Can tracking heart rate variability make you a better cyclist?

Heart rate variability (HRV) is not just a fancy tech term; it just might be the secret sauce to optimizing your rides and enhancing your overall performance. While it can be overwhelming to see yet another cycling performance metric, HRV is a relatively simple way to gain valuable insights into your training. Here’s what you need to know and how to get started.

Heart rate variability decoded

The concept of HRV is simple: it measures the variation in time between heartbeats. But why should you care about the intervals between your heartbeats? That variability is like a sneak peek into your body’s autonomic nervous system, revealing whether you’re in fight-or-flight mode (stressed) or rest-and-digest mode (relaxed).

Here’s the magic—a higher HRV (i.e., more variation in the time between heartbeats) indicates your body is better equipped to handle stress and adapt to the demands of your training. By contrast, a lower HRV (i.e., the time between heartbeats is more uniform) may signal fatigue, overtraining or illness, urging you to take it easy. It may sound counterintuitive, but think of it as your body’s way of either waving a caution flag or giving you the green light for that ambitious ride.

Why try it?

Imagine having a personal coach analyzing your body’s readiness for each ride—HRV does that job for you. It’s your backstage pass to understanding how well you’ve recovered from the previous day’s workout and whether you’re ready to conquer the track, or whether you actually need a well-deserved rest day.

By harnessing the power of HRV, you can fine-tune your training plan, preventing burnout and injuries: it’s not about pushing harder; it’s about training smarter. “Measuring our resting heart rate and HRV first thing in the morning or during the night can provide us with a useful indication of our body’s stress response,” Dr. Marco Altini, an athlete, scientist and specialist in HRV, said in a recent article in the Guardian.

how I use HRV4T data

– consistent measurements over multiple months (same time, same place, same body position (seated)
– look at long term (30+ day) trends & short term (if multiple consecutive days of bad recovery)
– remember this = life + training stress

h/t @altini_marco pic.twitter.com/5uHbrDH5Pv

— gcs (@35gcs) January 22, 2024

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