Tracking your resting heart rate can provide crucial guidance to how your body is reacting to additional training. It will also indicate whether you are resting enough.
How checking resting heart rate can help cyclists train better
By Barry Monaghan
BarryMonaghan.com, Performance Matters
These days there are any number of tools and devices to measure training; providing feedback on speed, distance, heart rate and power among many other key indicators.
Some of the newer GPS devices will even give a recommendation for how much recovery you need after a workout based on your averages for a session.
TrainingPeaks software uses a TSS (training stress score) which is a great indicator of the difficulty of the session based on your threshold. All of these devices and software are fantastic.
But there is another very simple, accurate measurement of your recovery after sessions that costs nothing and takes exactly 1 minute per day; less if you’re really lazy! You should measure your resting heart rate first thing every day.
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Remember the heart is a muscle like any other and the more aerobic training you do - as long as it’s measured and progressive - your heart grows stronger and more efficient.
By the way; strength training also has a very positive impact on the heart, as does keeping your general activity levels up.
There are four chambers in the heart, with the two bottom chambers called ventricles. It is the left ventricle that pumps the blood out. High-level endurance athletes will often have a very large left ventricle.
As you train the heart muscle increases in size leading to a stronger contraction and more oxygen-rich blood being pumped out per beat – this is called stroke volume.
As you get fitter your body’s ability to utilise this blood improves. The heart becomes more efficient.
A normal resting heart rate for an average person is 72 beats per minute. But for a very fit endurance athlete figures of 40 or below are quite common.
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Put simply, the heart has to work less to keep all your systems working effectively when it is strong and developed.
Okay, that’s the science bit over. So how does taking you resting heart rate work and how will it help?
When you wake first thing in the morning take your pulse at either the wrist (radial artery) or at the neck (carotid artery).
Take it for 60 secs and record the number.
If you went to bed with your heart rate monitor on (get a life) you will get an automatic score. So what does it mean?
A heart rate that is elevated 7-10 beats higher than normal may indicate that you have not recovered from your previous session and it may be wise to take an easier days training.
If heart rate is within 2-3 beats of your normal measurement, training at a good level that day should be ok.
Recording the number is very important because after a few weeks of data you will start to see trends emerging in your heart rate.
After a race or hard weekends training it will often be elevated.
A consistently higher than normal heart rate could indicate that you are heading into overtraining territory and a complete week of no training is recommended.
A decrease in resting heart rate over a period of time could indicate your fitness is beginning to improve and you are heading in the right direction – this is particularly noticeable in newcomers to training.
When you are at your best you will often see great consistency with your resting heart rate even with some heavy training or competition.
In short, this is a simple no cost fantastic tool to monitor adaption to training load and avoid fatigue and overtraining.
Remember the old saying: “Listen to your body”. Use this tool and become a wiser athlete.
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