How I'm doing.
Updated
Run down. My heart rate variability is down and my resting heart rate is up at the same time this week, which in my own data is the clearest sign that my body needs rest. On top of that, last night's heart rate variability was 40 ms, under my usual floor of 48 ms. Today is for rest. I'm in week 1 of a 4 week training block.
Fri, Oct 9, last night
- HRV
- 40 ms7 night 43.8, low
- Resting HR
- 53 bpm7 night 51.0, high
- Asleep
- 7 h 32 minnormal
- Call
- Rest
- On
- Game of Codes
The lines are 7 night averages
Blue is heart rate variability, violet is resting heart rate, each averaged over the 7 nights up to that point. A single night can fall while its average rises: when a 50 replaces an even lower night from a week ago, the average still goes up. The numbers above the chart show the night itself and its average side by side.
Height is versus my normal
Each metric is measured against its own average over the 60 nights before, so milliseconds, beats a minute and hours can share one scale. The shaded band is my normal range: half of my usual night to night spread either side of my average, which is the smallest change the research counts as a real one. Above it is higher than usual, below it is lower. Its edges are where a check passes or fails, so a line just inside one still passes. My normal moves too, a little, every night.
Good is blue up, violet down
High heart rate variability and low resting heart rate are the recovered direction, so a hard stretch shows as the two lines pulling apart, blue sinking and violet rising. The bars are sleep: up is a longer night than usual, down a shorter one, outlined under 7 hours.
Last night
Friday, October 9 / Oura ring and Apple Watch
- HRV
- 40ms
- usual 48 to 54
- Resting heart rate
- 53bpm
- usual 47 to 50
- Asleep
- 7:32h
- week avg 7 h 14 min
- Breathing
- 15/min
- usual 15.2
- Skin temperature
- +0.2°C
- ring, vs my normal
- Blood oxygen
- 96%
- lowest 95%
- Disturbances
- 2/h
- breathing, under 5 normal
- Wrist temperature
- −0.1°C
- watch, vs my normal
The seven checks
4 of 7 pass
Every morning my phone asks the same seven questions of my ring, my watch and me. All seven pass and I train hard. One or two fail and I keep it easy. Three or more, any sign of getting sick, or my heart rate variability down while my resting heart rate is up, and I rest.
- YesNo sign I'm getting sick
- YesI don't feel run down
- NoLast night's heart rate variability is in my normal range
- NoThis week's heart rate variability is in my normal range
- NoThis week's resting heart rate isn't above my normal range
- YesI slept at least 7 hours
- Yes48 hours since my last hard session
This week's training
5 sessions / 3 h 45 min / 3 hard
Easy, below VT1ModerateHard, above VT2* a hard session
- ThuRun49 min / 5.3 km
- MonRunHR recovery 3730 min / 2.4 km
- MonRun, Rønnestad-Hansen Intervals45 min / 6.7 kmhard
- MonRun, Rønnestad-Hansen Intervals11 min / 1.1 kmhard
- SatRun, Norwegian 4x4 Intervals90 min / 10.2 kmhard
Moving and fitness
Thursday, October 8 / Apple Watch
- Steps
- 16,679
- week avg 12,619
- Exercise
- 84min
- week avg 63
- Active energy
- 689kcal
- week avg 600
- Daylight
- 69min
- week avg 89
- VO2max
- 38.5ml/kg/min
- −1.2 since Aug 11
- Walking heart rate
- 89bpm
- 7 day average
- Resting heart rate, all day
- 63bpm
- Apple's, 7 day average
VO2max here is my watch's estimate from runs and walks. For any one person it can be off by around 13%, so its direction over weeks says more than the number.
Where this comes from
I sleep in an Oura ring and an Apple Watch, and train with the watch. An app I built for my phone reads both from Apple Health, compares every night with the 60 nights before it rather than with anyone else's numbers, and makes the call for the day. Each time I open it, it rewrites this page.
