Forum posts to 'Forum'

Re: Tips on performing the daily measurement

moderator — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:24:08 +0100

Hi Darren

Your high HRV scores and low resting HR indicate that you're a fit guy, so I would definitely recommend you to do the test standing up if you can.
Remember it's not the absolute score that's important for detecting the impact of fatigue and recovery, it's the changes from one day to the next and the average trend line (the solid blue line on the chart).

Similarly, the exact time of the test is not important - what matters is that it's a convenient moment in your morning routine when you feel relaxed and that you can repeat every day and stick to. The time you suggest sounds perfect for those reasons.
Regarding the amber traffic light you had today - looks like you recovered pretty well after the short fast run, back to an HRV over 90. Therefore the score you got today after the 4hr run of 87.1 indicates a first day of significant fatigue, which will give you an amber - ie you should not do a very long or intense training session, but you don't have to take a complete rest day. If your score is low tomorrow, then you will get a red, indicating that the fatigue has started to become cumulative, and that your body needs more time to recover.
On this last point, I'm just finishing a free booklet on training with HRV that will be downloadable from this site, and that will give tips on both interpreting your results and speeding up recovery.

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Re: Breathing with the lungs

moderator — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:54:13 +0100

Hi Steven (Sashen)

What's really important is consistency - research has shown multiple times that the reliability of HRV measurements is much improved when a 'paced breathing protocol' as it's known, is used. It does not really matter if you don't fully exhale and inhale during the time the animation takes - just breathe as deeply as you can without forcing breath in and out. Even if it isn't the maximum your lungs can do, the breathing rate is still quite slow, and should feel relaxing in practice.

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Re: Tips on performing the daily measurement

Darren — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:40:17 +0100

Hi. I've read the reply on standing up to take the measurement but am still a bit confused. Should I be getting into a position where the score comes out highest (which for me is sitting) or should I be standing to give lower reading? I have been sitting which gives a higher score and lower HR. Also I have found that if I do it first thing before getting up it is not my best score - I don't drink caffeine but do get up have a drink of water and move around a little (maybe bit of stretching) and use the loo. After that seems to give highest score on HRV. My readings for this week are

HRV HR
90.5 42
90.1 45.4
90.2 44.1
87.7 44.5
91.6 47.5
87.1 43.9

The first one below 90 was after doing short fast run the day before. The last one (today's) is after a 4 hour run yesterday. I was hoping for a red but came out amber.

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Re: Recording heart rate while exercising

moderator — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:56:32 +0100

Hi Alan

Yes, indeed, ithlete HRM has been submitted for approval and I hope to go live in the UK first at beginning of Sept.

I will send out more details in a couple of weeks.

Simon.

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Re: Recording heart rate while exercising

Alan — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:27:13 +0100

Hi. Is there an ETA on this yet or any way to sign up for a notification to be sent when it is released?

Thanks

Alan

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Re: Tips on performing the daily measurement

sashen — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:08:26 +0100

Here's what may sound like an odd question:

The display says "breathe deeply."

Well, should I be taking deep breaths or taking normal-ish breaths timed to the display?

FWIW, I have to speed up my breathing in order to match the display.

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Re: Development Requests...

Mark — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:48:07 +0100

I agree with Ash on items 1, 2 & 3.

My additonal request would be that I could "disable" or "gray out" an active reading instead of deleting it. And then later, change my mind and "enable" it again.

Thanks,
Mark

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Re: Development Requests...

moderator — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:19:20 +0100

Hi Ash

Thanks for the feedback. It's great to see the Forum getting to the stage where we are having these kind of discussions!

I have had many requests for csv export from email over the past couple of weeks. It is in development, and I hope to have it released before end of this summer.
This will let you analyse data in Excel / Numbers / OpenOffice etc, and also line it up with other training log information. It will also create a text backup, although the apps SQLite database is already backed up by iTunes when you sync.

The suggestions on formatting the Edit view also make sense - does anyone object to Ash's suggestions of reverse time & date presentation, or graying out saved readings that are not the first in the day?

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Re: HRV number meaning

moderator — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:45:20 +0100

Hi Simon

ithlete measures the R-R interval (ie the time between the sharp spikes on the ECG) precisely in milliseconds, calculates HRV parasympathetic parameters rMSSD and Poincare SD1 (they are the same measure with a scaling difference), then log transforms & scales the result. I can't disclose the exact formula until the patents are published, but to give you an idea, an rMSSD of 25ms (SD1 17.5ms) will be 65 on the ithlete scale, and rMSSD of 55ms will be 80 on the ithlete scale.

