I'm curious what RHR tells you? Why doeos it matter what RHR is? Honest questions, I really would like to know.

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Damon Rinard
Engineering Manager,
CSG Road Engineering Department
Cannondale & GT Bicycles
(ex-Cervelo, ex-Trek, ex-Velomax, ex-Kestrel)

Really? Seriously? You want to get it lower? What on earth for? Your RHR is just fine where it is - have some perspective, your RHR is far far below the average. Your heart is probably healthier than 95% of the population.

FWIW mine is about the same as yours. I have found that it doesn't vary much based on my fitness level.

Maybe worry about your hip problem first.

Don't mean to sound like a jerk (ok maybe a little) but I'm just really surprised that you think your RHR needs to get any lower than it already is, and in the same breath you are dismissing a nagging hip injury.

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Oh believe me I'm not dismissing the hip problem! I work on it everyday, I'm just at the point of frustration with it/cursing it. I need to get it better so I can train properly, and it is my first priority.

Just wondered how, as I train (and obviously I will train for my goal races before I'll train for RHR), and as my hip gets better (which it is doing), what sort of workouts give best bang for my buck in terms of RHR.

:)

Losing weight is also a higher priority - I'm a slow pudgesicle right now, which is more of a problem than my RHR. But I like multiple goals to work for.

I just want it lower b/c I think if I can have a 40bpm RHR now, what can I get it too when I'm fit? Curiousity, and of course I want to make sure I continue to beat the bf in RHR ;)

Damon, I think RHR mostly is a measure of heart health and fitness. The fitter you are, the lower it is (generally).

You're approaching your lower limit, I doubt you'll see it drop more than a few, maybe 5bpm. Losing weight will take care of that, maybe just work on that (and your hip) for now and see how it goes in 6 months...

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

No it's not. A much better measure of fitness is how quickly your HR drops back to normal when you stop exercise. In the lab they look at 30 and 60 second numbers. If you go from 140 to 90 in 60 seconds you're fitter than someone who goes from 140 to 100 (assuming you both have the same RHR).

I agree w/AP, work on the hip.
clm

The resting heart rate is affected by:

• age
• sex (men are lower usually)
• physical fitness
• some drugs/medication
• genetics
• anxiety

Some people simply have a higher/lower resting heart rate that cannot be attributed to any specific cause. Many scientific studies have shown that a resting heart rate really isn’t an effective way of measuring the health of a person.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I'd be happy with 35bpm! And losing weight will also help my hip, make me less injury prone, and improve my speed as well. I've dropped some weight and already seen an improvement in my speed (though I'm still slow).

I've also stopped running with my dogs so much as I realized they throw my gait off, and that's helping the hip as well. One dog is a great runner, but lazy as all get out, so he doesn't care, and the other dog who likes running is just a horrible runner so we stuck to slow short distances anyways. Who'd figure a Husky mix could suck at running so much? He's iceberg slow by my standards, so that's saying something :) Hee hee...

Just please don't think that 35bpm as a RHR is actually going to make a lick of difference in your performance, it likely won't. If I see you write this as one of your goals for 2010, I'm gonna be pissed... ;-)

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Oh, I don't think it'll make any difference whatsoever in my performance.

But since I'm only 2bpm lower than my bf right now, if he lowers his, to keep winning (not that this is a competition, but since I'm winning, it totally is), I need to lower mine. That and I just want to see what I can get it to, but I don't think it'll make me a better runner or triathlete or anything like that.

(My bf says mine is lower than his because he's 10 years older than me....excuses, excuses! ;) )

Teags- when and how are you taking your RHR? I've found mine to vary daily, depending on the temperature , weather, amount I slept, what day of the week, stress level, not to mention the ~1-3bpm error on whatever device you are using, maybe more if you switch devices!

If you are hell-bent on monitoring your improvement, I would take your RHR every 2-3 days and log it, along with your mood, how much sleep you got, date, time, etc.

As trackie suggested, taking your recovery HR while exercising is (in my experience) a much better indicator of fitness level and improvement. Perhaps, during your 12-16k runs when you add the walk breaks you can run a steady 10-20 min at an aerobic HR, then starting walking and see how quickly you can drop to 100bpm. Do several repeats, and do this "benchmark" workout once a week.

To agree with the others, fixing the hip injury first will allow you to train longer, and thus in turn may decrease your RHR, although I think yours is extremely low and you shouldn't worry too much about it!

I wore my heart rate monitor overnight and measured it on the Garmin. That's a good idea to measure it regularly and track how well I slept, etc. I actually only woke up a couple of times last night which is really good for me, so that probably impacted it.

I am going to start measuring my recovery heart rate after exercise too. I'm actually not too fussed about it from a fitness perspective, though from a beating my bf perspective, I'm all over it :) Maybe I can start beating him in my recovery times too.

In terms of the hip, I did 10.5 tonight steady with no pain, which is a big deal for me! So I am THRILLED! It's slowly but surely improving :)

This makes absolutely no sense to me at all. What would be the benefit of this? Bragging rights? Work out more effectively and beat him in a race. Wanting to have the lowest RHR is a stupid goal.

However, I have a new goal for this year. I want to reduce my shoe size. My wife's feet are smaller, but I want to be able to throw my new size 5's in her face every opportunity I get. I know it won't help my performance, but I just want to see what I can get them to...

Brad

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3SIXTY5cycling.com

You can borrow her heels. You'll look lovely in platforms.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

agreed.....and well said.

RHR is a number. a measurement. a single data point. without context, it has no meaning.

X2.

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS