Heartrate not reduced during recovery

MamaBear05

I am doing the C25K program. Well, I was and then almost 3 weeks went by where I did next to no exercise and ate like crazy. Today I decided it was time to hop back on the wagon. I did week 2 of the C25K. When I was doing it in the past, even when I first started it, my heartrate would be anywhere from the high 150's to low 170's during my run intervals (it would start out in the 150's during my first interval or two and get a little higher on each interval). Between intervals during the brisk recovery walk it would go down to the mid to upper 130's.

Today during my warm up wallk, my heartrate was already in the 150's. By the third interval it was in the 180's. From the first interval on it never went below about 165 even during my brisk walks. After I finished the C25K program I continued to walk for another 45 minutes or so. My heartrate stayed in the 160's the entire time. I slowed my walk to almost a saunter for the last 15 minutes or so and it remained that high. It wasn't until I got home and sat down that it dropped back down. Once I sat down it dropped down almost immediately to the 120's.

I am wondering why this happened. My thought is that between not drinking nearly enough water today, it being about 97 degrees outside when I was doing this, and the 3 week break from pretty much any activity, my body was having to work much harder than usual. Does this make sense?

With that, my HRM was telling me my calorie burn was much higher than usual. Is this really true and due to the continued higher heartrate? I know that's not good. I felt like crud when I was done. I would rather burn fewer calories but feel good after a workout than burn a ton of calories and feel terrible and sick afterwards.

geekyjen

your thinking sounds good to me.
you could definitely be dehydrated. make sure you're getting enough fluids.
your recovery time will also be dependent on how strong your heart is -- the more you work out, the quicker it will return to normal.
keep at it! good luck and good job.

KatieM7

Not sure what it means here but you are right that it is better to burn less and feel good after then to burn more and feel like crap. I hope that you get feeling better soon.

xonophone

:ohwell:

I am wondering why this happened. My thought is that between not drinking nearly enough water today, it being about 97 degrees outside when I was doing this, and the 3 week break from pretty much any activity, my body was having to work much harder than usual. Does this make sense?

Yep, all of those reasons sound exactly right to me. Your body work so much harder in the heat, and hydration is even more critical at that temperature. You're lucky all that happened was that you felt like crap - you could have suffered a heat stroke due to cardiac distress.

With that, my HRM was telling me my calorie burn was much higher than usual. Is this really true and due to the continued higher heartrate? I know that's not good. I felt like crud when I was done. I would rather burn fewer calories but feel good after a workout than burn a ton of calories and feel terrible and sick afterwards.

Brava! That is a great attitude! Please be more careful in your workouts!