New training program increased my resting heart rate 🤔

herblovinmom

I wanna be a runner! I like the feeling of running, I enjoy it and want to do more of it. I honestly don’t know if I’m doing it right. I probably need a coach or at the least a running store. Since the weather has cooled down around here I’ve started back walking 1-2x daily 4-5 days a week with the intention to advance to running/jogging eventually, i progressed my walks slowly and i also do strength training 1-3x weekly and recently (the last month) added some running intervals into my walks. I take rest days every other day or every two days from the intervals and just walk. But just recently, the last 2 weeks, my resting heart rate has gone up by at least 10bpm. My apple health alerted me to the change. There seems to be a correlation with the addition of my run/jog intervals.
So what now?
I was under the impression the opposite would happen with regular cardio, and for the most part that has happened from a year ago but this sudden uptick has me concerned..
How do I proceed?
Do I need more rest days?
Faster walking with no run/jog
intervals?
This is frustrating me and i could use some advice from the runners out there.
Is this temporary? Should I just continue what I’m doing?
In the past, I would progress to quickly from walking to walking with run intervals and would injure myself so I made it a point this time to go slowly. So far not many injuries to speak of except some occasional foot pain which i probably need different shoes even though I just bought these. But I don’t know, I was having occasional foot pain before any running intervals were added. I also have hip problems on that same leg as the foot pain.

Sorry if that was a lot all at once.

Any one out there to offer any guidance?

Thanks in advance

Lietchi

Well, theoretically an increase in resting heart over a short period would indicate overtraining or something else that your body is dealing with (a virus your body is fighting, insomnia, high stress, etc.).
That's been my experience in any case.
Your programme doesn't sound excessive 'on paper', but we're all different and context matters. Also, a lot of new runners to tend to run too fast during their intervals.

If I were in your shoes, I would take a step back for recovery: an extra rest day short-term and/or scaling back the intervals (slower speed and/or number of intervals).

yirara

At what time of the day do you go run/walking? If you do it in the evening then it's maybe not totally surprising as adrenaline and other hormones stay in your system for quite a while and resting heartrate will be higher. (this assumes that Apple's definition of resting heartrate is the lowest during sleep). Do you eat more after your run/walk? Digestion during sleep might play a role. Alternative idea: You might simply be running a small infection. Does your watch do something like heartrate variation or stress level? If HRV is lower and stress level higher then this, or simple more stress during work might play a role. Lots of reasons, really.

AnnPT77

Good advice from Lietchi.

Also, two weeks isn't necessarily long enough to see that benefit. Overdoing could be part of the picture, but improving HRrest tends to be a gradual process IME, with potentially a short run cost. Results could differ from your younger self, even with the same stimulus, too.

One common rule of thumb is to increase intensity/duration by maybe 10% per week, max.

I've been doing pretty serious cardio for around 22 years, even got some coaching certifications in my sport (on water rowing).

Here's my HR chart for the past year. The highs are a decent rough indication of when I was doing more intense exercise, without making this more complicated. HRrest has gone up (and down) with increased intensity, but also up (and down) with decreased intensity.



Long term trend since 2002 has definitely been down, though. 😉

My best guess is that unless you have other worrisome symptoms - faintness, weakness, fatigue, light headedness, gasping for breath, difficulty breathing, weird feelings in chest or lungs/heart, etc. - high odds this is a temporary blip, just part off the process or related to some other relatively minor health issue. Even some of those symptoms could be from overdoing.

Give a think to overall average nutrition, adequacy of hydration (mostly based on urine color), sleep quality/quantity, size of calorie deficit (if you have one).

If you're worried, talk to your doctor, not a random idiot on the internet like me who knows nothing about your age or medical history.

Best wishes!

spiriteagle99

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Watches are not that accurate for heart rate and can be higher or lower depending on how tightly you are wearing it. Stress, lack of sleep or fighting off a cold can also raise your HR. Pay attention to how you feel during your walks and runs. It should feel easy. If it doesn't, slow down. If it does, then don't worry about the HR.

herblovinmom

Well I’ve decided to just keep an eye on things and listen to my body. Take an extra rest day occasionally and slow down. My pace may have been too fast for my abilities. I don’t think I can carry on a conversation while running but somehow that’s an indicator of the correct pace. Running is still hard for me. It feels challenging, but at the same time, when walking I feel the urge to run so I’m just gonna keep training and see how I feel in a couple more weeks. Maybe my body will acclimate. I’m not overly concerned as I don’t have any other symptoms like fatigue or dizziness or racing heart beat, nothing that really warrants a doctor as of yet. It’s just frustrating when your trying to work towards your goals and things come up that slow you down. When I feel that motivation, that drive, I definitely wanna ride it out as I know the energy will ebb and flow. But listening to my body is important or else I won’t be able to train at all.
Thank you all that responded. I appreciate your opinions and insight.

