Low heart rate at end or start of runs

Same issue, it was a crappy heartrate monitor (wrist). Use heart rate strap.

Dear God, I'm sick of people trying to reason by heart rate. You freaking know what easy feels like and what hard feels like. JUST RUN and throw the dang thing away.

Do you think Bekele broke World Records using a heart rate monitor? No. Do you think Roger Banister broke the 4 minute barrier training with a heart rate monitor? No. Did Zapotek wear a heart rate monitor to gauge difficulty during workouts? No. JUST RUN.

This is why Kenyans have historically (and maybe still do?) rely on feel of the effort. Don't take your HR monitor's reading, trust your body. if you feel crappy it is likely overtraining. Just take a couple or few days easy to see improvement. If you are fit that should be all your body really needs to recover (unless you are habitually racing and are burned out).

I do just run at what feels right for the session, I never work to certain heart rates when I'm running but I just also have the heart rate data after the fact so thought it was worth looking at. Possibly a waste of time, but I thought it might be an indicator of something. I have access to years of data that have never shown this previously and I know what normal looks like for me.

I'm a strong believer that if you have access to data you may as well use it, even if you just end up ruling it out as showing anything in the long run.

It's not a question about whether I should run to heartrate, it was just a simple question about whether anyone else has seen anything similar which douglas has. Thanks douglas.

I haven't had that problem with a heart rate monitor, but I echo some of the other sentiment on this thread. Bad (or even slightly inaccurate) heart rate data might warp your perspective on a run. Feel and pace should be your sole indicators of a run's quality, IMHO. People I've run with who rely heavily on HRMonitors often told me that they'd mess up races by going too hard or too slow, even without monitors during the race. I always believed that this was because they never developed a really strong feel for their pace and body's natural signals to slow down or speed up.

Low and Slow wrote:

I do just run at what feels right for the session, I never work to certain heart rates when I'm running but I just also have the heart rate data after the fact so thought it was worth looking at. Possibly a waste of time, but I thought it might be an indicator of something. I have access to years of data that have never shown this previously and I know what normal looks like for me.

I'm a strong believer that if you have access to data you may as well use it, even if you just end up ruling it out as showing anything in the long run.

It's not a question about whether I should run to heartrate, it was just a simple question about whether anyone else has seen anything similar which douglas has. Thanks douglas.

Heart rate monitors aren’t gospel. If there is any light fluctuations in an optical (wrist) HRM or if your skin isn’t wet/conductive enough for the chest strap, the data will be crazy and inaccurate. Sorry I was rude above, but it’s perennial question that is beaten to death and there are tons of similar threads found via a quick search.

Confirm crappy HR monitor. Even the “good”readings suggest that it’s probably getting your cadence instead, or else at 160bpm you are WAY overtaxing yourself for an easy run. You can try to troubleshoot it, but i think that’s probably an exercise in frustration. Get a chest strap, or just turn off the OHR during your run.

I've trained with heart rate for years, both with a chest strap and the wrist based. Chest strap is way more accurate, but I believe if you use the wrist based and have a baseline the accurate of the number shouldn't matter. Unless you're using it for work outs basing it off that number. from what I read that's not what you're using it for.

I think heart rate is great for general data. if you know your heart rate is always at 155 like you said and you noticed that way off like you're easy runs you can't keep at 155. you're hitting 165 or so. You might be over trained or getting sick. The actual number doesn't matter just the baseline.

If you think logically and analysis your effort. I would think it's a glitch with your monitor, because I haven't heard of that ever happening. being good at 155 then dropping to 110 unless your effort dropped the same amount. most of the time your heart rate will creep up slightly through out the run. It sounds like it didn't pick up every heart beat. Throw on a chest strap and I would guess it would fix itself. Get back to me if you do that and it does the same. let us know the effort and it correlates to the heart rate as well.

Ignore all these morons complaining about you using a heart rate monitor It has saved my a$$ a couple of times from pushing too hard during the tapering phase, and taking a extra day off. you can do it without a heart rate monitor, but some people like me have a hard time listening to our bodies, the data can help convince me what my body is trying to tell me.

Following this thread.

Something similar happens to me on long slow runs: on a 20-miler at ~90 seconds/mile over marathon pace, my heart rate will be in the 140s for the first 15 miles or so, then often drift *down* into the 110-120s over the last few miles while I run even pace.

