So here's the thing...
The 'recovery status' feature of the V800 training watch is seriously cool...and helpful.
In an earlier post, I introduced you to the geekiest bit of technology I've gotten yet...my Polar V800 Training Watch. One of the cool features of said training watch is what's called my 'recovery status'. After a training session, it uses all the data it knows about me (age, weight, heart rate, the type of workout, duration of workout, my daily activity level and amount of good sleep from the night before) and makes a recommendation on how long my rest / recovery period should be.
It used to be that after an intense circuit training session, I'd have to wait at least a full 24 hours (in some cases, 48 hours) before I could workout again to avoid injury or over stressing my system. Lately, however, after the same training sessions, it tells me I'm good to go in as little as 4 to 6 hours.
Now I know why...
The data doesn't lie
This thing has been tracking everything about my workouts since mid-January so when I looked at the stats, I noticed something: my average heart rate is decreasing and the intensity my body reports during a workout session is also decreasing.
Nerdy graphs from my workout data proves it:
My average heart rate has decreased since January.
(click to enlarge)
According to my watch, I used to be considered "Strained" after my workouts a lot in early January.
(click to enlarge)
Now according to my watch, I'm 'balanced' after those same workouts. Hmm....
(click to enlarge)
And this is bad because?
OK, so I was exaggerating...this is definitely good news. It means I'm becoming conditioned! The reason I'm curling my lip a little is because that means instead of things getting easier, I'll have to start working harder to stay in the same 'balanced' zone. Else I might just slip into the 'undertrained' zone. #notgonnahappen