AnnPT77

herblovinmom wrote: »

Well I’ve decided to just keep an eye on things and listen to my body. Take an extra rest day occasionally and slow down. My pace may have been too fast for my abilities. I don’t think I can carry on a conversation while running but somehow that’s an indicator of the correct pace. Running is still hard for me. It feels challenging, but at the same time, when walking I feel the urge to run so I’m just gonna keep training and see how I feel in a couple more weeks. Maybe my body will acclimate. I’m not overly concerned as I don’t have any other symptoms like fatigue or dizziness or racing heart beat, nothing that really warrants a doctor as of yet. It’s just frustrating when your trying to work towards your goals and things come up that slow you down. When I feel that motivation, that drive, I definitely wanna ride it out as I know the energy will ebb and flow. But listening to my body is important or else I won’t be able to train at all.
Thank you all that responded. I appreciate your opinions and insight.

Doing the right things may not be a faster pace on each run . . . but it will create faster progress (in calendar terms) toward the big goals.

IME, fitness really is similar to weight loss in that way: Aggression feels faster in the moment, but patient persistence and gradual changes really are the faster way calendar-wise to reaching the big goal (not just reaching a healthy weight, but also staying there long term).

You're not slowing your progress, you're reaching it in a smarter, more suitable way.

Best wishes!

AnnPT77

Hi, @herblovinmom!

I was thinking about you tonight during my stationary bike ride tonight (while monitoring my heart rate during the workout to keep it down), realized it had been a week since you started this thread.

I thought I'd ask: Have you continued on your new training plan, and if so, how is it going?

You'd said: "It’s just frustrating when your trying to work towards your goals and things come up that slow you down." I'm exactly in that spot right now, though I got myself into it from a different direction. On November 9, I fell, fractured my skull (small fracture) and caused a brain bleed (also small, fortunately).

Yesterday was my first workout since hospital discharge on November 12. I need to follow the neurosurgeon's orders to keep heart rate very low - taking in full sentences kind of low at most.

Today, I remembered that you'd talked about needing to slow down your running, and that seemed to be part of your frustration, maybe. In addition, since the 12th, my resting heart rate has climbed, also one of your concerns. In my case, the few days before the injury, it was 50-52. It was higher for a couple of days after the fall (stress/shock/trauma reaction, I'm sure), dropped a bit, then started gradually and irregularly climbing. Still up today.

I'm sure it'll go back down eventually, if I can stay on the path toward wellness . . . but yes, it's frustrating.

I'm hoping you may be starting to see some glimmers of improvement, though a week is still pretty early times.

Either way, hang in there, and best wishes for long-term improvement!

herblovinmom

@AnnPT77 sorry to hear about your recent injury. I hope you can heal up and get back to your regular activities soon. It’s just awful when you hurt yourself and can’t do what you enjoy. Hugs to you. Hope you feel better soon and i hope it’s not too serious (as far as bleeds and skull fractures go) it sounds painful 😣..
As far as my resting heart rate, it’s still up about 10+bpm, it’s now been a trend for 20 days my health app says. I can look back in my history of resting rates and see a temporary tick upward, but those typically last a day or 2 then it resumes to its normal place, I noticed some of those blips coincide with my menstrual cycle but didn’t notice any other correlation..
I did fall ill with a small cold after starting this discussion.. I did take those rest days. And then the holiday came and I stayed busy busy without intentional exercise.. and now I’ve started my period.. which all seems could cause an upward tick. Today will be the first day I get back to walking. No jogging just walking, taking it slow and easy but by Monday I plan on adding in jogs again, just every other days walk will include a jog, that doesn’t seem to excessive but I’ll listen to my body. And I’ll keep an eye on my resting heart rate, I have a thyroid health appointment coming up in January where I’ll be able to see if maybe my hormones are in need of adjusting, not sure if thyroid disease can cause heart rate changes but it’s something to think about if this trend continues.. I don’t wear my watch while sleeping so I know it’s not taking my lowest rate at that point otherwise I’m not sure when it actually takes those readings. I believe it’s just periodically throughout the day but who knows 🤷‍♀️ for now I’m sticking to my plan to be a runner and just working towards my goals more slowly with more rest days and see if that helps, just keep an eye on things. I’ll attach a photo for reference. Thanks for reaching out and checking on me.. much appreciated

AnnPT77

@herblovinmom, thanks for the reply.