The US study 'Relation of High Heart Rate Variability to Healthy Longevity' is available for free viewing at: http://www.ajconline.org/article/PIIS0002914909028525/fulltext
For those who don't have time to read it, the main conclusion is that: "healthy longevity depends on preservation of autonomic function, in particular, HRV–parasympathetic function, despite the early age-related decrease". That reinforces the value of keeping your HRV going up not only as an athlete, but as someone who wants to live a long & active life!

Hope this helps.

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Re: HRV number meaning

Simon — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:40:24 +0100

That kind of answers MY question, but maybe you could expand a little....

so the HRV number that ithlete generates - is this an actual true value in milliseconds that we can cross-reference with scientific studies?

And could you supply the refence for the Californian study?

Thanjs,
Simon.

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Development Requests...

bluewomble — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:00:14 +0100

Hi,
I've got a few (hopefully small) development requests and couple of larger requests.

Most of the small requests concern the 'Edit' screen:
1. Could we have the data sorted by reverse chronological order by default (so the newer values are at the top rather than the bottom)?
2. Would it be possible to have the columns sortable (by tapping on them)? A second tap would reverse the sort order.
3. Only the first reading from each day is used on the chart -- could any other readings on the edit screen be shown in grey rather than black to make it clear that they do not feature on the chart?

Also, would it be possible to have some high resolution icons and graphics? Not a high priority, but it'd be good for it to look nicer on the iPhone4.

It might be nice to be able to view the data in Excel (where I can better analyse it) -- The easiest way I can think of doing this would be to have an 'Export' button on the iPhone app (possibly on the 'Edit' screen) which would email a CSV file dump of the data to a specified email address -- this could then easily be read into Excel (or your preferred spreadsheet application) and from there you could do whatever you wanted with the data.

Finally, I was wondering if it'd be good to be able to loo k at the data in a histogram view. You'd take the last 3 month's worth of data and draw a histogram showing the number of days at each HRV value (or range of HRV values) (I'm guessing it'd look a bit like a normal distribution) and highlight where the current reading is (along with the current weekly and monthly average). It might help to give a better indication of where your current value is compared with recent history.

Hope that all makes sense, but let me know if you have any questions...

Thanks for a great app -- so far, I'm just at the data gathering stage, but it's really interesting to see the effect of training (and late nights / too many beers).

Cheers,
Ash.

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Re: HRV number meaning

moderator — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:31:51 +0100

According to an HRV study done recently on 300+ athletic & non-athletic people from ages 15 - 90 in California, the average value for a 52 yr old would be 60 in ithlete units, and 80 will put you in the top 2% of your age group!
Having said that, I have a couple of very fit cycling buddies who are in their early forties, and regularly getting scores of 90.
I think you are doing really well with that average reading, and I don't know how much further it can be improved.
There is a relation between the average ithlete reading and aerobic fitness (VO2 max), so after the competitive season, you can see how much the average goes up during endurance base building.

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Re: Sprinting and Weight Lifting?

Matt — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 03:18:32 +0100

I use the ithlete in conjuction with the TRAC program from Mike Tuchscherer to help guide my training for powerlifting. I had been on the fence for a short while till I saw a post by Landon on EliteFTS praising the app. So far I really like it, I feel like it is helping me to keep myself in check and healthy while still getting stronger. I would be very interested to see the e book with Landon and that would be really awesome if you can get Lyle's input as well.

Thanks
Matt

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Re: HRV number meaning

treckman — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:31:17 +0100

Hi, and thank you for your reply. I am 52 and was wondering what would be a good reading to aim for, and improve on my 80. Thanks again Jimmy

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Re: HRV number meaning

moderator — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:18:00 +0100

Having only used ithlete for a week, it's early days, but it sounds like your usual reading is about 80. That's a good high reading & indicates you have a high level of aerobic fitness.
A drop of 18 is quite large, and could have been caused by the ride, though you don't say how intensive the 18m was. It could also be that you did not sleep that well the night after the ride (eg if the back injury is still bothering you a little), or there was some other source of stress that added to the drop.
The good news is that you took notice of the drop & recovered within 1 day of rest.
Over the next few weeks you will get a better feel for what kind of drops / gains are to be expected in your particular case. We're all different - for instance a drop of 5 or 6 is quite significant for me, but my normal level is also lower at about 65. I hope this helps & thanks very much for sharing the feedback.

