Soundtrack for St George - Into the Mystic

 What I love most about running is that a successful and  sustainable practice requires the necessity of engaging with, and eventually transcending an untold variety of contradictions. These contradictions all require balancing the joy of being present in the moment alongside the importance of respecting what the consequences of what our momentary impulses may bring, They include physical contradictions ( such as, comfort and discomfort, pain and pleasure, activity and recovery, health and injury), and more abstract or cognitive contradictions such as happiness and suffering, the mystical and the mundane, the absurd and the practical,  and finally that of self-indulgence against the awe of dissolving the self into the outside world.

These contradictions can play out in the short-term or over the long haul of a running practice, but when it comes to running there is nothing that more directly points out the importance of transcending these contradictions than a marathon race. Too much much momentary joy and too much ego-indulgence in the early parts of marathon race without the foresight to properly gauge ones limitations are sure to lead to what feels like a death march of suffering in the late stages the race. I know this well from past experience, and yet it remains a deceivingly difficult concept to employ in the moment.

With this in mind I have put together a soundtrack I will listen to during my up coming marathon in St George both to inspire and to remind. It is difficult to translate for a non-marathoner the experience of running a marathon so I am hoping the use of music and lyrics will help me in that translation. First I will present a fictional pre-race visualization of how I hope it goes. After the race I will present a slightly less fictionalized account ( since the language will under-describe the experience) :)

Unfortunately I developed a high hamstring issue during my taper. I was afraid I might not be able to run a complete race, but as it turned out I was able to adopt a slightly shorter stride and ran a pretty decent race. All post race additions will be in blue.

Waiting In a Chilled Darkness

The race begins at 6:45 am on the day of daylight savings change in Utah, and sunrise is not until about 7:30. I will be taking a 4am shuttle (equivalent to 2am Los Angeles time the day before) to the race starting point. This will leave about 1 hour and 40 minutes to wait for the race to begin. In this time period as I contemplate comedian Steven Wights one liner 'what is the speed of dark?' I will be listening to a classical music playlist that includes Beethoven's 9th, Bach's Brandenburg concerto, Vivaldi's 4 seasons, Tchaikovsky's  1812 overture, and Copeland's fanfare for the common man. I find each of these pieces to be simultaneously stirring and calming to various degrees which should create a nice mood for race preparation.

Miles 1 to 3 - (planned pace=7:56 Minutes Per Mile )
                       Actual pace=8:12 Minutes Per Mile )

It was apparent early on I would need to change plans as I was having hamstring pain from the outset and the first 3 miles were 16 seconds per mile slower than originally planned.
 
Van Morrison - is a long time favorite of mine. I haven't listened to him much in recent years so it was great fun re-connecting as I put this soundtrack together. The first track (Wild Night (youtube)) is a great one to get the mind and body moving as suggested in the lyric:

"And everything looks so complete, when you're walkin' out on the street
And the wind catches your feet, sends you flyin', cryin'
 Ooo-woo-wee! Wild night is calling,"

I think the 2nd track (Into The Mystic (youtube)) will capture the uncertainty that envelops the beginning of any marathon, especially one that begins running into pure darkness.

If their were two artists I could pick whose music brought forth within me feelings of pure joy it would be the great trumpeters Clifford Brown and Luis Armstrong. Track 3 is Browns' moving performance of 'A Night in Tunisia' (youtube)  . This live performance is bittersweet as it would be his last. Brown only 25, would not survive a car crash traveling in a rain storm between this gig and his next. This song always reminds me both of life's beauty and it's impermanence, and I always find it a privilege to experience the enduring gifts Brown left behind that live on.

Louis Armstrong - Stardust (youtube)

Miles 3 to 6 Planned Pace - (3-6=7:46 cumulative=7:51 Minutes Per Mile )
                      Actual  Pace - (3-6=7:56 cumulative=8:03 Minutes Per Mile )

 I settled into a somewhat better groove in this downhill stretch, still however 10 seconds below my planned pace for the section. My average HR for this section was 153 BPM which was higher than I wanted and a cause for concern. My shortened stride produced a higher cadence than usual (184 steps per minute at this point). This may have led to some decreased efficiency and possibly could explain the higher than expected HR., but this stride was really my only option.

Now well settled into the race after a brief celebration of the moon (Van Morrison - Moondance)

"Well, it's a marvelous night for a Moondance
......'Neath the cover of October skies....."

It is time time to take a nutrition gel and check myself so that I don't get to carried away with the surging endorphins. and quikened pace on this downhill section.

