up with. Any ideas?

Divide it by two? Are you measuring RHR standing up or still lying in bed? Or seated? Just standing up will raise it by about 10-20bpm, but it doesn’t really matter as long as you measure it consistently so you have a baseline. My RHR lying is around 40bpm, but standing up is closer to 60bpm. I only know this cos ithlete won’t really work with low RHRs, hence the standing. And a low RHR doesn’t mean you’re fit. I’m very average, but still low 40s, there’s a genetic element there as well. You’re almost certainly a lot fitter than me despite the whole heart rate thing.

I’ve stopped using my HRM now anyway, and gone back to my ludite ways.
I used a HRM extensively last year and had dreadful results. Though I’m sure proper coaching using a HRM would have produced good results.

Now it’s back to ‘if I’m feeling good and going faster it’s all okay’
Though I do use a wrist watch these days and not the clock on the kitchen wall.

Edit I’ll check my resting again Thursday, because I had a blinding session on the road Tuesday evening.

Found something yesterday evening that linked raised rhr to dehydration.

Apparently dehydration can raise your hr by 10bpm, although i can’t remember if this is resting hr or during exercise when you become dehydrated i.e during a marathon.

Well, a combination of taking out easier for a couple of days and making an effort to drink more seem to have done the trick. Feeling better in myself as well. Would have been so easy to mtfu and ride myself into a hole as I often do.

Just installed Instant Heart Rate on the iPhone – bloody magic! It’s like living in the future…

Its a bit addictive too *prepares to run phone battery down by checking hr lots* 😆

That’s the reason I check mine first thing in the morning with the phone plugged into the wall. It eats the battery.

Measuring your own pulse is never accurate. Biofeedback builds up and alters it. You think ” thats a bit fast” and it will speed up more.

Bored on night shifts I have wired myself up to non invasive monitoring – and now following practice I can vary my heart rate and Bp by 20% just by sitting and thinking about it

How high does it get during online battles? 😛