Hello, I recently have had this strange phenomenon start occurring to me (as I’ve read about on this site). I sent the below message to endurancelist today and was wondering if you guys had any thoughts on the subject.
Hello all. I am training for my first half ironman and am about 7
weeks out from the event. I train with a heart rate monitor and over
the last couple weeks have noticed that it is getting extremely
difficult to get my HR up into zones 4 and 5. Yesterday I had trouble
keeping it in zone 3. My performance seems to be doing well, as my
speeds feel quite normal (or improving). My resting HR is in its
normal area, and I don’t feel any other symptoms of overtraining. Has
anyone else had this happen to them before? Is it possibly a sign of
over reaching? This is my second year in the sport and I currently
train from 10-13 hours a week (half of that on recovery weeks). Any
thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
I’m there too…
Before my base my MHR was 196 and 5k av. HR was 189. Now I can’t ever get my HR over 180 and 160 feels way above threshold.
I did an all out 3k last week and averaged 172 for the duration - I thought this very low!
I assume it’s because I’m boing little or no Intervals - which I will be addressing soon … But would also love to know if there is annother reason.
No way… only in select sets, and that’s selected intervals. Most of my training now is Z1-2, with some longer steady state Z3 efforts, with a little bit of Z4-5 thrown in now and then.
I am not an expert…so take this from what I think I know vs. gospil. It seems two things seem to be glaring when you are in a state of overtraining (not necessarily both, but often both)…elevated resting HR for acute overtraining (meaning you rode hard the last few days, so your resting HR is high due to the efforts of the recent past) or difficulty achieving a higher HR during training (which is more of a sign of chronic or longer term overtraining…so maybe over a couple of weeks or more…a constant barrage of efforts without recovery or not enough recovery). The other thing is the most obvious thing and I know it would be what I would like to see in myself…maybe you’re just more fit now (but I have a feeling you have thought that on through).
Last…maybe your max isn’t your max…so perhaps you should go get tested and find your AT and make HR zones around your AT vs. off of your max. That’s really why people want to find their max anyway…to find the zone that best represents where the AT and VO2 Max is…
I won’t be checking this post for a while, but thought it might get some experts (physiologists) to give a little more feedback.
Thanks for the words. I actually do self conducted LT tests so don’t go off max HR. I also did consider that maybe I simply have gained fitness. This is my first attempt at long course triathlon, so maybe my body isn’t as used to going really hard anymore. Regardless, I think I’m going to take it really easy this week, do a sprint Saturday, then ease back in next week with half volume. Then I will see where that puts me.
Lower than normal HR could also just be a sign u need to take a few days off n rest. Its called parasympathetic response to overtraining i believe. i had it before my last rest week
Thanks Will, that’s encouraging. I’m hoping my next-to-nothing week this week will shift things back around, as it’s supposed to be a recovery week anyway. Glad to hear yours is back to normal after doing so.