 Kurt Elling is  a personal favorite, and in my estimation the greatest vocalist of my generation. This next track of his 'Night Dreamer (youtube)'  always reminds me of the concept behind a tai chi movement I teach known as 'Lotus Sweep'. The meaning is that 'the calm is master of the overactive' which relates to finding stillness within activity. The eye of a hurricane is a good image for this concept. Here is part of Elling's Lyric that also conects to this meaning:

"I once was apprenticed to a man who was living
in the eye of the hurricane to know despair,

He knew all the dreams by heart just like sailing in a boat of
crystal silence seeing visions of the world of life within a life.
.......whirling it and swirling it and twirling it and hurling it
and overturning it and burning it again.

I shared a whirling dervish out on the side of a hill called metaphore
......And when he spoke to me he sang and his words really rang -
this child of the knowledge of the beauty of the night"

Nina Simone's haunting 'Black is the Color of my True Love's Hair  follows:

and then Elling again, this time with 'My Foolish Heart

"The night is like a lovely tune
Beware, my foolish heart
How white, the ever constant moon
Take care, my foolish heart

There's a line between love and fascination
That's hard to see, on an evening such as this
For they both give the very same sensation
When you're lost in the madness of a kiss" or a marathon :)

To experience a joyful marathon one must run the line with awareness of eventual physiological constraints which includes limiting the heart rate from rising too high too early in race. In this way paradoxically, freedom emerges from an understanding of constraint. I check to make sure my beats per minute stay below 147 at this stage.

Miles 6 to 9 Planned pace - ( 6-9=8:21, cumulative=8:01 Minutes Per Mile)
                       Actual pace - ( 6-9=8:38, cumulative=8:15 Minutes Per Mile )

This section includes a big hill and with my HR higher than hoped (154 for this stretch), I adjusted my pace accordingly.

Here I sneak in Carmen McCray singing Thelonius Monk's classic 'Round Midnight (youtube),' mostly because I just like it. The darkness is beginning to give way to tsunrise, and for the first time a horizon becomes visible. So appropriately the next track is Sun Ra's 'New Horizon (youtube)'. There is a significant hill climb between mile7 and mile 8, and I figured Ella Fitzgerald's light and energizing 'How High the Moon would be a nice distraction.

As the steepest climb has been ascended  what could be more apt then John Coltrane's majestic 'Softly as in a Morning Sunrise (youtube)' ?

Miles 9 to 12- Planned pace ( 9-12=8:29, cumulative=8:08 Minutes Per Mile) 
                           Actual pace ( 9-12=8:51, cumulative=8:16 Minutes Per Mile )

During this uphill section of rolling hills I stabilized my HR at 153 BPM, but this required some additional decrease in pace (22 seconds per mile for the section)

Miles 9 through 12 are characterized by the rolling Veyo hills and the emergence of daytime so I change the tempo a bit with some classic rock & roll starting off with Bruce Springsteen with 'Born to Run (live version)' and then 'Darkness on the Edge of Town (live version)', followed by Jackson Browne with 'Running on Empty (live version).'

"In 69 I was 21 and I called the road my own
I don't know when that road turned into the one I'm on....
running on empty, running blind...running into the sun but I'm running behind"

After mile 12 it is pretty much downhill, so I salute to the altitude after the climb and before the descent with Flora Purim and Return to Forever and Chick Corea's  '500 miles high (youtube)'

Miles 12 to 15- Planned pace ( 12-15=7:46, cumulative=8:03 Minutes Per Mile )
                          Actual pace ( 12-15=8:12, cumulative=8:22 Minutes Per Mile )

At this point in the race I knew I was not going to BQ and felt the priority was to keep my hamstring safe and my HR at 153 or lower. This required another additional decrease in pace ( now 26 seconds per mile for the section)

Mile 12 to 13 is a very slight downhill and I ease in to the halfway point of the race with BB King's - 'The Thrill is Gone' (youtube live with Bobby Blue Bland) in which his guitar belies the tracks title.

I fall into a nice downhill pace in stride with John Coltrane's Classic- Giant Steps (youtube), and once I find this new pace I am able to better appreciate the surrounding beauty while Kurt Elling sings 'Nature Boy'  must listen to 3:50 to 5:10 and 8:10 to 9:10

The downhill steepens between miles 14 and 15 and Mose Allison's 'Cruise Control' provides a reminder that while the downhill feels great at the moment there is plenty of race in front of me.
Again I summon Kurt Elling to help find this balance with his 'Eye of the Hurricane' (youtube).