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HRV number meaning

treckman — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:31:00 +0100

Hi, I am really please with my ithlete, I have been only using it for a week, but already I have found it very useful. I would just like to ask a question about my hrv reading. My first reading was 79.5, then I went training on my racing bike. The next day my hrv had dropped by 5 but the following day it was 80. Then 3 days later I went out on my mountain bike over the forest and completed 18 miles. I have not been out on my mountain bike due to a back injury. The next morning I had a hrv of 62 which was a drop of 18. Is this normal to have such a large drop? I rested all the next day and the following morning I had a hrv reading of 82.5.

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low reading

treckman — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:28:26 +0100

Hi, I am really please with my ithlete, I have been only using it for a week, but already I have found it very useful. I would just like to ask a question about my hrv reading. My first reading was 79.5 then I went training on my racing bike. The next day my hrv had dropped by 5 but the following day it was 80. Then 3 days later I went out on my mountain bike over the forest and completed 18 miles. I have not been out on the mountain bike due to a back injury. The next morning I had a hrv of 62 which was a drop of 18. Is this normal to have such a large drop? I rest all the next day and the following morning I had a hrv reading of 82.5.

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Re: Sprinting and Weight Lifting?

sashen — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 06:44:20 +0100

Thanks for the pointers. Looking forward to that ebook.

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Re: iOS 4 compatible?

Mark — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:31:37 +0100

I bought my iPod touch 8GB at the end of May just so I could run ithlete. So it may be the newer model.

I finally told iTunes that I didn't want to update and not to bother me about it anymore. Not interested in being an early adopter after hearing your war story. Maybe later.

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Re: iOS 4 compatible?

moderator — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:31:18 +0100

I've put iOS4.0 on both my iphone 3GS and ipod touch 2G. ithlete works fine on both, though I have to say that the ipod touch 2G is an older 8GB model and it doesn't seem very happy with the load from the more complex OS. The upgrade initially failed and I had to restore & reinstall all my apps. At first I thought I had lost my ithlete data, but reinstalling the app magically brought it all back. Multitasking is not supported with this older model, so you could ask why upgrade until all the publicised wrinkles are ironed out!

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Re: Sprinting and Weight Lifting?

moderator — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:23:32 +0100

Hi Sashen
I don't have direct experience with track athletics, but the overload principles are the same as with all forms of training.
When you train hard, you stress your body, breaking it down somewhat. This training stress is reflected via the autonomic nervous system as reduced HRV, and a lower ithlete daily HRV reading.
The harder, more intensely you workout, the bigger the dip in HRV. During recovery, your HRV increases again, and often supercompensation takes you past your starting point to a new higher level.

As said, I'm not an expert on sprint training, but found an interesting thread discussing HRV for strength & conditioning on www.8weeksout.com, in particular a quote from Lyle McDonald who has written extensively on overreaching & overtraining at www.bodyrecomposition.com :

"A friend of mine (Sprint Coach in Canadia) has used HRV to track some of his athletes. HE found that at the beginning of a 10 day taper, HRV was depressed. After the taper, HRV has returned to normal and his athletes ran PR's. So it's fairly sensitive. He's also seen HRV crater right before an athlete came down being sick."

Another coach familiar with HRV for strength & power is Landon Evans, who also contributed to the 8weeksout thread.

I'm in the late stages of preparing a downloadable free booklet on training with HRV that features an interview with Landon & other well respected coaches. I'll post a note when its ready, hopefully 2-3 wks.

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Re: iOS 4 compatible?

bluewomble — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:32:57 +0100

Yes, it seems to work fine -- I've used it on my iPhone 4 and on my old iPhone 3G, both with iOS4.

I've not tried it with an iPod touch though...

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Re: App does not want to work

Davem — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:48:40 +0100

All working fine now think it was my ipod causing the problem. Thanks for all the advice.

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iOS 4 compatible?

Mark — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:50:08 +0100

iTunes wants to update my iPod touch to iOS 4. ithlete is the only app that I am currently using on it. Does ithlete work OK with iOS 4?

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Sprinting and Weight Lifting?

sashen — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 07:04:22 +0100

Do you have any experience with the ithlete and sprinters and/or weight lifters? (and, as a sprinter, I do a lot of weight lifting.)

