36 today

Measuring your resting heart rate should be a simple affair, but somehow I seem to make it complicated.

It is generally accepted that it is a good idea to take your resting pulse rate each morning. If your pulse rate is elevated by, say, 5bpm, you should take it easy that day. More than a 10bpm rise and you should take time off training until it has dropped. These figures may be my interpretation, but they work for me.

In 'Running to the Top', Arthur Lydiard warns not to take too much notice of resting heart rate, due to the vagaries of hydration, room temperature and stress. He may have a point!

I have to take my pulse manually, as I can't seem to get my heart rate monitor to make proper contact, particularly lying on my side. If I take my pulse on waking, the alarm causes my pulse to rocket up. I can't then get settled as I'm thinking about work and the need to get up and ready myself. My pulse is all over the place. No consistency!

So here's the scheme: I pretty much always get up in the small hours to go to the loo - the consequence of a glass of water before bedtime, hydration being the watch-word of all good athletes (no hint of irony!). I get back in bed and take my pulse. I do this by lying on my side holding my wrist and counting. Unfortunately there's no seconds display on the bedside LED alarm clock, so I carefully watch for the minute digit to tick over and count a full minute of beats. Unfortunately I'm very short sighted so I have to wear my glasses. It's tricky to get comfortable lying on your side wearing glasses and I have to get the position of the pillow just right so that it doesn't press my specs into the bridge of my nose. Of course many is the time that the alarm has woken me several hours later, still wearing my glasses, with the bridge of my nose pushed to the far side of my face!

Now having got myself into an apparently comfortable position, I have to wait for my pulse to drop, as I've just got back into bed after visiting the loo. 46bpm, 44bpm, 43bpm, 41bpm, 40bpm, 38bpm, 37bpm, 36bpm, 36bpm. It can take several minutes for my pulse to stabilise. I will generally drop off to sleep, hopefully having remembered to remove my specs, and can fortunately remember my pulse on waking.

If only it was that simple!

It generally goes something like this:

"1, 2, 3, when's the digit going, 4, to change?, 5, 6, my eyes are dry, 7, I can't keep them open, 8, I'll close them for a while, 9, 10, 11, 12, have a peek, 13, not changed yet, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, another peek, ah its changed! "
"1, 2, did it change on 16?, 3, 4, or 18?, 5, 6, or nearer 20?, 21, 22, 23, 24, oh bum! miscount! Wait for the digits again"
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, hmmm eyes are dry, 6, 7, I don't need to look, 8, 9, for a while, so I'll close them for a bit, 10, 11, 12, 13..."
"...39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, check the time, 45, drat! it's changed already! 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, better keep counting, 51, 52, for a second minute, 53, 54..."
"...78, 79, take a peek, 80, 81, 82, digits changed!"
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, so was that a minute of 42?, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, followed by a minute of 40? , 11, 12, 13, 14..."
"...36, 37, 38, digit's changed"
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... ...18, 19, 30, 31, 32, 33... ....42, should have changed by now, 43, 44, 45, maybe miscounted?, 46, 47, changed! Must have miscounted drat!"
"1, 2, 3... ...35, 36, 37, changed - must have skipped 10 last time?"
"1, 2, 3... ...16, 17... 18.... sleepy... 19.... 20..... 21......... 22........... 23................"
[Sound of alarm]
"Ow my nose hurts! I'm still wearing my glasses? Bugger, not again!"

Some mornings it works better than others. My resting pulse was 36 this morning. This is back down to its lowest ever. A good sign that I might have got over the cold bug and be getting back some fitness!