"Dreaming you meet yourself, Broken open living free"

Miles 15 to 18- Planned pace ( 15-18=7:45, cumulative=8:00 Minutes Per Mile )
                            Actual pace ( 15-18=8:09, cumulative=8:20 Minutes Per Mile )

I was feeling pretty good for most of this section and my HR was maintained at 153 for the past 9 miles. Near mile 18 however I started to feel a sharp abdominal pain from too much GU without enough water to digest it properly.
This fast  section may include some of the most important miles of the race. It will be very important to maintain good downhill running form while maintaining a peaceful inner calm.

Next is Grant Green's crystal clear  toned guitar backed by John Coltrane's brilliant longtime piano player McCoy Tyner on Green's version of 'My Favorite Things (youtube). Followed by Van Mor;rison's beautiful title track from the crtically acclaimed album Astral Weeks (youtube). Bob Dylan's alltime classic finish' Like a Rollin Stone (youtbe)'  helps me roll through mile 18.

Miles 18 to 21- Planned pace ( 18-21=7:50, cumulative=7:59 Minutes Per Mile )
                          Actual pace ( 18-21=8:32, cumulative=8:22 Minutes Per Mile )

 I was feeling substantial abdominal pain for miles 18-20 and had to drop my pace accordingly. Having hit the wall at this stage in prior marathons I thought it could be happening yet again. I didn't hear much of the Hemdrix sequence but do remember focusing on the idea of the impermanence of the pain as 'Catlse made of sand played'. 'Castles made of sand fade into the sea..eventually', and so was the case with my pain which began to lift with  Curtis Mayfields  'Little child running wild'. 

Somewhere on this portion of the race I will come to a clearer understanding of my chances to acheive a Boston marathon qualifying time. Musicaly the section starts off with 3 tunes by the incomparable Jimi Hendrix.  The first two are slower tempo, beautify wistful, and melodic, peices and include his tribute to idealized femine energy in 'Little Wing' (youtube)
, and his touching ode to impermanence 'Castles made of sand' (youtube). I finish my hendrix tribute with 'All along the Watchtower' (youtube) which was ranked number 47 on rolling stones all time rock song list.

I love Curtis Mayfield's soudtrack to the movie 'Superfly' and it works well to acompany running so I sneak 3 tunes in here including 'Little Child Running Wild' (youtube), 'Pusherman (youtube), and Superfly (youtube).

Miles 21 to 24- Planned pace ( 21-24=7:54, cumulative=7:58 Minutes Per Mile )
                          Actual pace ( 21-24=8:15, cumulative=8:21 Minutes Per Mile )

 Unlike in prior marathons I was able to pick up the pace in these difficult late stage miles which felt good (psychologically). My HR climbed to 160 by mile 24 which I knew I could not sustain for long but I figured only a bit over 2 miles left so not a time to hold back anything.
Hopefully a combination of soul & blues will aid me through the most  challenging portion of the race by embracing the inevitable mental physical pain that is likely to present itself. I also interject some humor between the blues with the tracks by Mose Allison and Kurt elling.

Otis Redding has a way of penetrating deep into ones emotions acknowledging lifes pains but somehow always grounded in a sense of hope. His  'Pain in My Heart' (youtube) is then lightened up with Mose Allison's humorous  'You Call it Joggin (youtube live version).

 A little bit of macho man blues next with the great Howlin Wolf and 'Tail Dragger' (youtube).

Kurt Elling's  'Endless' (youtube) feels perfect here as he lets loose an an extemporaneous word association that is simultanepusly non-sensical and hilarious:

"trees and breasts and atoms, oxygen, oxygen and plants.........ICE CREAM!!.........."

 For me I think it captures the absuridty of this section of a marathon with the random thoughts that tend to cross ones mind. Next back to reality with the king of the delta blues Robert Johnson and Hellound on my Trail  (youtube)

"Got to keep movin, Got to keep movin, Blues falling down like hail...
and the day keeps on winding with a hell-hound on my trail....."

 Van Morrison's uplifting 'St. Dominicks Preview' (youtube) gears me up for the finish.

Miles 24 to 26.2- Planned pace ( 24-26.2=8:02, final=7:59 Minutes Per Mile )
                               Actual pace ( 24-26.2=8:33, final=8:22Minutes Per Mile)
Final Time 3:39:34

The last mile was pretty tough, it was warm and I was spent. Despite a bit slower than the original plan I felt good about my race execution, and my capacity to maintain a relatively high HR throughout the race. It was a substantial PR, yet I feel I can go faster so we will see if can follow through on that sense in my next race ( likely May 2015).
The finish line is now close enough to provide extra motivation. Excitement and fatigue are entangled and Kurt Elling 's  esoteric lyric from 'Tanya Jean' captures the moment well.