Yes, some thyroid conditions can increase resting heart rate (HRrest), and so can having a cold or similar, among other possible triggers. (I'm severely hypo, treated, myself.) You clearly know that thyroid medication dosages need adjustment sometimes.

If you're hyperthyroid (too-high thyroid levels), that can increase HRrest, if untreated or under-treated. If you're hypothyroid (too-low thyroid hormone) but over-treated, that can mimic hyperthyroidism and maybe increase HRrest, too. Exercise changes can affect thyroid levels in some cases, too, though I think that's more limited. Your upcoming blood tests will probably help sort that out.

I don't know what your device does, but mine (Garmin Vivoactive 4) monitors heart rate through the day, and will update HRrest if HR stays at a given low level for a period of time (not sure how long, too lazy/uncaring to have researched that in my case, but more than just briefly for sure, because I've seen momentary lows below what it was saying was HRrest that day).

IMU, 60-100bpm is considered normal adult HRrest hereabouts, but of course "normal" somewhat varies individually. Even the peaks you show in your chart fall well within that generic range, though, obviously. There's also a genetic component, part of the individual variability idea.

I'm usually below 60, so seeing numbers above that is a little unusual for me . . . but I've been a regular pretty-consistent, fairly-intense cardio gal for 20+ years, a dozen of which years I was still obese (and HR rest tended to be below 60 pretty often even then). My doctors consider that HRrest normal and healthy for me.

I will say that my lowest heart rate (the rate my device records as HRrest) almost always happens overnight. I wore my Garmin in the hospital, and HRrest was definitely up then by around the 10bpm you're seeing, presumably due to the injury. It's coming down again, but was still 59 yesterday, unusually high for me but not off the personal charts high.

If you don't want to wear yours overnight, an option to consider would be to put it on on a no-alarm-clock wake-up day, remaining in bed, moving as little as possible to put it on, and watch while lying still for a bit. That could give you closer indication of HRrest. I used to do that before I used a device (watch-sized) that is practical to wear nearly 24x7.

I don't mean to yammer on about myself, the point is more to underscore that there's variability between individuals, you're still firmly in what's considered the normal range here, and an individual's HRrest will vary over time for a variety of reasons (which is the main reason I mentioned my own recent example of increase . . . well, that and to empathize because it IS frustrating ).

I still think you'll see that hoped-for HRrest decrease, probably gradually, probably over a period of time (and probably - unfortunately - not fast enough to feel like a quick win). It's coming, betcha anything! Also, I'd predict you'll begin to see faster HR recovery with time and consistent cardiovascular exercise, i.e., your HR will drop faster within a given short time period after the exercise peak, once you stop the exercise session.

I think you're doing the right things, and that that will bring you the right rewards . . . eventually.

Best wishes!

P.S. Thank you for your concern and well-wishes! Truly, I wasn't trying to fish for sympathy. I'm doing well, particularly under the circumstances. I feel like being relatively fit for my age (69) has contributed to recovery, and maybe even helped avoid the dire possibilities (brain surgery, not to mention death!) that were first mentioned when I went to the ER. Your pursuit of improved fitness is an investment in your future well-being, for sure . . . in many ways, some of them unpredictable, but those good things WILL happen.

In case it helps, Garmin doesn't give me a trend bar like your app does, but here's my last 4 weeks. That big peak in HRrest is the day after the injury; and I think you can see that it dropped for a few days soon after (near total bed rest those days), then it started climbing again (because no exercise (?), which shows in the peak highs on the chart) and is still trending higher than usual for the past 2+ weeks. It'll drop eventually, I presume, as things return to normal. 🤷 Bodies are weird.

spiriteagle99

@PTAnn77 - I'm sorry to read that you were injured. I hope the head heals quickly and completely. Being inactive must be hard for you. I'm glad you can still do the bike.

herblovinmom

Just an update for those who commented on my increased resting heart rate…
It’s back to normal!.. Could have been attributed to the increased effort on my walk runs or possibly the cold virus I got shortly after the uptick on my trend line or maybe the combination of both those things but either way it’s back down to its normal place. I have continued my walk runs, I’m running slower, which has helped me run longer, I can run almost continuously for 12 minutes. Slowing down also helped me have less down days from the soreness so I can train more efficiently. Right now I’m alternating the days I add runs to my walk and doing strength training in between those days. Not sure how to arrange rest days..? 🤔 is it still considered a rest day if you do strength training for 20-30 minutes?? I think im getting a good routine going though. Some consistency 👍
Thanks for you alls help.

