Friday thoughts 77
Welcome to this week’s edition of Friday Thoughts - where I share things on my mind and some of my favorite post I saw on the internet this week. Enjoy!
Ignoring My HRV Status
According to my heart rate variability, things are critical. I’m not recovered. I’m too stressed. I need to relax.
Heart rate variability (HRV) measures the time between heartbeats—down to the millisecond. Our hearts don’t beat with perfect rhythm; instead, there’s slight variation between each beat. The more variability, the more recovered and ready to push it you are. Less variability suggests your body is fatigued and struggling to bounce back.
My HRV dropped below baseline over a week ago—and I didn’t change a thing. I didn’t feel tired, sore, or rundown. Actually, I felt great. My performance reflected that too: I was getting faster on intervals, increasing volume, and most importantly, having fun with training.
My desire to train was high. I was sleeping well, not overdoing caffeine (more than usual), and fueling properly. So when my watch flagged my status as “strained,” I didn’t buy it. Because yes, of course my body is strained—training is the process of creating stress and adapting to it.
I want fitness data to guide my training, not dictate it. If it told me I was “peaking” but I felt beat up, I’d be just as skeptical. A year ago, my old watch didn’t even track HRV, and I didn’t give it a second thought.
Maybe it’s foolish to ignore a warning just because it doesn’t match how I feel—but I’d rather use the data to help me better understand my body, not let it tell me how I should feel.
Toe Woes
As part of ignoring my HRV, I went on a trail run Monday afternoon—right after doing a 10k SkiErg time trial. During the run, I slipped on a rock in a muddy puddle and overextended my big toe. Classic turf toe.
I’m sharing this because... maybe I am training too hard. Maybe ignoring my fancy fitness watch isn’t the smartest move. After all, being under-recovered can increase your risk of injury, right?
Maybe. The data is mixed.
Yes, my HRV had been below baseline. But I still cranked out the SkiErg 10k and the 4.5-mile trail loop (even with the toe tweak) within 90% of my all-time best times—low heart rate, low perceived effort. If I were truly under-recovered, I’d expect to see a drop in performance: slower times, more struggle. But that hasn’t shown up.
That said, I’ve taken a couple extra rest days this week. The toe needed a break, and while I could train around it, it felt like a good time to test whether extra rest would improve my HRV.
So far? It hasn’t. I’m still showing as in the hole. My desire to train is strong, and I’ve been diligent with the toe —managing swelling, restoring range of motion and gradually loading it. I’ll probably get in an upper-body lift today and a bike ride over the weekend.
I’m eager to get back to running, but despite the paragraphs above defending why I don’t need rest days, the race I’m training for is still a ways off. I'd rather take it slow now than push too hard and end up sidelined longer.
Don’t Forget the Intervals
If you’v been a member for a while, you remember the days before we had a dedicated 20-30 minute interval day. We realized, about 5 years ago, that our program was a little strength training heavy, and wasn’t always balanced out with the conditioning side of things. We quadrupled our cardio fleet, started promoting walking more and upped the level of conditioning we were programming. You need to be strong, but you need to be able to utilize that strength too, and that means dedicated conditioning for metabolic and heart health.
9 Years Ago Today
Thanks for reading, see you next time.
Justin Miner
@justinminergain