The ring's numbers make the call. The watch adds what the ring doesn't measure: blood oxygen, breathing disturbances and wrist temperature overnight, how much I moved, and how fit I am. When the ring misses a night's temperature, the watch's stands in.
Heart rate variability is the small beat to beat wobble in my heart rate while I sleep. It drops when my body is dealing with something: hard training, poor sleep, stress, a cold on its way. So a low week is my body asking for rest before I can feel it.
None of the rules are mine. Each one comes from the research below, and each reference says which part of this page it backs.
References
15 peer reviewed papers
- 01
Training hard only when HRV is in range
Endurance training guided individually by daily heart rate variability measurements
Kiviniemi AM, Hautala AJ, Kinnunen H, Tulppo MP (2007). European Journal of Applied Physiology, 101(6):743–751. doi:10.1007/s00421-007-0552-2
- 02
My normal range: the rolling mean ± 0.5 SD
Individual endurance training prescription with heart rate variability
Vesterinen V, Nummela A, Heikura I, et al. (2016). Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 48(7):1347–1354. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000000910
- 03
Training hard only when HRV is in range
Training prescription guided by heart-rate variability in cycling
Javaloyes A, Sarabia JM, Lamberts RP, Moya-Ramon M (2019). International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 14(1):23–32. doi:10.1123/ijspp.2018-0122
- 04
The 7 night average rather than any single night
Evaluating training adaptation with heart-rate measures: a methodological comparison
Plews DJ, Laursen PB, Kilding AE, Buchheit M (2013). International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 8(6):688–691. doi:10.1123/ijspp.8.6.688
- 05
HRV above the range can mean strain, not freshness
Plews DJ, Laursen PB, Stanley J, Kilding AE, Buchheit M (2013). Sports Medicine, 43(9):773–781. doi:10.1007/s40279-013-0071-8
- 06
Reading HRV and resting heart rate together, and half an SD of my own nights as the smallest change that counts for both
Monitoring training status with HR measures: do all roads lead to Rome?
Buchheit M (2014). Frontiers in Physiology, 5:73. doi:10.3389/fphys.2014.00073
- 07
Comparing me with my own baseline, not with anyone else
Altini M, Plews D (2021). Sensors, 21(23):7932. doi:10.3390/s21237932
- 08
A resting heart rate just above my normal range counting as fatigue
Nuuttila OP, Uusitalo A, Kokkonen VP, Weerarathna N, Kyröläinen H (2024). European Journal of Sport Science, 24(7):857–869. doi:10.1002/ejsc.12115
- 09
Resting heart rate rising before I feel sick
Pre-symptomatic detection of COVID-19 from smartwatch data
Mishra T, Wang M, Metwally AA, et al. (2020). Nature Biomedical Engineering, 4(12):1208–1220. doi:10.1038/s41551-020-00640-6
- 10
Breathing rate and skin temperature as an early warning
Mason AE, Hecht FM, Davis SK, et al. (2022). Scientific Reports, 12:3463. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-07314-0
- 11
At least 7 hours asleep
Watson NF, Badr MS, Belenky G, et al. (2015). Sleep, 38(6):843–844. doi:10.5665/sleep.4716
- 12
How far to trust the ring
The sleep of the ring: comparison of the ŌURA sleep tracker against polysomnography
de Zambotti M, Rosas L, Colrain IM, Baker FC (2019). Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 17(2):124–136. doi:10.1080/15402002.2017.1300587
- 13
The morning check-in counting as much as the ring
Saw AE, Main LC, Gastin PB (2016). British Journal of Sports Medicine, 50(5):281–291. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2015-094758
- 14
Rating how hard each session felt
A new approach to monitoring exercise training
Foster C, Florhaug JA, Franklin J, et al. (2001). Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 15(1):109–115. doi:10.1519/00124278-200102000-00019
- 15
Mostly easy training, and space between hard sessions
What is best practice for training intensity and duration distribution in endurance athletes?
Seiler S (2010). International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 5(3):276–291. doi:10.1123/ijspp.5.3.276