All through summer I was down to 54-56. This month I can’t seem to stay below 60 and it appears to be rising all the time. I don’t feel any less fitter on the bike. You might say I even feel fitter now after starting a structured programme in September.
Fatigue?
What kind of riding were you doing before Sept?
Other than that…who knows. So many things affect HR, you’re going to have to sleuth it out.
Elevated RHR is often a sign of fatigue, or impeding illness (like when you’re getting a cold, but before other symptoms show).
Depending how you feel, back off for a couple of days and get proper sleep in.
My RHR goes up significantly if I’m tired, sick, have been travelling, or have had any alcohol or a big meal near bed time. Would start by ruling all of those out. Looks like you have a Fitbit which presumably tracks sleep as well, so have a look at your sleep stats when your RHR was lower.
A bit of variance is normal, looking at my last couple of months mine has varied from 40 to 64. The 64 was an outlier (long haul flight for a cycling event which we celebrated with way too many beers afterwards…), but anything between 40 and low 50s is very normal for me, if it starts creeping up into the mid 50s and it’s not alcohol-related then that’s normally a sign I’m getting ill and/or am in need of a recovery week.
Before September I was doing largely unstructured training. Making myself faster by beating segments on Strava - no real control over pacing and power.
Ive considered it being fatigue and I guess it’s possible.
I’ve taken a rest day today (as per programme) but want to wait until my prescribed rest week before taking a rest. The HR reading did drop back to 63 today after an intense session yesterday so I’m hopeful it’s under control
I think I’ll continue to monitor it and if it goes anywhere near 70 I’ll back off
I’m jealous that as a non drinker of alcohol I can not seem to get below 54. Maybe I should make my margin of variance larger as you say, you give yourself about 15 points before you get worried and I’ve given myself about 10.
Sleep wise I’m getting quality sleep about twice a week which isn’t bad for someone with my type of lifestyle and profile so Whilst it needs work it’s been a consistent factor across the board
2 nights a week of quality sleep isn’t enough. And while the sleep may have been consistent the training hasn’t, you’ve stepped it up. So my guess is that one explanation for the trend upwards is that your sleep was just about enough to recover from the lower amount of training you were doing previously, but now you’re training more you need to sleep more as well.