            "'Come dancing with me in a little dream, Tanya Jean',
              Said Prophet-Man-With-One-Hand-Put-Away.......

'My friend, take your practiced powers and stretch them across the  void until everything living has a chance to ponder every contradiction.

that might be everyone's Doable mission.....................Hermann Hesse said it:

'You'll search for truth among The planets and never find a truer voice
than that Voice which is calling it out to you – calling you to......Go dance in the whirlwind.' For those who have heard It, .............
.............It's saying, 'Go moaning and groaning, alone-ing.
Go Rolling on the breast of earth......Pow! Poof.
The dreaming was over. But Prophet-Man had Put mind into motion:'"

A potential BQ time ( <3 hr 30 minutes ) may be possible and I dig deep as suggested by
Van Morrison's 'Listen to the Lion' (youtube)

The result ???? 

Final Time 3:39:34

A Method for Monitoring Fitness and Avoiding Overtraining Using the Ithlete App

 My Basic Endurance Training Philosophy

It is my belief that the balancing act of approaching optimal fitness can best be accomplished through an improved understanding of the ways in which activity and rest progressively complement each other. Thus in order to experience sustained improvement as an endurance runner it is necessary to master the subtle balance between the act of running, and the process of recovery. Fitness improvements take hold as adaptations take place during recovery from exercise, not during the act of running. The stimulus from active exercise disturbs the bodies homeostasis, and when the exercise is repeated consistently the body then responds in turn with numerous adaptations. As an example two such adaptations in response to consistent running are  mitochondrial bio-genesis ( in both the muscles and the brain), and increased capillarisation, which each help to improve running economy.

This is how researchers Stanley, Peak & Buchheit put it in a recent review 'Cardiac parasympathetic reactivation following exercise: implications for training prescription'  for the journal Sports Medicine:

"The objective of exercise training is to initiate desirable physiological adaptations that ultimately enhance physical work capacity. Optimal training prescription requires an individualized approach, with an appropriate balance of training stimulus and recovery and optimal periodization."

 
 Yet in my opinion most runners place too much emphasis on the act of running ( often trying to keep to a rigid training schedule), and place too little awareness on the body's response to training during recovery.  This can lead to a less than optimal progression of fitness in 1 of 2 ways:

1. Too much running volume, or too much running intensity, with insufficient recovery. This will likely result in at best less than ideal progress (or worse lead to injury or over-training syndrome).
    
2. Too little training, and too much downtime. This will result in less than ideal fitness gains. There are days when the body and mind are primed to make ideal use of a strenuous workout. Going too easy or skipping a workout on these may be an opportunity lost.

 On the other hand, if subjective awareness of the body's response to training is combined with reliable objective bio-markers ( such as HRV ), then endurance training may be adjusted to fit the body's readiness on any given day.

Using HRV as a Biomarker to Inform Training

 Now that I have laid out my basic philosophy I would like to delve into some tools I will be using to help guide my objective understanding of how well I am responding to training. I will be using HRV   data obtained from a simple app available for i-phones or tablets (ithlete). So far it has been my experience that the HRV data can ( if used properly ) greatly inform a runners knowledge of the state of their fitness and recovery. Collection of HRV data used to be time consuming and expensive, but now requires only a 10 dollar app and a bluetooth heart monitor (in addition to the smartphone or tablet most of us already own ).  Each Ithlete app  collection session only takes 1 minute, results are instantaneous and are kept in history for reference, and there are some nice automatic graphs produced as I will show below. As a quick disclaimer I do not work for Ithlete or benefit in any way by promoting their product.

Based on my personal  experience and a fairly thorough scouring of the research I believe the most informative use of the HRV data for monitoring endurance training  requires consistent tracking of 3 types of HRV readings. It can also be useful to keep track of your training load ( TL) with miles run or a more complex measure that includes training intensity. This may sound like a lot to do, but remember this only requires less than 5 minutes of total collection time. Below are the types of HRV collection I find most informative collectively. I will follow with a graphic example of the approach using my recent data, and will finish with some of the peer reviewed research that describes why this approach can be so useful.

The three types of HRV information I will collect & present are:

1. Morning Resting HRV (mrHRV) - A Good measure of overall well-being prior to daily stress accumulation
   .
2.  Morning Standing HRV (msHRV) - A Good measure of the current state of the bodies resilience to physical stress.
   
