Tuesday 19 February 2008

Bread, Butter and Bradycardia

After my two days rest I checked my heart rate to make sure I was fully recovered.  My resting heart-rate is now 36 beats per minute.  I have always had a very low (bradycardic) heart rate but 36 is even a new low for me.  I took a look at the internet and found that the only people with lower heart rates are Kenyans and bodies in the morgue.  They also advice to go straight to the hospital and do not pick up £200 for passing go.  Don't believe everything you read on the internet.... I feel fine... Anyway I thought I would ask everyone who reads this to post their resting heart rate to get an idea of what everyone is.  Wait until you wake up in the morning and without getting up take your pulse for a full minute.  Do the full minute cause it is more accurate.  Then post to here as a comment. 

Clustrmap

I have also added the Clustrmaps application to my Blog (on the right) which tells me what location people are from that visit the blog.  So hi to the American, Australian and someone from Central Europe.  Perhaps they visited by accident, oops.  I also have a few visits from the UK but I think I know who most of you are.  Post a comment, say hi or post your resting heart rate.  Thank you.  Okay on to the training then.

So after the weekends lovely run it was back to normal club training.  Tonight was long reps and it is more often than not around the winter warm up track.  On a plus side none of the fast guys were there tonight.  The first time around the 800m (0.51m) route felt quite easy but then Stephen M turned up and that meant that the rest would be faster.  All of them were with a 1 minute recovery.

2:51, 2:45, 2:41, 2:41, 2:42, 2:45, 2:40

9 comments:

ianbeattie1 said...

Marco, my resting pulse is normally about 43. I haven't checked it for a while first thing in the morning - I can't see the clock without my contact lenses, and by the time I've put them in I'm no longer at rest!

John Kynaston said...

Marco

My resting pulse was 54 this morning which I took at 6.45am lying in bed before I got up.

I may take it once a month until THE race to see if it changes much.

John

Brian Mc said...

I forgot to check mine and don't hold hope of remembering in the morning. A night of baby induced sleep deprivation plays havoc with one's ability to remember to do things.

The last time I had it measured my resting heart rate was 47.

My mum was bradycardic (HR of 36) and had a pace maker fitted!

Stephen Mulrine said...

Mine was 56 first thing this morning and 54 just now. Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain had a resting pulse as low as 29.

Anonymous said...

Hi Marco, I have read that while having a lower resting heart rate is a common side effect of gaining good aerobic fitness, there doesn't seem to be any significant health or performance benefit associated with it. While everyone marvels at elite endurance athletes who have resting heart rates in the 30s, there are just as many elite athletes with resting heart rates in the high 50s. Similarly, an athlete's ability level isn't tied to his or her maximum heart rate either.

Marco Consani said...

Hi everyone,
Thank you for all your posts so far. It is amazing that there is so much difference in the resting heart rate between us all. I know that mine fluctuates if I have had a hard training run or even if I haven't been eating/drinking right. (or drinking full stop) I did worry a bit when I saw that Brian Mc said his mum had to get a pacemaker fitted... eeek.
I am reading Lore of Running at the moment and it talks about Vo2 Max. It says that the fitter you are the higher your Vo2 but it also says interesting enough that between elite athletes there is a large difference between their Vo2 max. So it really must mean that you not only need a high Vo2 max but there is also a lot more factors to include. Running economy, resting and max HR, mental attitude. So an elite athlete must have just the right qualities of all of these and us mere mortals are lucky if we have one.
I also agree with what Johnboy is saying that although being fit affects your resting heart rate it doesnt seem to have any advantages. It seems to just mean that you have a stronger heart muscle that can pump more blood in each pump or like Brian Mc said, something wrong..eeek. I have noticed that although my resting HR is slow my max HR doesn't go as high as other people.

Brian Mc - After a night with a baby I would think you would be lucky to have a resting HR under 90...

Ian B - How is your black eye? Would that also be affecting your sight?

Stephen and John have nearly the same HR even although one is a track runner and one specialises in ultras. Although Stephen did long distance when he was younger. Not sure why Stephens HR is lower in his work. He must have a great stress free job (or maybe his Salmon sandwich did the trick)

Thomas said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Thomas said...

To add to the confusion:
My resting HR is probably about 50 my HR max is still above 180. Despite my 44 Years on this planet.
Silke however (my beloved wife) has a resting HR closer to the 40s. Although I dare to say she does not do as much sport as I do.
About HR and performance: I am quite certain that my preformance HR has dropped. That while running the same speed as 6 month ago my HR is lower now. In numbers (and miles) I can run 8 minute miles with a HR below 130. Six month ago that HR was above 135 for the same speed.
On the other hand it becomes more difficult to reach the HR max.

Thog said...

I have always had an extremely low RHR as well. I wonder if this might be somehow genetic, as both my father and my mother's father had remarkably low heart rates. I run 4 to 5 miles per day, about 5 times per week- though I would not describe myself as an "elite" athlete by any means. A physical examination I had this morning prompted me to google search for low resting heart rates-(how I found this site). I am 5' 11" and 195 pounds. After being quite surprised at my slow heart rate (she had to check twice!) My nurse remarked that my pulse was 26 bpm and that I had a very strong beat. Blood pressure of 110/80. I have measured my pulse as low as 19 bpm, but I don't attribute this to be because of my athleticism.