Q: “My understanding is that how quickly your HR recovers is an indication of fitness. But don’t know how to judge that.

The other morning after a warmup – I was doing run repeats of 6 minutes at a HR of a high Zone 3 – which for me was around 162 – 164. Then after each 6 minutes I was to walk for 2 minutes. I noticed that my HR dropped 15 bpm after about 25-30 seconds, after another 30 seconds it dropped another 30 bpm – typically then after a minute I was down to 120 or slightly under – my HR would continue to come down over the next minute, but more slowly – maybe another 10 bpm or so. This was pretty consistent.

I have no idea if this is good, average or poor.  I am curious to know how others HR recovered.”

A: Coach Patrick:  Using HR as a benchmark for recovery is a great approach to managing your training. The most important thing to note is that it is extremely personal – what “top of Zone 3″ is for you is not the same for 95% of the folks out there. Instead of focusing on how other folks’ bodies recover, I recommend that you make a note of these recovery patterns and compare them with other future interval workouts. This will help you identify how you “typically” recover…and when you know that, they you’ll know when you AREN’T recovering the way you normally do…which means you are probably tired / overtrained / etc.

Keep a daily log of these key workouts and you’ll be amazed at what you can learn re: your own recovery…and how implementing that into your workout decisions can really have an impact on your performance!