3. Evening HRV (eHRV) - When the bodies homeostasis has been disturbed from an exercise session it requires more than usual amount of oxygen to support the adaptation process. This is known as excess post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). Taken at rest each evening, (eHRV) shows how hard & how quickly the body is working to return to it's morning resting state.

It has been my experience that a larger the gap  between morning standing HRV and morning resting HRV ( in other words mrHRV minus msHRV) indicates better resilience. This formula informs the capability of parasympathetic withdrawal (and sympathetic activation) to a low level of physical stress and is I think the best indicator of exercise readiness.

There are two very informative findings that relate to these HRV measures from the work of Stanley, Peak & Buchheit that I sourced above:
 

• Complete cardiac parasympathetic reactivation requires up to 24 h after low-intensity aerobic exercise, 24–48 h after threshold-intensity exercise and least 48 h after high-intensity exercise. Individuals with greater fitness are more resilient to training stress and require less time to recover.
  
• Metaboreflex stimulation (e.g. muscle and blood acidosis) is likely a key determinant of parasympathetic reactivation in the short term (0–90 min post-exercise), whereas baroreflex stimulation (e.g. exercise-induced changes in plasma volume) probably mediates parasympathetic reactivation in the intermediate term (1–48 h post-exercise).

 The first finding provides a clue for why including a large percentage of low intensity training may be important for sustained fitness improvements allowing sufficient recovery each day while establishing the necessary volume of training. Since threshold and interval training require more recovery time it is not wise to schedule these sessions back to back unless possibly in an overload phase prior to a race taper.

The second finding points to the importance of examining standing HRV in addition to resting HRV. The orthostatic challenge involved in standing makes (mrHRV-msHRV) a better proxy for exercise-induced changes in plasma volume then mrHRV alone.  

I say this in part because an earlier study of Dr Bucheitts 'Exercise-induced plasma volume expansion and post-exercise parasympathetic reactivation' which demonstrated the following phenomenon:

 "significant increase in all vagal-related HRV indices (and a decrease in the sympathetic related index) 2 days following a single bout of supramaximal exercise"

 This result indicates that high intensity exercise can lead to a super-compensation effect whereby resting (not standing) HRV is elevated 2 days after the exercise. A resting HRV that is elevated due to a supercompensation effect however, shoud not necessarily be interpreted as an indicator improved readiness for a difficult workout.


Thus (mrHRV-msHRV) would seem better equipped to identify the lingering effects of threshold and high intensity workouts on current exercise readiness, especially if HRV appears to rise in the initial days after threshold or high intensity exercise. I have seen exactly this pattern occur as I will show below.

Edit -- I have seen some conflicting results in the following week. In some cases high msHRV seems to indicate good fitness readiness. As usual with a closer look things are not so simple as they seemed with limited data. I have a feeling that acute fatigue, & long term fatigue have differing effects that may reverse some training interpretations.

My HRV Training Graph for 1 Week

 Due to the superior graphic tracking capabilities of the ithlete package I will use it to track my results. Ithlete allows me to simultaneously graph training load against changes in HRV both supine at rest and standing at different time points (within the day, and day to day). This will allow me to clearly display and examine 3 key indicators relevant to training. Here is an example:

Here is how to interpret the graph:

The green dots represent morning resting HRV (mrHRV) - This informs the  health of the parasympathetic nervous system at rest. It is a good measure of overall well-being prior to daily stress accumulation. My scores which tend to range in the 80's are quite high for my age group (probably in the top 1%). It is not uncommon for those doing a lot of running to have a high HRV. The blue line represents a rolling average of the mrHRV score. If the green dot drops one standard deviation below the blue line for 1 day a relatively easy training day is recommended. If the green dot drops below the blue line for 2 consecutive days a day off is suggested.

The height of the vertical white lines on any given day represents morning resting HRV minus morning standing HRV (mrHRV-msHRV). For example, in the graph above on Tuesday my morning resting HRV was 82, and my morning standing HRV was 48 so that (82-48=34).   The length of this line informs the capability of parasympathetic withdrawal (and sympathetic activation) to a lower degree of stress ( in this case the stress of standing, which is referred to in the literature as an orthostatic challenge). The 34 point HRV difference is a large gap indicating that this would be a good day for a challenging workout. As mentioned above it is my view (supported by literature and subjective experience ) that this is the best HRV indicator of exercise readiness. Generally I find the longer this vertical line is, the better I am prepared for a good training session.