There are some lifters, notably Pete Sisco, who recommend very high intensity work (by doing, essentially, 5-10 second weighted isometric holds at the end of your range of motion for compound exercises) and then having long rest periods waiting for the body to supercompensate.

And as a Masters (48) sprinter, every speed workout is intense.

So, timing my lifting and running and recovery is a big deal.

Your thoughts/experience?

Thanks.

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Re: App does not want to work

moderator — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 14:49:29 +0100

Here's a test you can do to find out if both your chest strap and the receiver are working OK.

1. Put on your chest strap and plug in the ithlete receiver.
2. Now instead of launching the ithlete app, launch the Voice Memos app that came with your iPhone / iPod (it's the red one with an old fashioned microphone logo).
3. Hold your iPhone / iPod in the normal position as if you were going to take an ithlete measurement and press the record button.
4. Leave it running for 10s or so, and press stop.
5. Remove the ithlete receiver, then go to the voice memos list and your recording will start playing.

You should hear a high pitched, regular, clear "CHIRP" like a cricket noise if all is well.
If the chirp is irregular or noisy, it could be the chest strap is not making good contact with your skin or the chest strap battery is weak.
No chirp at all means either the chest belt or receiver is not working.
If you can hear regular environment noises instead, then the ithlete receiver is not properly inserted, possibly because the case is blocking it.

If you are unsure about the diagnosis, or are still having trouble, email the voice memo to ithlete.support@myithlete.com and I will gladly listen to it and respond quickly.

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Re: App does not want to work

Mike — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:12:58 +0100

I had a similar problem, and after trying two different chest belts I figured that it might be the transmitter which was not working properly. I e-mailed the support address, and got a really prompt reply, and got a new transmitter sent out. It now works absolutely fine!

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App does not want to work

Davem — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:21:20 +0100

Can anbody help!!!! I have purchased the app and received my ithlete transmitter but it does not want to work. Have tried 2 different analogue chest belts , both recomended but still no reading on ipod. The ipod is 2nd generation with the latest updates. Anybody else had this problem?

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Re: Interpreting your results

moderator — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:49:32 +0100

Hi Andy

A study by Hibino et al (1997, Journal of Nutrition) showed that 240mg caffeine in coffee reliably increased parasympathetic HRV (the kind measured by ithlete) between 15 and 45 mins after ingestion. That is consistent with my own findings, where I notice a ~3 pt increase 20mins after my morning latte.

What this study found, however, was that parasympathetic HRV was back down close to control levels after 1hr. So I don't think it was the reason for your 5pt drop. A possible explanation is that 1hr after waking, your sympathetic nervous system is on the go, shifting the autonomic balance more in that direction and causing a reduction in the ithlete measure.

That's why it's important to do the measure at the same time every day if possible to give the most sensitivity to changes in your physical stress/recovery levels.

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Re: Holiday on chart

moderator — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:31:35 +0100

Hi Els

I first noticed last year my blue line climbing on holiday by more than 5 points, and since then several people have made similar comments.

What's really cool is that you used the decline to trigger the action of taking time off - I wonder how many people would do that!

After your experience, maybe more will.

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Holiday on chart

glucid — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 21:30:19 +0100

Ithlete helped me to realise I needed to take a holiday.

The last month my blue line kept on going downwards. I knew there was to much stress at work to be healthy but that line gave a sort of quantification of the stresslevel.
In the begining of the month it averaged around 75 at the end around 65. Antway it helped to see the necessity for rest.
I took 7 days of from work and although I will work tomorrow my 7th day in line again (even in the early shift) the bleu line has kept a steady climb and came up to 76 today.

It's good to have that declining blue line as feedback
and it's great to see a climbing line and know I'm back on track !

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Re: Interpreting your results

Langers — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:25:06 +0100

Hi. I have another quick question - I was late measuring my HRV this morning (not quite into the routine yet!) and had already had a coffee about an hour before recording HRV today. This got me a -5 compared to yesterday. I was wondering what the effect of caffeine on HRV is?

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Re: Tips on performing the daily measurement

steves — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:03:45 +0100

Simon, thanks very much for the guidance. Yes, I have been standing up whilst recording, however I hadn't been breathing in time to the on-screen lungs; I have changed that practice now.

I can see that this tool is going to be tremendously useful in the coming months, particularly as the season closes and I enter the winter training period. I am amazed at the level of guidance it promises to give, particularly as I tend to run myself into the ground with regards to energy expenditure and am sensitive to external stressors which affect my training.

