Elevated heart rate after a heavy cold
stueys
Posts: 1,332
About two weeks ago I managed to come down with a heavy cold, generally feeling crap with sore throat, cough, etc, etc. No exercise for two weeks whilst I recovered but still a fairly heavy work schedule with travel.
This weekend feeling better so got back on the bike. After two weeks off my power numbers seem broadly there, though repeatable efforts hurt and my endurance has definitely taken a hit. But my heart rate is all over the place. I managed to hit a new max heart rate on a 1.5 hour hack on Saturday (which at mid-40 surprised me...) and generally my average heart rate was around 8 beats higher than I'd expect across the whole ride. Same story on a 60 mile ride on Sunday, basically a higher heart rate than I would expect on both sweet spot efforts and as an average across the ride. My EF rating seems to have dipped from an 1.8 to 1.4/1.45.
My resting heart rate is also running at about 12bpm higher than I would expect.
So am I still fighting this thing off and I should lay low for a while longer, or is this just a fitness drop off? Two weeks seems a long time to be fighting this thing off but I'm still coughing things up.
This weekend feeling better so got back on the bike. After two weeks off my power numbers seem broadly there, though repeatable efforts hurt and my endurance has definitely taken a hit. But my heart rate is all over the place. I managed to hit a new max heart rate on a 1.5 hour hack on Saturday (which at mid-40 surprised me...) and generally my average heart rate was around 8 beats higher than I'd expect across the whole ride. Same story on a 60 mile ride on Sunday, basically a higher heart rate than I would expect on both sweet spot efforts and as an average across the ride. My EF rating seems to have dipped from an 1.8 to 1.4/1.45.
My resting heart rate is also running at about 12bpm higher than I would expect.
So am I still fighting this thing off and I should lay low for a while longer, or is this just a fitness drop off? Two weeks seems a long time to be fighting this thing off but I'm still coughing things up.
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Comments
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Stueys wrote:So am I still fighting this thing off and I should lay low for a while longer, or is this just a fitness drop off? Two weeks seems a long time to be fighting this thing off but I'm still coughing things up.
You answered the first question right there.
No point in rushing back, take it easy and fully recover.0 -
Your heart rate will be affected by a heavy cold such as this which is why many use power output rather than heart rate as an indicator of fitness. I use a Wattbike and use both heart rate and am becoming increasingly interested in my average/ peak watts. I can really tell when I'm on form by this. Unfortunately don't have this capacity on the road bike! I had a virus earlier in the year and my heart rate was higher like yours over about 3 weeks or so. Everything felt much tighter so didn't give it ' full gas' .0