The purple bars represent the training load in the form of miles run which I manually entered. It can be useful to compare HRV levels to this measure over from the previous day in order to see how a hard or easy training day effects the trend in resting HRV or the exercise readiness on any given day. Generally this is confirmed as tall purple bars ( high training load ) tend to lead to lower HRV the following day. It is also important however to keep in mind the intensity of the run as well as the research findings I bulleted above indicate that it is high intensity exercise that is likely to have the biggest effect on the vertical white lines (lowering exercise readiness ).

I would stress here that HRV is just one tool. Results need to always be interpreted with care taking into account subjective feelings of fatigue and soreness, sleep patterns, diet, emotional state, and of course the relationship between HRV results and the intended goals of recent training. For example I tend not too place much validity on my Saturday morning results as my dietary patterns on Friday evening are quite different in preparation of a long run on. I also tend to get less and lower quality sleep Friday nights.

Example of Daily HRV Interpretation and Usefulness

 

The first thing to notice regarding the resting HRV is it tends to be lower after long runs. This is expected . So for example on the first Sunday resting HRV with a score of 80 approaches the blue line which is about a standard deviation below it's typical level. This drop was in response to a 20 mile run on the previous Saturday. While the 20 mile run was at a comfortable overall pace this training load  was enough to provide a useful training stimulus without dropping the resting HRV too drastically. The shorter vertical line on Sunday completes this coherent picture and suggesting some limited exercise readiness and thus relatively easy training day.

On Sunday I restricted my running to just 7 miles, although I also taught a tai chi class and did some weight training. Monday was a very easy day with just 5 miles of easy running . Coinciding with the easier training loads are a gradual increase in resting HRV on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday reflected by the rising green dots. While the highest resting HRV score ( 88 ) is seen on Friday, Tuesday reflects the best exercise readiness level as indicated by tall white vertical line.

On Wednesday I completed a moderately taxing 15 miles that included 3 miles at marathon pace effort in the evening. As expected there was a resulting dip in my resting HRV the following morning. On Thursday I only ran 6  miles, but I did run steep long hill in the morning at a fairly high intensity. On Friday morning my resting HRV was quite high (88), leading me to suspect a transeint super-compensation effect of the prior higher intensity work-outs. I became especially wary noticing that the exercise readiness measure (mrHRV-msHRV) was somewhat low (88-67=21). In response I planned for an easy day which turned out to be a very good idea. On my easy 2.5 mile jog into work I began experiencing some reactive hypoglycemia symptoms* which I am prone to. I was able to avoid a full on event, but had I just trained with a hard effort based on the high morning resting HRV score (88) the results would likely not have been pleasant.

I should also mention that you can also see evening HRV (eHRV) in the deflection of the slope of the white line from one day to the next. Evening HRV which is taken at 9pm, had a score of 71 on Monday evening and 76 Tuesday evening. These evHRV scores as expected are lower then the mrHRV scores on the same day which were 80 and 82 respectively. This shows that excess post exercise oxygen consumption was likely occurring in the evening. By the following morning however resting HRV continued to rise showing the importance of a good nights sleep.

* notes this was the 2nd time I experienced reactive hypoglycemic symptoms with a pattern of high resting HRV and a low exercise readiness measure (mrHRV-msHRV).

**I also identified  what appears to be a mild allergic reaction to cashews and peanuts based on their effect on morning resting HRV. Resting HRV was substantially lower on mornings when I had eating substantial amounts of these nuts ( especially the cashews ) on the prior evening.

My mrHRV had dipped a bit Saturday morning. I had taken in extra carbs the evening before and had woken up quite early for this reading so I went ahead with my long run for Saturday. This was an important run for me nearing the peak of my marathon training cycle. I had been running lots of volume but a strained hamstring had prevented any faster running. With the hamstring feeling better I wanted to get a substantial number of miles a my ideal goal marathon pace. This graph includes the Saturday run and Sunday morning HRV results:

On my 18.5 mile Saturday run I included a 2 mile warm-up followed by 10 miles at ideal marathon pace (8 min miles), followed by 4 miles at a comfortables pace, and finally another 2 miles close to marathon pace at the end. After this run I am thinking my current fitness probably supports 8:10 min marathon pace but 8 flat may be stretching it. Sunday morning (April 20th) HRV results show that I am still recovering from that run. My mHRV is a bit low but more importantly the short white vertical line indicates low exercise readiness. This is also in line with my subjective sense, so as a result I will skip my planned morning easy run and check HRV again later in the day to see if an easy evening run makes sense. I am already at about 60 miles for the week so even though I had planned for 67 a day off would not hurt if waranted.

