Usually not so variable and random like with Z2. After recovery week my HR is always elevated and jumps quite quickly into higher levels and stays there for longer when doing threshold and above.
Interesting points / questions! I’m actually finding it quite hard to get a reliable comparison between hard efforts. This is the heart rate v power graph for the relevant periods from Intervals - as you can see it gets a bit messy above 250 (about low Z4).
I’m currently just doing long Z2 rides to RPE and trying my best to ignore HR…
I only look at hr as part of bigger trend from the same types of efforts. In wko I have charts for threshold, endurance and o/u and I look at long changes in hr, ef and power. For example when doing threshold my avg HR vary 2 bpm for the whole workout duration. The most important variables are temperature, time of the day and proximity of meal. When it is hot, hr is way higher. During evening workouts my hr usually is higher and rpe is a bit higher also. Evening workouts are usually done with bigger meal 2h before and that also causes my hr to be higher. So as you can see there are too many variables to get some definitive conclusion. So I only care about abnormalities (like my HR went up too high doing first 20 min interval or my hr is quite low for couple of rides).
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I had the same thing at the end of February. I got COVID but had no symptoms at all, until the sudden rise in hr. From what I understand even non symptomatic COVID can cause minor inflammation in the heart. I had to back way off on training. Riding by hr and not power, it took about 6 weeks to get back to normal.
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You are saying the weather hasn’t changed, but it actually has, it’s just still cold for the time of the year. But until about 2-3 weeks ago, night time temperatures were just barely above freezing, even when the day time temperatures were more similar. Now it’s about 5 C warmer, but that could make a difference, if you train very early or late?
(Warm weather forecast from tomorrow, finally!!)
The other simple thing to rule out - have you changed or checked your HR monitor?
Just coming back to this, first of all for an update - my heart rate seems to be returning to normal; I bought a Whoop strap and my resting HR overnight seems to be settling down with the odd blip.
I’ve been a bit two steps forward, one step back with fitness, but this weekend I hit power numbers for 3 20min threshold intervals that weren’t far off where I was before getting the vaccine. So hopefully getting there soon.
But also, I spotted the following article which brought me some comfort. The way he describes feeling “limited” is exactly how I felt doing what should be sweetspot and just dying…