Trying to understand my HR

Training
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Hi All,

I am wondering what I am doing wrong with my trainings. Yesterday I had a ride and since the beginning I felt that my hear works really quick. I did not feel very well and I could not reach enough power. 4 days earlier (on Thursday) I had a good group ride where I could reach my new max HR (189) and I felt really good. The same “good” rides I had on last Wednesday, Tuesday, Monday and Sunday. Theoretically, my yesterday ride had the same avg HR as the one from Thursday (avg HR 153), but even algorithm on Strava showed that my relative effort is much higher (311 vs 216). I thought that 4 days of break is quite enough and I also see that after few days of no ride, my first ride when I come back is really painful (increased HR and cannot reach enough power).

Does anybody have similar symptomps? Any thoughts?

PS I can add that I ride quite frequently, days off are results of bad weather, etc. I do not have breaks bigger than 1 week. For me it’s obvious that my fitness level should be better and better, but sometimes rides like the one mentioned above makes me feel that something is wrong, because I had good rides few trainings in a row, and then suddenly I have a week or two of really low rides…

Appreciate your support.

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Changes in HR can be due to heat (or lack of), hydration, fatigue, or getting ill. And probably a few other things I have missed, like caffeine, medication/drugs, or even food. Also of course it could mean there’s something wrong with your heart, but I think that is much more unlikely than any of the other things.

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Pretty common and there is a lot information about this in recovery days topics. Your blood volume lowers a little bit and also your heart is recovering, as this is a muscle. So your heart have to beat faster to pump more blood. To have some numbers:
VO2max in eight endurance-trained men before and after 2-4 wk of inactivity. Detraining produced a 9% decline in blood volume (5,177 to 4,692 ml; P less than 0.01) during upright exercise, due primarily to a 12% lowering (P less than 0.01) of plasma volume (PV; Evans blue dye technique). SV was reduced by 12% (P less than 0.05) and VO2max declined 6% (P less than 0.01), whereas heart rate (HR) and total peripheral resistance (TPR) during submaximal exercise were increased 11% (P less than 0.01) and 8% (P less than 0.05), respectively.

It is 2-4 weeks but as you can see the numbers are pretty huge.

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