Edit -- I have seen some conflicting results in the following week. In some cases high msHRV seems to indicate good fitness readiness. I have read multiple recent studies making the case for using weekly HRV averages rather than daily values. The daily values are more contain more noise ( more variable ) which clouds interpretation. In my soon to come update I will include weekly averages as well as a weekly fitness test indicator.

Some links to peer reviewed research for those interested:

 

On the use of HRV in monitoring fitness training

see Simon Wegerifs excellent summary  of Dr. Martin Buchheits research here  

A few of the interesting findings

• Participants with the highest starting HRV were the fastest runners, but those with lowest starting HRV showed the most improvement.
• All 11 responders showed increases in their morning HRV, and the ones with the largest gains in performance showed the biggest increases in HRV.
• An improvement of 10% in 10k run time required an average of 15% improvement in morning HRV, though two participants who achieved improvements of 15% in HRV achieved a more modest 3-4% improvement in 10k time.

Buchheit M, Chivot A, Parouty J, Mercier D, Al Haddad H, Laursen PB, Ahmaidi S.

Eur J Appl Physiol. 2010 Apr;108(6):1153-67. doi: 10.1007/s00421-009-1317-x. Epub 2009 Dec 22.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20033207

also

"In conclusion, when controlled for changes in body mass

occurring as a result of growth and maturation, substantial

improvements in submaximal exercise HR and Ln rMSSD

(but not HRR) are highly predictive of improvements in maximal aerobic speed"

 M. Buchheit,  M. B. Simpson, H. Al Haddad,  P. C. Bourdon,  A. Mendez-Villanuev
* note that Ln rMSSD is the HRV measure Ithlete uses

And

"Cardiorespiratory fitness can be efectively improved during endurance training by using daily HRV for exercise prescription. A lower-intensity training stimulus, whenever attenuated vagally mediated HRV occurs, might be benificial to gain favorable response in endurance training."

 Antti M. Kiviniemi ·Arto J. Hautala ·Hannu Kinnunen · Mikko P. Tulppo 2007

 "Results of recent studies support the hypothesis that assessment of ANS functioning includes important information concerning acute and chronic physiological processes before, during and after aerobic exercise training stimulus. Moreover, we show that daily assessment of ANS activity could serve as an indicator of appropriate physiological condition for aerobic training."

Hautala AJ¹, Kiviniemi AM, Tulppo MP. 2009

 

 

More on the importance of testing HRV standing as well as supine

"Exercise-induced changes in sympathetic and parasympathetic ANS control differ, depending on posture and period of measurement. Exercise induced changes in parasympathetic and sympathetic outflow, respectively, can be extracted from measurements from supine, through the orthostatic response, to standing, thereby detecting changes in ANS that are otherwise obscured.
"However, this study also clearly demonstrates the novel relationship between HRV indicators and indicators of physical fitness during an orthostatic stressor. Participants with greater physical fitness showed increased responsiveness (indicated by increased sympathetic activity and vagal withdrawal) to the orthostatic challenge." 

 
Grant CC¹, Viljoen M, Janse van Rensburg DC, Wood PS. 2012

Relationship between exercise capacity and heart rate variability: Supine and in response to an orthostatic stressor 

"However, this study also clearly demonstrates the novel relationship between HRV indicators and indicators of physical fitness during an orthostatic stressor. Participants with greater physical fitness showed increased responsiveness (indicated by increased sympathetic activity and vagal withdrawal) to the orthostatic challenge. "

Catharina C. Grant^a,  Jimmy R. Clark^b, Dina C. Janse van Rensburg^a, Margaretha Viljoen^c
2009

also see Andrew Flatts Ithlete blog

Documenting My Marathon Training With Heart Rate Variability

Back in May 2013 I finally found a solution to a series of nagging knee injuries that had plagued me for 2 1/2 years restricting the volume of running I could manage to about 20 miles a week. Since that time I have gradually been able to increase that volume up to the 60 miles a week I am currently running (yippee  ).

I run primarily for the joy it brings me which is closely linked to the health benefits running provides, but I am now also looking forward to the challenge of attempting to qualify for the Boston marathon. I signed up for a May marathon thinking that the qualifying time for my age group was 3 hrs 35 minutes. Last week however, I discovered that I actually would need to run the marathon in less than 3 hrs and 30 minutes to potentially qualify. It will be a difficult challenge to reach the necessary fitness level in the time before the marathon while also losing about 10 pounds.

