I’ve been noticing lately that my resting heart rate hasn’t been returning to normal after my work outs. Usually my resting heart rate sits at 50 bpm + or - a couple of beats (max ~192, LT 172). This isn’t my morning heart rate, but rather my heart rate if I am sitting on the couch before a run, etc. Any ways, if I go out for an hour easy run (120-130 bpm) I see can seem my heart rate go back to normal after a few minutes after finishing. Any time I do a longer, or harder work out it takes longer and only drops to about 60 when sitting down, and doesn’t really recover to 50 or so until the next morning. Is this normal or is this something I should be concerned about? This is the first time I have really noticed this happening. After 7 years, 5 IM’s, a hundred tris and 15 marathons I would think I would have a better feel for my body, but this has me a little curious. Is this just a normal result of hard training or what?
If I’m understanding you correctly it sounds normal to me. A tell tale sign that you are cooked is when after a workout it takes several minutes for your HR to go under 100. It’s not going to get close to your resting HR for a while though.
How long is a while and what should I expect in terms of recovery? Yesterday I did an 80 mile ride. Very windy (25 mph), very hot (90 +) and very hilly course. Also throw into the mix that I am about 12 pounds over race weight I watched my heart rate on the ride and averaged about 130. Got home and a few hours later it was still in the high 60’s / low 70’s. By bed time it was sitting at 60 if I was laying down watching TV. This morning back to 50 or so. I am thinking this is normal for hard training, but it would seem to me that many people here could verify this as well.
Sounds pretty normal to me.
FWIW my RHR is about 41-43 ish. After training if I check my HR a few hours afterwards while I’m watching tv and relaxing my hr is usually around 50 or so. It doesn’t drop to the 40s until after sleeping. The exception i’ve found (and don’t let this confuse you) is when I do a lot of high intensity work my hr gets really low even when I’m hanging out. I think what you’re seeing is totally normal.
Thanks for the responses.
I am fairly certain what I am experiencing is normal. On another similar note then- when should I be concerned? About 8 days ago I did a 12 mile run with some friends that was way faster than I should be doing right now. Flat out as fast as I could go for 12 miles. A few hours later I was at Target with the family and decided to check my blood pressure. BP good, but noticed my pulse was 99. Sat there a few minutes and checked it again- same thing. Stayed that way all night until bed time. Got up and everything was normal again. That seems really high to me. Could this have been do to just being cooked, dehydration, lack of rest, etc? This one event is probably what made me conscious of all this to begin with. Probably no big deal, but it is a little scary.
“when should I be concerned?”
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- Concerned is a harsh word. When your resting pulse (lying down first thing before getting out of bed or even moving) is elevated by maybe 8% or more, it just means you need to recover and should hammer that day.
“About 8 days ago I did a 12 mile run with some friends that was way faster than I should be doing right now. Flat out as fast as I could go for 12 miles.”
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- If you could sustain for 12 miles without falling over, then it wasn’t “way” faster than you should be going. Sounds like a breakthrough workout to me. You get in better and better shape by pushing your body farther and farther, harder and harder, until you’re on the verge of a physical collaps (overtrained) and then recovering. A hard 12-miler is a great way to improve fitness, although not on a daily basis. But you should be doing 2 or three breakthrough workouts a week at this time of year (unless you’re southern hemisphere)
“A few hours later I was at Target with the family and decided to check my blood pressure. BP good, but noticed my pulse was 99. Sat there a few minutes and checked it again- same thing. Stayed that way all night until bed time.”
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- Yep, means you had a great workout running that 12-miler.
“Got up and everything was normal again.”
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- That sounds like you could have pushed the 12-miler a little harder!!
“That seems really high to me. Could this have been do to just being cooked, dehydration, lack of rest, etc? This one event is probably what made me conscious of all this to begin with. Probably no big deal, but it is a little scary.”
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- Don’t be frightened by this. When you start peaking your fitness, there should be days when you feel thoroughly toasted like you couldn’t run hard if a bear was chasing you. Those days you should spin easy for 30 minutes or swim some laps. Then do some stretching and/or yoga. If you never feel sore or worn out after workouts (sometimes for several days if the workout in question was a long race) then you’re going too easy on yourself.
If I really push things on a long brick or after a long race (HIM for me), I will experience this same thing. Usually not until the next morning until things normalize. Not knowing your routines and what changes in intensity you’ve made, it would seem to me that these could result in this change.
I was thinking this was the case. I am starting to ramp up for IMWI and I have probably been increasing the volume way too fast this year due to my late start. Been battling injuries for the last year and am not in good shape. Still thinking that I can get enough in to be ready for the race even though I have essentially no base yet. Probably just a result of too much too soon.
I get the same thing after races and big workouts - did an Olympic a couple of weeks ago and put my HRM on for the journey home to see how I was doing (this was several hours after the race finished - packing up bike, cheering on a few buddies, etc). Pulse was over 100 for the whole drive home and didn’t drop into double digits until after I’d had a little powernap when I got back. Even then it was over 60 whenever I checked that evening (normally gets comfortably into the 40s when sitting on the couch).
Wouldn’t worry about it - it seems totally normal for me and I’ve always recovered fine eventually. Seems to be worse if I train hard or race when carrying a bit of a cold or similar, or when I’m coming back to fitness after a period of slacking off. In fact right now my HR is high 50s/low 60s (should be 40s) after I slightly overcooked my ride yesterday - cycled to visit a friend, thought it was about 60 miles on the map, turned out to be nearer 80 plus headwind, hills and heat the whole way, and I hadn’t packed enough nutrition or left early enough so had to hammer it to try and get there in time for lunch!
Thanks for the insight. Looks like we had similar days yesterday :).
It’s normal. I have tracked this from time to time, because I believe it is a fairly good measure of how hard the workout was for me. If it takes more than an hour post-workout for my HR to drop below 80, then it was quite hard. If you’re trying to judge your recovery and make decisions about whether to do a second workout that day, how hard to go the next day, etc., it seems to me that you’re looking at useful information.
Sounds like overtraining to me. We all know how to work hard, but not how to rest. If you go hard or anaerobic the next day you need to stay below LT. You need active recovery days, which helps flush lactic acid more than just doing nothing. During recovery time, your body builds and repairs, plus rejuvenates. Working hard all the time is not going to get you fit faster. If you’re heart rate doesn’t go back down to normal than you are over training! Period. You’ll find if you take a nice active recovery day, which means riding so easy you can have a conversation the whole time and ride no more than 10 heart beats above that the next day, you’ll be ready to rock n’ roll by the third. Try it. You’ll like it. The longer time you workout without active recovery, the longer you’ll need to recover. We know how to listen to ouselves when we work hard, but not know when to recover. Going hard twice a week is all you need!