Recovery from training and resting heart rate

Hi,

My resting heart rate is 42 (last measured at that about two months ago). However, when I train (indoor rowing, riding), my RHR stays elevated for many days even if I don't do much. Over 50 the next day, over 45 the second, and gets down to 42 the third or fourth day. I always measure it before I get out of bed.

I get sick pretty easily, e.g. I don't ride two days in a row anymore in the winter, I have got bronchitis(diagnosed) two years in a row now, and you know it takes weeks to recover back to full strength even though I don't get very sick.

I get reasonable sleep (7.5 to 9 hours), I eat healthy (fiber, protein, carbo, reasonable amounts of fat) and am in reasonable shape (6:51 is my 2000m time on the Concept 2 as of about 3 weeks ago for those that are "in-the-know") and take my multi-vitamin every day. When I go ride I change into dry clothes for the drive home. I exercise using a training program from the Concept 2 people, and have worked up to it, so I didn't just start like a madman. I have taken at least 2 days off every week, and now it seems I have to take more to stay not-sick.

What the hell should I do? Go to the doctor to get my blood checked out? Is there something about my diet I might be missing? Did I over-train(I know the symptoms point to this, but I'll be damned if I believe I should've exercised less).

BTW, one thing I noticed from another thread is that maybe I don't hydrate myself enough. I do take in water when I exercise, but maybe too little otherwise. Might that have a big effect on my recovery?

This would not be such a big deal if I didn't want to exercise a bunch to bring up my aerobic condition and lose fat (at 6'4", 205 lbs, I can't afford any extra fat to be anywhere near competitive for riding MX).

Thanks for the pointers, guys. I think I will try a bit less exercise for a week more and then go to the doc if no improvement. I don't feel sick, and my RHR is not alarming (to me). I also need to find a doc who understands athletes and why "rest for twi weeks" isn't the first option for curing just about anything even though it may be the best solution in some cases.

I didn't do anything last week, and my RHR was down to 44 on Friday and yesterday I had a race and was pretty worn out at the end of the 20 min+2 laps moto but that's not very unusual when I go flat out on an MX course. Also I think most of it was just gripping the bar too tight in my first race of the season.

Sorry, the "get sick" statement came out wrong because of how stuff translates from Finnish to American English. I mean I get sick like catch a cold and maybe a slight fever, sore muscles, that kind of stuff the next day or two after riding two days in a row. This doesn't happen when I do cardio in the gym or in the summer. I am very allergic to anything you can breathe and am prone to all kinds of respiratory inflammations and can't even get insurance cover for asthma, although I have not had any attacks.

After the race I mentioned, I did nothing for a week except took some walks that took about 45 minutes. My RHR stayed at about 48-50 bpm. This is what initially worried me. I then had a race again and that went ok fitness-wise (on saturday). This week I did cardio mon, tue, wed,fri. and didn't care about the bloody RHR that stayed near 50.

All this went fine except after those three first days that I did about 40 minutes moderate continuous or very long (10-20 min) interval training then today (fri.) I did 3x6min and only got my HR up to 160 (max is about 175 for me) on the last interval on the rower, but I really was able to keep up very good pace for me (under 1:50/500m) even though I was not pushing like crazy (to be able to do the whole shebang).

I had a tough day at work and my blood sugar was probably down for not eating properly and I was also slightly dehydrated. What also prevented me from pushing was that my muscles felt a bit weak (not like I can't stand weak but like I don't want to do squats weak).

From all I read my heart rate responds pretty normally to exercise. I go faster or harder, my heart rate goes up (I can regulate this on the running machine by changing speeds and can pretty much tell what heart rate I will be at after a few minutes at a certain speed). I get "cardiovascular drift" i.e. my heart rate goes up for the same level of exercise (about 10 bpm after maybe 10-15 minutes of exercise). After exercise or an interval my heart rate drops back.

I sometimes feel my heart rate comes up pretty slowly when I start an interval, i.e. it takes about two minutes at a pretty hard level to bring it up to 160 when I start (from about 110 bpm) after a proper warmup. On subsequent intervals it comes up faster. Is this what's called tachycardic response?

I'm beginning to think the 42 bpm RHR is something I get down to once in a while and should just not worry about it unless it jumps up to something like 55.

My mother's father died of some kind of heart condition when he was about 50 and my father's father had diabetes. I have a very small family(dad one brother, mom no siblings), so not exactly examples abound. Also, both those dudes were slightly overweight and certainly not very fit.

Thanks for taking to time to look into this, sorry if I ramble.

Thanks again for replying.

I don't usually get the cold type thing after every ride, only when I ride two days in a row. And yes, these are in below freezing temperatures. This happened last winter, too, and then I didn't listen my body and got bronchitis for doing this and also working out in the gym (presumably) and this winter some slight inflammation in the throat, but not full-blown bronchitis and certainly not pneumonia. It sucks that I have to ride in the cold and then change into dry clothes in a semi-warm van and I suppose this is part of the problem.

I never really suspected anything directly heart related, just looked at the morning RHR as one easy (and probably not sufficient) indicator of general health and fitness. In the summer I haven't gotten the same cold state.

I eat reasonably right(McDonald's maybe once a week and then normal healthy food (chicken, fish, some meat, fruit, rice, potatoes(proper), rye bread, low-fat cheese)) and take my multivitamin and omega-3 and sleep well.

Basic labs is the stuff I get from the blood and urine samples (cholesterol and all kinds of other counts)? Had those about 18 months ago when I started at my current job (it's compulsory over here). I have been thinking of having them done again, I think our great health coverage (from work) pays for them and even if it doesn't I can pay for it.

My legs don't look swollen after riding, but now that you mention it, they sure are tired and maybe "feel" a bit swollen like there's some pressure inside them. Not sore to touch or really weak when I actually use them, but a bit weird-feeling.

To get back on this:

Today I did a maximal fitness test, that is, pedal until you drop. I found out that my maximum heart rate is only 179 (the lactic acid count from my blood and breathing gas analysis tell that I was really at maximum) and have been training much too hard.

I will now only do much lower intensity cardio(albeit for slightly longer) for the days I don't ride. I had already gone towards this since I suspected what the test confirmed. I will get the results for the blood and urine in the mail in a few days, but I suspect they are fine.