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Dramatic drop in avgHR and maxHR

rgreenberg2000
9 months ago

55 year old male who is getting back into running after some injury and health related time away.  I was a competitive runner through high school, fitness runner off/on through my 20's, and pretty steadily since my mid-30's.  LONG layoff, so I'm re-entering slowly having experience with the injuries that can occur by getting started at higher pace/longer run than the body is ready for.

Anyway, that's some background.  I've been back at it for a few months (mostly VERY slow treadmill jogs/runs), and started a 5k program from Garmin about six weeks ago just to add some structure to my workouts.  Up until my last two workouts, I have always had an avgHR of 145 (+/-3) and a maxHR of 165 (+/-3) for my workouts.  My last two workouts, run at slightly faster pace than previously, but similar distance, elevations, etc. I have had an avgHR of 123/121 and a maxHR of 156/154.  Now, as much as I'd like to chalk that up as a sign that I'm getting fitter, it seems to me that fitness comes more gradually than a 20 beat drop in avgHR from one run to the next.  It's also worth noting that the last two workouts were done in 90'ish (F) heat versus some cooler 70's/80's runs prior to that.

I'm not really hung up on the specifics numbers when it comes to HR, run power, cadence, V02Max, etc, but I do like to use their trends as an indicator of my progress.  Hence why I thought I'd come here and ask if anyone here thinks this is just normal, or I should get a couple more runs in to see what the data is, or if this might be an indicator of an issue with the HR sensor.

FWIW, I'm using a FR965 that is about four weeks old, running 19.18 software, and I've been a Garmin user for run and bike for a long time.

Thanks for any thoughts y'all might have!

RG

  • 0 9 months ago

    I would chalk it up to probably sensor error if it was just using the optical(?).  HR depending on run can vary for me 10-15bpm at the same pace.  Tiredness can make it lower sometimes... but if stiff/sore/tired often will be higher due to form(?).  TIme of day / temperature / mood /etc all play into it.  BUT - having warmer conditions and lower HR... usually not a thing.  Had read that redder / tanner skin from heat can effect sensor a bit, makes it harder to get reading... same with when very cold outside.

    When using optical you need to take each day with a grain of salt sort of, watch for longer term trends... since one run can be complete junk data.  However... usually its more alarming and clearly wrong... jumping and/or with clearly no correlation of pace vs HR.

  • 0 9 months ago in reply to NickMN

    Thanks for the reply, Nick!

    You are probably right that it was an anomaly of some sort, and, yes, just using the optical.  The only reason I posted was that it occurred on two consecutive activities, and just seemed oddly out of bounds for a normal variation.  As you noted, there are all sorts of variables that could affect my actual HR, as well as the HR that the sensor is reporting.

    I've decided to just chalk it up to being more fit than I was six weeks ago, and soldier on! :)

    Apropos of nothing, similar run yesterday yielded a maxHR of 146 and an avgHR of 137 (this run was longer than previous, so that factored in as I watched my HR zone increase throughout.

    Now, if I can figure out how to get my brain to stop comparing my running ability now to the times I could run in high school, I'll be even happier! :)

    RG

  • 0 9 months ago

    Were you sweating more than usually? Maybe the watch was moving more than usually on your arm? Also worth to look into the cadence, if it look similar to the hr trend (within the workout) then it's probably a cadence lock

  • 0 9 months ago in reply to flocsy🤠

    I wasn't sweating abnormally more, at least enough so that I'd remember it.  I just looked back, and weather appears to be reasonably similar.  I wasn't familiar with cadence lock, so I had to look that one up! :) Looking at the data, there's no obvious correlation between my HR and cadence information from either of the "low" activities.

    Like I said above, I'm just going to assume that I'm fitter than I was (true regardless of the HR data), and just keep running!  :)

    Thanks!

    RG