Have you considered using Twitter as a means of communication to clients and prospective clients? There is a very healthy cycling (Tri and running, too) community using Twitter, which could considerably increase Ithlete's profile. I would advise against using it for pure advertising, but it can be a very useful 'open' forum. Just a thought.

Steve

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Re: Tips on performing the daily measurement

moderator — Fri, 28 May 2010 12:57:08 +0100

Hi Steve

First thing to check is that you are doing the measurement standing up, as explained further up this thread.
Secondly, with respect to the breathing pattern, the reason we can get away with such a short measurement time compared to the 5mins or more when HRV is used in hospitals and research is that ithlete uses paced breathing to stimulate your nervous system in a consistent way. So you can do the measure with eyes half closed, but you do need to be keeping time with the inhale / exhale cycles of the lungs.
The Valid RR Int indicator shows that a particular heart beat interval is not in the usual range and can be triggered for a couple of reasons:
1. Poor contact between the chest strap and your skin - just make sure the strap is tight enough and the contacts are moistened
2. Everyone's heart naturally produces extra beats from time to time, and in fact athletes often more so than sedentary people. These need to be excluded from the HRV calculation, and the Valid RR Int indicator turns red to show that. It's OK for the indicator to go red a few times during the measurement, and it won't affect the result.

Hope that helps & feel free to email me directly at ithlete.support@myithlete.com with any specific follow up.

Simon

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Re: Tips on performing the daily measurement

steves — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:21:28 +0100

Hi, I've been using Ithlete for a week or so now and am starting to get some benefit from it. One question I have is around the recording itself. I've been doing this mostly with eyes closed, but noticed this morning that the 'Valid RR Int' indicator was occassionally red. What doe this mean? I've also noticed that on two occassions the recording has automatically re-started. Is there a reason for this?

Thanks
Steve

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Re: Recording heart rate while exercising

moderator — Fri, 21 May 2010 13:05:09 +0100

Hi Andy

Yes - the new thlete hrm app will work with the current adaptor!

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Re: Recording heart rate while exercising

Andy_1205 — Thu, 20 May 2010 16:40:46 +0100

This is great news, but will the new app also work with the current adaptor? I have just bought this in the hope that it will I use bluetooth for headphones so will not need the earphone bypass.

Thanks

Andy

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Re: Shifts

glucid — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:34:03 +0100

Well I went out for an aerobic run which went really well.
Faster the average.

Looking back on former readings, whenever I did a measurement later in the day,
I always got a lower HR then in the morning.

Conclusion: no overtraining or fatigue, but a really good reading

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Re: Shifts

moderator — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:39:24 +0100

In that case, I would suggest heading out slowly on your run, and if after 10-15 mins your heart rate is still lower than usual or you feel unusually tired, I would head back home.
If your system starts to wake up properly, and your heart rate rises OK then it should be OK to pick up the pace.

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Re: Shifts

glucid — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:39:44 +0100

OK so I did another measurement
HRV = 85 HR = 60

walked down and up the stairs took a few deep breaths
and did another one
HRV = 83 HR= 60

So now I'm confused because you expected the HR to have increased

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Re: Shifts

moderator — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:22:11 +0100

That's really good input on HRV patterns and shift work - thanks. It does sound like the sudden drop in HR due to your unusually good rest is causing ithlete to indicate an abnormal value, sometimes indicative of parasympathetic overtraining. I think a way to tell for sure would be to walk around for a few minutes to get your system going out of its deep rest state and then repeat the measurement.
If you are fine, as we suspect, then your resting HR will have increased a bit into the normal range due to some adrenaline production. You can then safely delete the earlier reading on the Edit screen.
If on the other hand you were really in a state of overtraining (parasympathetic is the worst kind!) then your hormones would be exhausted and your resting HR would stay really low. Then the red indication would continue.
Have a great run!

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Re: Shifts

glucid — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:05:07 +0100

Hi,

I've been using ithlete for only 3 weeks now.
I take the measurements when I wake up which is around 5.30 am when I'm on early shifts
and around 10.00 am when I'm on the late shift.
3 days ago I changed to late shifts, but this morning I woke up early around 8 and I took a measurement
HRV = 77 HR = 73
Not feeling very rested I went back to bed and slept another 2 hours
and around 10 the measurements were
HRV = 83 HR = 65

The daily change is in red though, because of the sudden drop in HR (the days before it was mostly between 80 and 85)
but that was because I've just finished my early shift week, which obviously tires me very much
During my early shift week my HRV drops gradually and my HR increases gradually
then when I have a really good rest it suddenly changes to high HRV and low HR, which is interpreted bij ithlete as sympathetic overtraining.

