Heart Rate During Illness

[rob9771]

I use a heart rate monitor on all training rides and sort of developed a habit of keeping it on for the entire day. I saw from this how long it took for my heart rate to fall back to its normal depending on how hard the training was. I also found how a little bit of stress or anxiety can raise the heart rate and a few breathing exercises can reduce it. I have also found that a rise in body temperature of 1 degree can increase heart rate by 10bpm. This week I have been suffering with a chest infection and have had an elevated resting rate of about 25bpm above normal.

Has anyone else tracked heart rate to the extremes or noticed unusual patterns ?

 

[FrankBattle]

I use a heart rate monitor on all training rides and sort of developed a habit of keeping it on for the entire day. I saw from this how long it took for my heart rate to fall back to its normal depending on how hard the training was. I also found how a little bit of stress or anxiety can raise the heart rate and a few breathing exercises can reduce it. I have also found that a rise in body temperature of 1 degree can increase heart rate by 10bpm. This week I have been suffering with a chest infection and have had an elevated resting rate of about 25bpm above normal.

Has anyone else tracked heart rate to the extremes or noticed unusual patterns ?

Those observations are not unusual. Just your body doing what is was designed to do: fend off illnesses and keep you alive .. you get a virus infection and your body (heart, really, instructed by for immune system) sends out the white blood cells to fight off the invaders .. what you measure is the increased blood flow carrying the blood cells to where they've been, well, assigned.

Your body is a machine. A very well designed one. Cycling fine tunes it and keeps it in tip top working condition. Abuse it and you break down.

 

[rob9771]

Those observations are not unusual. Just your body doing what is was designed to do: fend off illnesses and keep you alive .. you get a virus infection and your body (heart, really, instructed by for immune system) sends out the white blood cells to fight off the invaders .. what you measure is the increased blood flow carrying the blood cells to where they've been, well, assigned.

Your body is a machine. A very well designed one. Cycling fine tunes it and keeps it in tip top working condition. Abuse it and you break down.

Thanks for the info. I was starting to get a bit worried-

 

[Archibald]

Has anyone else tracked heart rate to the extremes or noticed unusual patterns ?

using the optimizer on my polar, i ususally have a resting hr of around 47. currently it's around 65 and i have the flu at the moment.
it will be interesting to watch it over the next few days as i get over this flu...

 

[rob9771]

using the optimizer on my polar, i ususally have a resting hr of around 47. currently it's around 65 and i have the flu at the moment.
it will be interesting to watch it over the next few days as i get over this flu...

Body temperature increase of 1 degree can increase hr by 10bpm. I thought this was why my heart rate was higher but now I have no temperature it is still 25-30 over. Also even the slightest effort raises it considerably. Just typing this I am at 86bpm . This has obviously happened at every illness I have had for years and never worried me until I put a heart monitor on. I think when you train you take comfort in the low resting heart rate you can achieve and when that disappears its not nice !

 

[FrankBattle]

You should relax and quite worrying about it. YOU may FEEL well, but if your body still has a virus in it, it will continue to odo what it needs to. Unless you are trying to win some kind of low resting heart rate award, give yourself (and your body) ample time to heal, then get back to training. You may actually find that you are stronger ..

 

[rob9771]

You should relax and quite worrying about it. YOU may FEEL well, but if your body still has a virus in it, it will continue to odo what it needs to. Unless you are trying to win some kind of low resting heart rate award, give yourself (and your body) ample time to heal, then get back to training. You may actually find that you are stronger ..

Your right, however my belief was that a lower resting heart rate is a good indicator of general fitness, so since beginning cycling seriously I have seen a drop of about 15bpm, I may have become a bit obsessed with it.

I'll take your advice, Thanks