Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Ended my 5K taper
Today was my last running day until the 5K on Saturday. I ran two miles, with a 10:20 pace during the last half mile. My wakeup HR was 51 again, and I felt fine before and during the run. I slept well last night, but I don't feel like I'm ready for the race -- still recovering from last week's sleep deprivation.
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You're going to do very well in your 5k race this Saturday. Keep positive, no negative thoughts, you should be well rested before the race.
ReplyDeleteI made a mistake of staying up past midnight last night and then found out that my wife would be getting up early. So, I've only had 4 hours sleep last night and a short nap today. I'll be getting to bed earlier tonight, and I'll be taking another nap this afternoon. My wakeup heart rate was down to 49 this morning, so that is a good sign.
ReplyDeleteAllen,
ReplyDeleteWhat method do you use to measure your heart rate each morning?
Hi Angie,
ReplyDeleteWhen I wake up, I walk into the bathroom so I can turn on the light without disturbing my wife. I use the pressure point at my right temple (right where the top of my ear joins the side of my face). I place my pointer finger on the PP and count beats for a minute. My walking into the bathroom usually raises my heart rate a couple of beats, so I measure my heart rate until it stabilizes at a repeatable value (usually measuring it 3 or 4 times). Sometimes my heart rate doesn't come down as I measure it, but it usually comes down 1 or 2 beats and then stabilizes.
As I said, it was 49 this morning, but it probably will go up a couple of beats due to a lack of sleep last night. There is usually a 2-day delay between a lack of sleep and a rise of my heart rate. I've had two naps today, getting about an hour of sleep, but I still have a 2-hour deficit for last night. I'm going to be sure I get into bed a bit early tonight, so I might pick up another hour.
Here is a page on the importance of rest.
http://www.runninginjuryfree.org/stress.html
Here is a page that links to a graph of my wakeup heart rate over a couple of years.
http://www.runninginjuryfree.org/traininggraphs.html
Thanks for the info. I'm going to start tracking my resting heart rate upon waking in the morning, just for curiosity's sake. This afternoon after sitting down for awhile, I measured it at 55, so I'll be interested to see what it is first thing in the morning.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed recently (a week or two before my marathon and then again this week) that I can seem to feel my heart beating through my chest, as if it's pumping a lot harder. Is that normal? A sign of my body being particularly tired, perhaps?
Or maybe I'm on the verge of keeling over. ;-)
55 hmmm. I'll take a guess and say your wakeup HR will be 51-52. Take it for a week and let me know what the average is.
ReplyDeleteYour heart is beating so hard because you're an athlete and your heart is so strong it's like someone hitting your body with a big hammer :) Actually, I don't know if that sensation you feel is significant or not. The next time you feel it, measure your pulse and see if it is abnormally high.
At least in my case, my wakeup HR is a good indicator of how rested I am. A 10% increase means I'm tired but I can still run. That would be 4-5 beats. A 20% increase means I abort my plans and go back to bed instead of going out to run.
I don't know why, but it is interesting that there is usually a 2-day delay between my getting insufficient sleep and a rise in my wakeup HR. My energy level also has that 2-day delay. I guess my body is strong enough that it keeps on going for two days before the effect of a sleep-deficit hits it.