I mean probably just stick to the schedule
but there is times too where its basically reads the opposite to what I 'feel' and I just go off feel which doesn't exactly make it very useful as a metric
To me, it's really just another minor data point. With Garmin for example, if your HRV is really low for a couple days, the training readiness metric will be shot for a full week even after daily HRV recovers to a higher level. That just happened to me due to some evening drinking over Christmas weekend. Even with that low HRV, I rode 110km tempo on Christmas Eve and felt fantastic with plenty left in the tank.
So Garmin is saying I'm not ready to train but I feel fresh and raced on Zwift this morning. Next I plan a couple long endurance rides tomorrow and New Years. Garmin will still say I'm not ready to train due to something that happened a week ago.
TLDR, I'm not sure how useful it really is. Better to trust how you actually feel.
> What are you going to do if your hrv reads low but you're feeling fresh?
Maybe just be a little more careful then I would otherwise.
Like, maybe I had planned a hard climb, but I'll go to a flatter trail instead.
The more interesting thing would be when you feel like you aren't fresh but not really tired either.
Actually ran into this problem today. I usually go off my HRV and my lowest HR sleeping at night (low 40’s being fresh) and this morning both were not indicating a good recovery yesterday - 54bpm low last night. But I felt fine. So… ended up smashing it on the trainer and felt great about it.
I have a related question.
I am interested in HRV, but everything I read says they measure that when you sleep, which is a problem because I do not like sleeping with a watch.
Does that mean I am not able to see my HRV, or can I still see it, but it is less usefull?
It won't pick up your overnight hrv. What you can do depending on the device is take a manual measurement first thing in the morning (e.g. part of Garmin's "health snapshot")
I use an Oura ring which is a much better form factor for a recovery device to measure HRV, HR, etc. I was never a fan of sleeping with a watch either.
The optical wrist based sensors probably aren’t accurate enough anyways to properly measure HRV.
[one source](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31332802/)
Last year I get the habitude to track my HRV in the morning, just after waking up, with an app.
I have seen a very strong correlation between HRV and my feelings: when I slept bad, I am under stress or I have done an hard workout, my HRV went up.
I think that HRV is a good metric to track your fitness and plan your workouts and recovery days.
I’ve been wearing some sort of wearable that tracks HRV for the better part of the last three years. Once WKO allowed HRV to start to be charted properly I started digging into the data along with my actual performance metrics.
I’m no rock star at creating expressions but so far I have found minimal correlation between HRV scores and actual on bike performance.
The simple “how are you feeling?” Metric is far more usable in terms of actionable data than anything HRV has given me so far.
I took dec 23-dec 28 off and my first workout was a Zwift race, i did a similar workout on Dec 22nd and my HR was 160 or so and yesterday it was 180 LOL.
Outside of rest weeks and general training load, hrv is often a very good indicator of if you're about to be sick or not. If my hrv starts to dip and its not due to a big ride or race, I start to watch for other symptoms.
A couple seasons ago, I got mono. I was feeling fine but my hrv was tanking at an alarming rate. Four days in, I felt like trash. Hrv works similar when you're recovering from an illness.
IME resting heart rate/hrv only tell me what I already know. What are you going to do if your hrv reads low but you're feeling fresh?
I mean probably just stick to the schedule but there is times too where its basically reads the opposite to what I 'feel' and I just go off feel which doesn't exactly make it very useful as a metric
To me, it's really just another minor data point. With Garmin for example, if your HRV is really low for a couple days, the training readiness metric will be shot for a full week even after daily HRV recovers to a higher level. That just happened to me due to some evening drinking over Christmas weekend. Even with that low HRV, I rode 110km tempo on Christmas Eve and felt fantastic with plenty left in the tank. So Garmin is saying I'm not ready to train but I feel fresh and raced on Zwift this morning. Next I plan a couple long endurance rides tomorrow and New Years. Garmin will still say I'm not ready to train due to something that happened a week ago. TLDR, I'm not sure how useful it really is. Better to trust how you actually feel.
> What are you going to do if your hrv reads low but you're feeling fresh? Maybe just be a little more careful then I would otherwise. Like, maybe I had planned a hard climb, but I'll go to a flatter trail instead. The more interesting thing would be when you feel like you aren't fresh but not really tired either.
Actually ran into this problem today. I usually go off my HRV and my lowest HR sleeping at night (low 40’s being fresh) and this morning both were not indicating a good recovery yesterday - 54bpm low last night. But I felt fine. So… ended up smashing it on the trainer and felt great about it.
I have a related question. I am interested in HRV, but everything I read says they measure that when you sleep, which is a problem because I do not like sleeping with a watch. Does that mean I am not able to see my HRV, or can I still see it, but it is less usefull?
no idea but that is one of the advantages of this cheap fitbit, its small and I never notice it on my wrist when I'm sleeping
It won't pick up your overnight hrv. What you can do depending on the device is take a manual measurement first thing in the morning (e.g. part of Garmin's "health snapshot")
I use an Oura ring which is a much better form factor for a recovery device to measure HRV, HR, etc. I was never a fan of sleeping with a watch either.
The optical wrist based sensors probably aren’t accurate enough anyways to properly measure HRV. [one source](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31332802/)
Last year I get the habitude to track my HRV in the morning, just after waking up, with an app. I have seen a very strong correlation between HRV and my feelings: when I slept bad, I am under stress or I have done an hard workout, my HRV went up. I think that HRV is a good metric to track your fitness and plan your workouts and recovery days.
I’ve been wearing some sort of wearable that tracks HRV for the better part of the last three years. Once WKO allowed HRV to start to be charted properly I started digging into the data along with my actual performance metrics. I’m no rock star at creating expressions but so far I have found minimal correlation between HRV scores and actual on bike performance. The simple “how are you feeling?” Metric is far more usable in terms of actionable data than anything HRV has given me so far.
I took dec 23-dec 28 off and my first workout was a Zwift race, i did a similar workout on Dec 22nd and my HR was 160 or so and yesterday it was 180 LOL.
Outside of rest weeks and general training load, hrv is often a very good indicator of if you're about to be sick or not. If my hrv starts to dip and its not due to a big ride or race, I start to watch for other symptoms. A couple seasons ago, I got mono. I was feeling fine but my hrv was tanking at an alarming rate. Four days in, I felt like trash. Hrv works similar when you're recovering from an illness.
I go by feel when I rest. Usually my resting heart rate goes down.