As runners, we love data. Our watches and trackers now provide a plethora of info from pace to sleep to cadence and the list goes on. One particular piece of information we now have more access to is resting heart rate for runners.
Because we know running is both amazing for our cardiovascular system and a stressor on the body, this number has gotten a lot more attention in the last few years. I, for one, am THRILLED about this shift, because HR can tell us so much about how the body is feeling and guide our training.
Heart rate is one of the many data points and if you wear your GPS watch 24/7. There’s training HR, sleep time, sleep quality, heart rate variability, training status, pulse ox and VO2 Max depending on your watch and its related app.
Each piece of information has value when used appropriately in your training. Today we want to focus in on that resting heart rate variable.
As endurance athletes, many of us have noticed that our resting heart rate (RHR) can be quite low at times. It can often be disconcerting and leave us with questions. What’s a normal RHR? How low is too low? Why are there days when it seems elevated and days where it seems to be really low? And the list goes on.
In this article, we’ll explore the relationship between running and resting…
