Showing all posts tagged heart-rate-variability:

10 September 2014

Woken by the alarm at what is now my usual time of 07:30 which is good. First thing to do now is to do my HRV test which I have just done and I can the boot up the old W7 PC whilst breakfast is cooking then later have a look at the numbers to see how I should fare on the training front. I think this little arrangement will work just fine really pleased I got this gear up and running again, such a shame not to be using it.

Delighted that Lorena has taken to the Reminders application which she seems to love. Currently I’m procrastinating about going out on my bike but I’m going to have to shift myself soon. Sadly Lorena is still not feeling properly better and has cancelled her scheduled clarinet practice with Paul Penman so she can’t be feeling right at all. Hope it sorts itself out soon.

Went out on my bike after lunch and did around 40 miles up to Bamburgh, pretty windy which made it very hard work on the way home. Not really sure where I want to go with my cycling but I suppose if I just keep doing a bit things might become clearer after a while.

Uploaded a few screenshots of some HRV graphs to Flickr, amazing what an impact a training session has on the data and therefore on your central nervous system, actually quite scary!

Stuart "Hippy" Birnie is riding from Lands End to John O'Groats as a sort of record attempt trial run, I really hope he will be Ok, just far too big a thing for me to ever contemplate.

For anyone who is interested in these things this might illustrate what riding a bike at a tempo effort for a couple of hours does to your autonomic nervous system (ANS) and why you need time to recover. I repeated the HRV test I did the other day a little while after returning from today's ride and the two graphs are attached, you can see the post ride one identified in the "Note" section. Using this system one can observe the recovery of the ANS and only then ride hard again as a strategy for avoiding digging a big training hole for yourself. Yes, the scales on the two graphs are the same, it's my central nervous system that's changed!


PDF HRV report from Kubios Software available for download here:

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Facebook Updated: September 10, 2014 at 11:03AM Thinking of the new Apple Watch as well as a host of other technology I thought this was a wonderful measure of utility/value when I read it: "One key test for any new product must be whether you would feel the need to turn around if you had left it at home."

Facebook Updated: September 10, 2014 at 11:46AM Can anyone help? I want to try to avoid the extortionate cost of parking at Newcastle Airport when Lorena and I go to Majorca for approximately 3 weeks. On recent trips I have parked near a friend's house which has been convenient but I do feel a bit uncomfortable leaving the car on the road outside someone's house for several weeks. What I have done is park the car there and then travel the short distance to the airport by taxi which is a hell of a lot cheaper than two taxi fares from Alnwick or the rip-off parking charges. The other thing is that if I am around I am always happy to help out if someone needs an airport drop-off or collection to avoid being fleeced, all suggestions welcomed!

Facebook Updated: September 10, 2014 at 12:46PM Great scheme this. Order stuff from Wiggle and have it delivered free of charge directly to Majorca, saves packing and carting stuff around. Worked a treat last year. Do it well in advance and you know before you set off whether things have arrived safely :-)

Facebook Updated: September 10, 2014 at 01:53PM Nice work if you can get it, a heck of a reward for failure! "Former Manchester United manager David Moyes and his back room staff received a total of £5.2m in compensation following his sacking in April after less than a year in the job."

09 September 2014

Been really struggling to get going this morning, as has Lorena. Ended up making coffee and having it in bed so it's now just gone 11:30 and we have essentially done nothing, which has actually been rather nice. Finally about to make an effort and go and get a walk done to try to start things moving in the right direction but I'm finding this just sooooo difficult at the moment.

Around lunchtime Lorena took a turn for the worse and was feeling dizzy and peculiar which is a worry. Gave her some food and she lay down for much of the afternoon so there was no way I was going to go out walking in case she needed some help. No idea what the problem is but I really hope it will quickly pass and not come back again illness is the very last thing that either of us needs.

All in all not a good day even though today was the day that Apple launched the new iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch, lovely looking products as always but I’ll not be buying anything I can’t shoot and edit video on!

I have spent most of this evening getting my Polar RS800 heart rate monitor up and running with a new battery, finding the compatible chest belt and the infra red bridge to get the data off it. Once I had all that working I needed to relearn how to use the Polar Precision Performance software in order to produce the desired plots and I managed to do that OK after some fiddling. Tried getting the Kubio HRV software to run but failed so I abandoned that and will stick with the Polar package for now and see how I go, should be good enough for me. Did a little trial this evening to see how things are looking and to test things out and here is the result:

So it looks as if that will work out OK and it will be interesting to see whether I can make use of this as a worthwhile training tool. As is the case with all these things it is going to be about building up some history with the system and that, in theory at least, starts tomorrow with a good tempo ride, oh goody!

PDF HRV report from Kubios Software available for download here:

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Facebook Updated: September 09, 2014 at 08:14AM I am finding that I am choosing to turn my mobile telephone off more and more often, it's liberating.

Facebook Updated: September 09, 2014 at 08:17AM Good to see that The Clangers are making a comeback with Michael Palin :-)

Facebook Updated: September 09, 2014 at 08:19AM Have to confess that I am more interested in the return of The Clangers than I am in the birth of yet another royal baby for the taxpayer to ferry about and feed.

Facebook Updated: September 09, 2014 at 11:34AM Disappointed in Alnwick Tree Surgeons so far. Asked for a quotation, met up on site, quotation promised for the following day. That was last Friday, guess the rest.

Facebook Updated: September 09, 2014 at 08:21PM I've decided to relaunch my study and use of heart rate variability as a training aid. The first challenge was to work out what I did the last time I looked at this stuff but I'm over that hurdle now. I'm glad I keep notes, saves hours in the long run :-)

Facebook Updated: September 09, 2014 at 10:55PM Absolutely fantastic, the new Apple Watch looks very pretty and with all it's activity monitoring features people will be able to measure exactly why they are piling on the pounds, a huge leap forward! :-)