What to do when your HRV tanks?

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Hey all, here is an example of the benefits of AI Coach and Recovery data.

(requires you to wear your Garmin watch to bed)
Below is my recovery chart showing the last six weeks. There are two instances to check a little closer.

  1. When I went skiing in Revelstoke and spend some time doing what I love to do most, skiing (both alpine and Nordic) with some Amazing people (@Prof @cmaloney ), sauna, hot tub, snow angels/rolls, being surrounded by the majestic Rocky Mountains and fresh mountain air. Soul Food. :heart_eyes: My nervous system LOVED it, and I felt like on top of the world.
  2. But, reality awaits and I gotta get back to the grind. Notably, the HRV shows a steady decrease. Then something unexpected, upsetting, disturbing event happens and my anxiety sky rockets. I wake up early in am, can’t sleep. BOOM, HRV dips below 7 day average. My ongoing battles with plantar fasciitis also told me my stress is out of control and some self-care is needed.
  3. AI Coach gave me a gentle nudge on Friday: " hey, your HRV is decreasing." Another nudge on Saturday. “You are at risk of overexerting yourself”.
  4. So what are the exact steps I had to do to break the downwards spiraling trend before I’d get sick or injured?
  5. I had a longer run planned for Saturday (marathon in two weeks) but at this point of the game, I hear the alarm bells. I still went for a run, but shortened it AND lowered intensity to Zone 1/2, and ran partly on grass to give my heel a break from pounding it against concrete.
    That helped a little bit (HRV up a tad), but I needed to take some additional steps.
    Sunday I had two runs planned, but I only did the shorter 35 min easy on grass. Deleting one of the key sessions took some courage and confidence, but I did it, and had a nap instead! Yay , me! (old MJ would have pushed on).
    I also spend some time reading and stretching, gave my heal a little massage and positive thoughts.
    Ate a big nutritious salad with steak for dinner and went to bed early!

Monday morning HRV back to normal and sits even on the upper normal range.

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Wanted to illustrate this point here because it’s pretty incredible how the AI coach now gives you a snap shot of your daily recovery profile. When you check your training in the morning, click the AI Coach to see what he recommends.

I’ve been there so many times before where HRV has tanked but I’ve kept executing what is in my training plan, without adjustments, only to end up injured, sick and eventually overtrained.

It took me some time to have the courage to trust HRV guided training, but I’m glad I have a trusted coach who is an expert in this area to lean on @prof. BTW, The Prof has a patience of a Saint because I don’t know how many times I would repeat the same mistake all over again before I learned… :rofl:

And NOW, all Athletica athletes have exact same expertise at their fingertips. That’s pretty incredible if you ask me.

Now, I have a questions for YOU:

  1. Do you read daily AI coach overview?
  2. Do you alter your training based on recovery chart / HRV?
  3. What is the biggest challenge about HRV guided training for you?

Best, MJ

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This is great stuff, Marjaana. This should be an Athletica blog post!

Although my HRV4Training data doesn’t connect directly to Athletica, I use it every day to determine training readiness. The biggest challenge is when I’m feeling good, I have a good workout ahead, and my HRV is yellow! Then what to do? I usually go ahead and do the workout, but if I get several yellow days in a row, I take it easy. Red is always an off day.

It’s awesome that the AI Coach can give us feedback. I haven’t clicked on him (it’s a picture of me since I’m a coach!) until today and loved the positive feedback.

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I use HRV4training too till almost 8 years and yes i am in difficult to jump a session if it says i am not in good conditions but there were some occasions with red flag and also me feeling very low where i skipped the hardcsession and done some yoga exercises. It’s wonderful having same information on our app also if it is based on garmin data and sometimes i don’t trust to much in them but i try to focus on trend.

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