Cycling and your heart above age 55

Reply Subscribe

Thread Tools

Search this Thread

06-14-21, 09:43 AM

#101

terrymorse

climber has-been

Join Date: Dec 2004

Location: Palo Alto, CA

Posts: 7,109

Bikes: Scott Addict R1, Felt Z1

Mentioned: 10 Post(s)

Tagged: 0 Thread(s)

Quoted: 3430 Post(s)

Likes: 2,706

Liked 3,566 Times in 1,792 Posts

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhostRider62

Turns out my heart stops for 4-8 seconds many times per evening while sleeping.

Are those "sinus pauses"? I've read that they're fairly common, usually benign, and more common among athletes.

Did you doctor recommend ignoring it?

__________________
Ride, Rest, Repeat. ROUVY: terrymorse

06-14-21, 10:17 AM

#102

PeteHski

Senior Member

Join Date: May 2021

Posts: 8,429

Mentioned: 12 Post(s)

Tagged: 0 Thread(s)

Quoted: 4405 Post(s)

Likes: 1,784

Liked 4,857 Times in 3,004 Posts

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhostRider62

I did not say that and neither did you.

I am curious why you are putting words into both of our mouths. Please read what you wrote, my response, and then do a little research.

You must have realised I was referring to what you mentioned earlier "Turns out my heart stops for 4-8 seconds many times per evening while sleeping." So if I was having that particular issue I would have expected to see it in the nightly recordings, at least as a significant drop-out in the readings. But not necessarily depending on how my HRM records in the 5 sec intervals. More subtle things I'm sure would be hidden, but some of the more advanced HRMs seem capable of detecting things like A-fib. So I might think about an upgrade at some point. I use a more accurate Polar HRM during exercise and my HR seems to respond normally to load and my recovery is good. Resting HR is consistent too, just varies the normal amount with fatigue, which is the main reason I monitor it.

You are right though, a bit of research is in order here.

06-14-21, 10:27 AM

#103

PeteHski

Senior Member

Join Date: May 2021

Posts: 8,429

Mentioned: 12 Post(s)

Tagged: 0 Thread(s)

Quoted: 4405 Post(s)

Likes: 1,784

Liked 4,857 Times in 3,004 Posts

Quote:

Originally Posted by terrymorse

You just checked off a bunch of factors for getting PVCs:

lifetime athlete
high intensity training
little or no recovery days

I've been there, ramped up my training too fast without adequate rest, and the thing that reduced my PVCs was adding more rest days (then taking a long COVID season on the couch).

The good news is that PVCs are very common in endurance athletes, they are not associated with an increased risk of cardiac death, and they almost always reduce in response to rest.

Since I tend to overdo my training, I've been watching the Garmin Connect's 7-Day Training Load graph, keeping the training load within the green (optimal) zone:

There's also a "Relative Effort" graph on Strava that's useful for dosing your weekly training and recovery:

The goal is to keep the weekly effort within the gray band.

I currently use Sufferfest training plans and track my training stress on Training Peaks and Strava. I find that following a structured training plan prevents me from over-training, which I would be very prone to otherwise.

I also keep an eye on my resting HR, which I find is quite a consistent measure of fatigue. After a heavy training block I see it rise as much as 8 bpm the next morning and then it comes back down after a few recovery days. I usually see my lowest resting HR after a rest week or event taper, which is always reassuring. When I had my first COVID jab, my resting HR shot up by 10 bpm the next day and I felt very fatigued for a couple of days. It took a whole week to recover back to normal. Second jab had no adverse effect at all though.