In order to attempt this challenge in a healthy way I will be monitoring my heart rate variability (HRV). HRV is a catch all term for a number of measures that capture the hearts subtle response patterns at rest (see this link for more description). A high HRV score is generally associated with good health and well-being. The primary measure of HRV recommended for use in studies of endurance is the root mean square of successive differences in heartbeats (RMSSD). I am also including  two other measures HRV which have shown to correlate with cognitive stress (Shannon Entropy  and Correlation Dimension (D2)) mostly for my own interest to see how they vary with training.

There are two primary uses of HRV data in endurance training.

1.  Day to day variations in HRV data in response to training are very useful to recognize when rest or an easy workout are a good idea to avoid over-training.
2. Weekly averages can be compared to identify gradual improvement in fitness over time.

It is my view that while an objective measure such as HRV can be an extremely useful tool we should also keep in mind it's limitations. If the subtle beating pattern of a heart at rest projects the state of harmony between the body, mind, and environment, we must remember that HRV data is still a partial map of the territory, an abstraction from the reality of the continuous ongoing relationships. Our subjective perceptions of our internal state of wellness are also limited and prone to any number of biases. Therefore the objective HRV data is most useful as a complement to our own internal perceptions, not as a replacement of those perceptions. Without further ado lets get to the results.

Week beginning Jan 6

I began collecting data on Thursday January9. To set the stage I had run 61 and 63 miles in the two previous weeks respectively. I count my weeks starting on Monday as my marathon will take place on a Sunday. I ran 3 miles on Monday, 12 on Tuesday, and 12 on Wednesday leading to the beginning of HRV data collection Thursday morning.



Thursday Jan 9

After waking 7:02 AM
Beats Per Minute = 47.9
RMSSD=61.2, Shannon Entropy =2.82, Correlation Dimension (D2)=3.57

The results indicate that I was responding well to the previous running this week as morning HRV indicators suggest full recovery from prior workouts. An RMSSD of 61.2 is a high HRV score and is consistent  with my typical score when I am well rested and feeling good.

I taught a 2 hr Tai Chi class in the AM, then ran an easy 9 miles on Thursday (4.5 to work, 4.5 back) carrying my backpack and clothes for the day. I felt especially good on the return run given the miles I had run on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Friday  Jan10

After waking 6:12 AM:
Beats Per Minute = 46.5
RMSSD=54.5, Shannon Entropy =2.94, Correlation Dimension (D2)=3.48

Again the HRV data suggest good recovery from the prior workout. My legs however felt a bit stale/tired during the easy 7 miles I ran to and from work on Friday.


Sat Jan 11

After waking 5:48 AM:
Beats Per Minute = 48.9
RMSSD=42.0, Shannon Entropy =2.70, Correlation Dimension (D2)=3.62

The RMMSSD result suggests that the accumulation may have resulted in less then full recovery this morning.

Nevertheless I had an excellent (if difficult) workout  with my running group the LA Leggers. We ran 11 miles. I ran the first 4.6 miles at an 8:20 pace uphill (over 400 foot gain), the next 1 1/2 miles at 7:40 pace, and the last 5 miles at 8 minute per mile pace. I would not have been able to maintain those paces on the same course a month ago.

To demonstrate the effect that a hard workout can have resting HRV data I collected my heart rate data twice more on Saturday (4 and 8 hrs after the run)

After Hard Run 12:36 PM:
Beats Per Minute = 59.7
RMSSD=24.4, Shannon Entropy =3.18, Correlation Dimension (D2)=0.85

Later 4:34 PM:
Beats Per Minute = 56.6
RMSSD=28.1, Shannon Entropy =2.83, Correlation Dimension (D2)=3.43

It is clear that HRV measures drop sharply after a hard workout and recovery takes time. This is the time when beneficial fitness adaptations are taking place.

Sunday Jan 12 (Happy Birthday #51 to me )

I also collected my heart rate data twice more on Sunday to further document the recovery/adaptation process. In the am I still had not fully recovered. This shows why it is generally not a great idea to string hard workout efforts on consecutive days if you are running on most days.

By 4 pm however my HRV data was at it's high point for the week.

After waking 7:13 AM:
Beats Per Minute = 42.0
RMSSD=45.5, Shannon Entropy =2.77, Correlation Dimension (D2)=3.95

Later after teaching Tai Chi 4PM:

Beats Per Minute = 49.0
RMSSD=61.7, Shannon Entropy =2.56, Correlation Dimension (D2)=3.35

 I then ran an easy 6 mile run in the evening.