AnnPT77

herblovinmom wrote: »

Just an update for those who commented on my increased resting heart rate…
It’s back to normal!.. Could have been attributed to the increased effort on my walk runs or possibly the cold virus I got shortly after the uptick on my trend line or maybe the combination of both those things but either way it’s back down to its normal place. I have continued my walk runs, I’m running slower, which has helped me run longer, I can run almost continuously for 12 minutes. Slowing down also helped me have less down days from the soreness so I can train more efficiently. Right now I’m alternating the days I add runs to my walk and doing strength training in between those days. Not sure how to arrange rest days..? 🤔 is it still considered a rest day if you do strength training for 20-30 minutes?? I think im getting a good routine going though. Some consistency 👍
Thanks for you alls help.

That's great news!

It also sounds like you've made changes that IMO will be beneficial from the perspective of developing better cardiovascular fitness. Maybe that's part of what's paying off in lowered heart rate, maybe it's something else behind the heart rate drop, maybe a combination. Either way, good results in at least 2 senses.

With the caveat that I have some lifting experience in the past, and a bit more education than that about combining strength work with challenging cardiovascular exercise (the latter from coaching education and experience in my strength-y CV sport), but am far from a strength exercise expert:

A strength day can definitely be a recovery/rest day from cardio, with some care and attention. You know which muscle groups you're challenging strength-wise from your running. How much you're challenging them is a function of your current fitness level, plus how often/long you're running in a way that challenges those muscles more and less. (Your comment about fewer down days from soreness relates to this idea, right?)

If you're doing both high-muscle-challenge running and heavy leg work on the strength side, that can potentially make the strength and cardio interfere with recovery from both. There may be ways to deal with that, and still get the results you want.

I don't know many specifics about periodized training plans for running. I'll make a leap and assume they're at least somewhat similar to plans for rowing. If that's true, I'd think your very long runs (as might be in a plan for marathon/10k prep, for example) or your very high-intensity runs would be a fairly small part of a typical week, maybe as little as one day. Thinking about how to time those in your overall week can still lead to reasonable recovery.

Just as an example, say if you're lifting 2 or 3 days a week, running 3 days, one full rest day, then timing the high intensity or long run before the full rest day might be a reasonable strategy to try.

In addition, there is some whole-system stress from total exercise load - stress we expect to pay off in overall fitness improvement in the long run, but stress nonetheless. I'm talking about the overall demand on our body from the total training schedule. That has the potential to be too much as a whole, with it maybe being hard to identify a specific cause. That can also impair recovery.

The symptoms might be things like increasing resting heart rate, perceivable general fatigue, kind of feeling under-recovered much of the time, getting sick more often, near-constant muscle soreness from effort that didn't have that effect previously, poor sleep, over-use injuries, and any (not necessarily all) of a constellation of other symptoms.

That's kind of where self-knowledge and common sense come into it, especially for those of us who don't have an experienced personal coach. IME, over time one develops more understanding of one's own body, and recognizes when one is overdoing somewhat. That's time to back off total load in some way. (I'd add that high stress in other parts of life - even psychological stress - can sometimes contribute to that total stress load issue, too.) Sometimes we just need a recovery break. (Formal periodized plans often include such a thing once in a while, maybe not a week off but a light week; maybe even a sequence of days off.)

I'd always encourage a regular human - a person with general fitness or recreational goals, as part of a typical balanced life - to add new exercise load gradually. If adding strength work to a cardiovascular fitness routine, that might look like phasing in the number of days per week, or focusing first on developing truly excellent lifting form at relatively lighter weight, first phasing in the parts of lifting that don't overlap with the muscle groups most challenged with the cardiovascular exercise (such as upper body work in the case of running), even maybe backing off cardiovascular load a little for a while, or variations on that theme. How to decide specifics depends a bit on personal goals.

Don't get me wrong, I'd advise the same general idea to someone adding cardiovascular exercise on top of a pre-existing strength routine. The specifics would be different, but I'd still suggest phasing in the new thing gradually. In the long run, as fitness develops, total load of both will be able to increase, within sensible limits, and still allow for adequate recovery.

Sorry; I'm rambling again. TL;DR: Yes, strength work can be recovery from cardiovascular work or vice-versa as a generality, but there are nuances that matter.

Best wishes!

yirara

If your watch has hrv and stress calculations, then it might be worth looking at this every now and then. If my HRV drops like a stone and stress is up during night then I always know there's a cold brewing. I have a Garmin watch. Note: Alcohol does the same for me.