Anyway, since acquiring my new toy a couple of weeks ago I have been measuring my resting HR much more frequently than before. It did throw up a few unexpected results. First of all, resting HR dropped very quickly once I had recovered from my cold and went from about 50 all the way down to 43 a few days ago. I always associated such a low resting HR with being very fit, which clearly is not the case at the moment. My best guess is that my cardiovascular system is getting into pretty good shape already but my leg muscles and especially my endocrine system are lagging behind.
The other unexpected discovery was that there seems to be surprisingly little correlation between my resting HR when waking up and the HR at the subsequent run less than half an hour later. That day I measured 43? I ended up running slower than usual without a corresponding dip in HR. This morning, on the other hand, I awoke with a (very slight) headache and the resting HR was raised by a couple of beats yet the numbers during the run were the best yet since I started running again.
Anyway, as long as I can avoid getting sick again (my eldest son is off school with a flu right now and Niamh has started coughing again), things are definitely progressing, albeit slowly. I suppose running just under 50 easy miles a week doesn't fully build up my fitness, but the hope is that it will fully build up my recovery capacity, which had been completely wiped out by my overtraining last year and is the main focus right now.
The temperatures dropped again last night, which caught me by surprise (a long sleeved top would have been the better choice!), but as long as the roads remain ice free I love it just like that!
- 16 Jan
- 7 miles, 57:01, 8:08 pace, HR 148
- 17 Jan
- 7 miles, 57:07, 8:09 pace, HR 149
- 18 Jan
- 7 miles, 56:48, 8:06 pace, HR 149
- 19 Jan
- 7 miles, 55:54, 7:59 pace, HR 149
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