Can a HRM measure recovery?

nobody? i'll only bump this once, i swear.

I think I've read that you can use your morning heart rate as an indicator of how tired you are. If it's higher than normal, you need an easy day.

I'm no expert though, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

You just need to establish what your normal resting heart rate is (when you're not particularly fatigued from a workout, perhaps after a few easy days). If you check your RHR in the morning and it's up from its normal level by 5-10+ beats, then you're probably not ready for a workout that day.

Do a rusko test. Lie down for 8-10 minutes. Take your HR at the end of the 8-10 min period. Stand up and remain standing for 2 minutes. Take your hr after the 2 minutes.

Your Rusko score is:

(0.1xHR@10min) + (0.3xHR@2min standing)

If your score goes up, you're not ready to do intensity. If it's the same or comes down, you're ready to rock and roll.

Finnish XC skiers have based all their training over the past 2 years on this. They have set up a software program to give a "green light" if the rusko score is low and a "red light" if it's high. Green light means they do intervals. Red light they go easy.

jT

awesome! that's just the kid of thing i was looking for. i assume that, if i just woke up, i wouldn't need to wait 8-10 minutes before taking my lying-down HR. sound good? or would doing it right after waking throw off the test?

Check out some of the Suunto products. At one time its website had some papers from Rusko that show some potential.

HR itself would be of little use, but look at HR variability might give an indication.

There is no reliable method to judge your recovery by HR.

Back in the old days that was the theory, just use the a.m. rate, or compare the resting with the standing etc, but those approaches were quite wrong. It sounds like you need to improve your sleep quality and get yourself into a regualar pattern. Even if you aren't a morning person, get out and do something, to lock in your circadian rhythm. If you are intent on this late schedule throughout grad school, that's fine, but don't expect to feel good in the mornings.

dsrunner wrote:

It sounds like you need to improve your sleep quality and get yourself into a regualar pattern. Even if you aren't a morning person, get out and do something, to lock in your circadian rhythm. If you are intent on this late schedule throughout grad school, that's fine, but don't expect to feel good in the mornings.

what late schedule? i get ~8 hours of sleep a night. as far as i know, my sleep quality is fine- i would, if left to my own devices, sleep from 1am to 9am; because of school, i sleep from 11pm to 7am.

the thing is, i'm not sleepy when i get up. i have no trouble getting out of bed, staying awake, or getting out the door for my run. the only problem is that, when i run this early, i NEVER (not even after 3+ miles of easy running) feel like i'm ready for a hard workout. whenever i get the chance to run in the afternoon, i know in less than a mile whether i'm ready for a workout or whether i need an easy day.

i just need some quantitative way to determine if i'm recovered, since my innate "overtraining sense" doesn't seem to work in the a.m.

dsrunner wrote:

There is no reliable method to judge your recovery by HR.

Back in the old days that was the theory, just use the a.m. rate, or compare the resting with the standing etc, but those approaches were quite wrong. It sounds like you need to improve your sleep quality and get yourself into a regualar pattern. Even if you aren't a morning person, get out and do something, to lock in your circadian rhythm. If you are intent on this late schedule throughout grad school, that's fine, but don't expect to feel good in the mornings.

There is research being done looking at the R-R interval and the variability. It goes beyond just counting beats.