On Mook's training diary home page, he wrote:

They say that your resting heartrate can be used as an indicator of your fitness level and degree of recovery from hard runs. That's what they say anyway. I was thinking about how I could keep tabs on my heartrate and track it as the relays approaches. However, whenever I even think about my heartrate, it usually speeds up! I bet if I took my heartrate while thinking about the fact that I'm doing it to prepare for the relays, it would really speed up! Apparently I have mind control enough to increase my heartrate, but not enough control to keep it constant. That means that whatever number I report is a bit misleading. Historically, my resting heartrate seems to be between 40 and 70 beats per minute, and usually about 40-45 if I'm quite rested. It has been in the upper 30's and around 80 before. I don't know if it's even repeatable from day to day, so I won't make a big deal of it. I guess a better indicator of fitness is how I actually feel, and perhaps my time up Wasson Peak, which I hope to post before much longer.

Lots of people advise tracking resting heart rate as part of you normal routine and using the info to help plan your training and guage your fitness.

What is the best way to do that?

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), February 23, 2000

Answers

As far as I can tell a "resting" heart rate is measured when you are about as relaxed as possible. You could measure it while you're lying in bed, maybe before you go to sleep or just get up in the morning. You wouldn't want to take it when you've had caffeine or even if you have been walking around a while, because even that could affect your heartrate. It seems to me that a good way to measure it is to measure it under the same conditions each day (time of day etc.).

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), February 23, 2000.

If Spike has a heartrate monitor watch that can record his heartrate, it would be interesting to see how that varied during routine daily habits, like before breakfast, after breakfast, fighting rush hour, during work, while asleep. Sounds like an interesting experiment. Is Spike up to such a project?

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), February 23, 2000.

Good idea Mook. As soon as I get a new battery for the monitor, I'll try.

-- Spike (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), February 23, 2000.

I take my 'basal' heartrate just before getting up in the morning. At that time, I can even use the physiological phenomenon of increasing my exhalation time, which decreases the rate. I suppose one could call that 'resting,' but as Mook notes, I consider resting what would be measured sometime in the middle of the day if one were to take five to ten minutes, sit down, think relaxing thoughts, then take one's pulse.

One rule of thumb I've heard. More than a 10% increase and the day's workout needs to be rethought.

-- Fritz Menninger (fpmenninger@hotmail.com), February 24, 2000.

Hasn't Mike been saying he is going to get a new battery for his heart rate monitor for quite a while now? What has been the hold up again?

-- Snorkel (daniel.meenehan@umb.com), February 24, 2000.

I think the battery delay has been because Albertsons has been out of stock. I hate to be the one to bring this out in the open, but the truth is that Spike has been a long time closet Albertholic. That's actually the real reason he returned from Sweden. He could no longer resist Albertsons' sweet calls, her soft entreaties to shop her produce and sample her salad bars, the way the doors open and shut automatically...

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), February 28, 2000.

The best way to take your resting heart rate is to sleep under a base map of slope park while wearing Spike's heart rate monitor.

-- Snorkel (danielmeenehan@aol.com), July 08, 2000.