But I guess keeping in mind the shift changes and my irregular sleeping pattern
that I can ignore today's red signal and have a great run, can't I ?

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Re: Shifts

moderator — Fri, 14 May 2010 10:47:58 +0100

Hi Dan

It seems artificial to wake up at 7am just to take the reading, rather than when you wake up naturally, hopefully feeling refreshed.

So I would tend to say do the reading when you wake up. Also, take a look at the post I put up yesterday about my hangover experience last weekend. That reinforces the idea that the ithlete reading will tell you when you are sufficiently recovered, so you might also consider doing a reading when you first wake up during your shift pattern, then also using that reading to help decide whether to try & sleep a little longer.

Does that make sense? Sorry I can't be fully clear on this one as there's not any research on HRV and shift patterns that I've come across.

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Re: Shifts

Danny — Fri, 14 May 2010 04:44:37 +0100

Hi,

Re shift work, can you clarify whether the reading should be taken at the same time every day (i.e 7am), or whenever you wake up regardless of the time of day?

Thanks,

Dan.

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How do I know I've recovered from my hangover?

moderator — Thu, 13 May 2010 11:14:36 +0100

Just thought I would post a tip I learned last weekend. I did my usual group ride of 50miles on Saturday and then went round to some good friends (who are in the catering business) for dinner. For once I was not driving, so allowed myself several glasses of various delicious wines, and it became quite a late night. Next morning, I stood up a little shaky at 9:30 and did my morning measure. 60. Oh dear, that's a fall of -9 compared to the previous day and a definite warning! I decided not to try and go on, but went back to bed for an hour. At 10:30, I took my reading again. 66. Felt much better and realised what a difference an extra hour in bed can make when your body needs it.
I've been using ithlete every day for over a year and I'm still learning new things about my body. In this case, when my hangover has receded sufficiently for me to face the day!

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Re: Shifts

moderator — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:09:17 +0100

Good question!

The research science identifies two forms of overtraining :
1. Sympathetic overtraining - this is when your morning HR can be higher than normal, and for which reduced HRV gives an early warning
2. Parasympathetic overtraining - this is when your morning HR is significantly lower than normal, and can be an indicator of real fatigue, often as a progression from the first form

ithlete identifies both kinds and gives you amber and red warnings to tell you to take it easy when appropriate, so that the first form does not become the second.
My personal experience is that I can get the second form if I either ignore the amber ithlete warning and continue to train hard without sufficient recovery, or the day after a very hard endurance event.

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Re: Shifts

glucid — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 09:56:32 +0100

Great !
My birthday is coming up so I've put Ipod and ithlete on top of my wishlist.

I wonder if it could also help me out with the following:
sometimes I have a low HR in the morning, but when I start my run
my breathing is to fast and my HR shoots up for a relatively slow run (very frustrating).
I guess that my body is often more fatigued then I realise.

So fatigue doesn't allways give a higher rest HR ?

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Re: Shifts

moderator — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 21:18:24 +0100

Hi
For sure there are natural variations in HRV during the day, but at least some of these are related to the time relative to when you were asleep. So in general the measurement you make will relate to how well you have recovered during that sleep, even if the hours are not regular every day. The shift patterns (I used to work 12hr shifts years ago) do represent a potential additional source of stress, from which you need to recover.
So if you do the ithlete test just after you wake up, and before eating or drinking (especially coffee / tea) then ithlete measurements should still be valuable to you.
If you do decide to go ahead & try it, feel free to share your findings on the Forum for all to see.

Posted to: Shifts Show Thread | Post Reply

Shifts

glucid — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 12:48:13 +0100

Hi,

I don't have ithlete YET.
But I was wondering as I work in shifts my sleep cycle really suffers from this,
so I guess I could really benefit from this tool.
But I will not be able to have my measurements on the same time, it will differ from shift to shift.

How reliable will the info from ithlete be in my case ?

Cheers

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Re: PC version

moderator — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:11:03 +0000

Hi Tunney

Sorry I missed this post for some reason!

I have thought about a PC version, but will probably do other smartphone platforms (Google Android, Blackberry) first.
The trouble with PCs is that there are so many things that can (& do) go wrong, and I really want the consistently good user experience that can be obtained much more easily on the iPhone / iPod touch.

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