I find this very weird because the effort feels about the same while it happens, maybe mildly increasing at the end of these run. Is this a thing?

Premaster Cycle wrote:

Following this thread.

Something similar happens to me on long slow runs: on a 20-miler at ~90 seconds/mile over marathon pace, my heart rate will be in the 140s for the first 15 miles or so, then often drift *down* into the 110-120s over the last few miles while I run even pace.

I find this very weird because the effort feels about the same while it happens, maybe mildly increasing at the end of these run. Is this a thing?

No. The heart is a fuel pump. Your muscles can only sustain efforts your heart can keep up with. If your heart rate really dropped like that during a sustained effort you would either(1) rapidly slow down to avoid lactic build up or (2) rapidly have lactic build up, then cramp and be forced to stop.

You almost certainly have a fault hr monitor.

I'm a little more concerned than the other posters on this thread.

Yes, a faulty heart rate monitor could be the issue. I'd check it the old-fashioned way, next time you get a weird reading, simply by stoping and taking your pulse for 10-15 sec.

But you also say that you're feeling crappy on your runs, and that makes me think it's more likely something real is going on. I remember reading about this a few years ago in the triathlon literature, where it was being discussed as a symptom of severe, prolonged overtraining.

I don't remember the science of that well enough to restate it here--nor am I sure it wan't hokum. But the fact your'e feeling consistently "crappy" but not talking about taking time off does sound like you might be at least courting overtraining, and possibly already well into an overtraining cycle.

P.S. I tried to do a little Googling, but only found this:

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/808284

It's not quite the same thing, but tracks with my vague memory that persistent overtraining can make the body have difficulty reaching maximum heart rate (or anywhere close to it). It an also link to overtraining-induced aerial fibrulation, a problem that I know is real because a friend of mine has had multiple ablations for it.

Again, this may simply be a faulty heart rate monitor. But if your heart rate really does fall like that at the end of exercise, I'd take some rest time AND consult a doctor. As I said in my first post, feeling "crappy" all the time in training runs is a very strong sign of overtraining.

Also, you could wear both and see how they compare.

Low and Slow wrote:

I've been feeling pretty crappy on my runs recently and been seeing some weird things on my heartrate readings. My heartrate will happily be chugging along at 150-160ish and then towards the end of the run will just drop down to about 100-110 and stay there. Happens mostly on longer runs. Recordings were fine until the last few weeks. Resting Hr is 60ish and max is 190ish.

Also had a couple of harder efforts where I'd expect to be at around 180 and it takes like 2 miles to get above 110 and then never really gets as high as I'd expect.

Anyone else had anything similar? Crappy heartrate monitor (it's on my wrist) or something to pay attention to?

bro i had the same problem, i was wearing the watch too loose. try tightening it (alot) and wear the watch a little above your wrist.

I've hard stopped all running due to the fact I feel crappy literally all the time, not just when running. Not ran for 2 weeks now and have a doctors appointment booked. I don't feel like I was training for long enough or hard enough for it to be severe over-training though, I was only 10 weeks into my cycle when I started feeling really bad and about 8 weeks in when I noticed the weird heartrate. Some type of overtraining was what I guessed though might be unrelated to running, there's been a lot of virus' about this year, though a month and a half is a long time to feel bad from a virus!

I'll report back after the appointment and if that doesn't find anything I'll try with a chest strap once I feel better and see if I can replicate the issue. I think a dodgy monitor reading is most likely.

Thanks for the responses.

Good luck. HRM aren't medical devices do Dr.'s appointment seems like a good idea.

Low and Slow wrote:

I do just run at what feels right for the session, I never work to certain heart rates when I'm running but I just also have the heart rate data after the fact so thought it was worth looking at. Possibly a waste of time, but I thought it might be an indicator of something. I have access to years of data that have never shown this previously and I know what normal looks like for me.

I'm a strong believer that if you have access to data you may as well use it, even if you just end up ruling it out as showing anything in the long run.

It's not a question about whether I should run to heartrate, it was just a simple question about whether anyone else has seen anything similar which douglas has. Thanks douglas.

I'm a strong believer that too much data causes overanalysis, undue stress, and makes simple things complicated. Heart Rate data is over information when it comes to training and performing at a high level. Learn to run by feel.