Monitoring HRV to understand how you are responding to stress.

I have in the past experimented with monitoring HRV to understand both how I’m responding to training (stress) and recovery (rest) to optimise my training response and avoid overtraining. So far, I’m still learning and building up a baseline. I’m researching different sources of information and will share these with you. Sharing original article found…

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Athletes: Fit but Unhealthy?

Scientific article I’m reading and wrapping my brain around the paradox presented by Dr Phil Maffetone & Paul Laursen. “While the words “fit” and “healthy” are often used synonymously in everyday language, the terms have entirely separate meanings. Fitness describes the ability to perform a given exercise task, and health explains a person’s state of…

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Simple tip to help you avoid overtraining

Morning Resting Heart Rate (MRHR), when tracked regularly, is an easy method for monitoring fatigue levels, understanding how well you’re adapting to workouts, and can help prevent long-term overtraining.  I like to keep an eye on my resting morning heart rate trends over time, and especially in the two or three days after a hard…

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Training intensity for Masters Rowing with Dr Charlie Simpson

Excited to share this episode of the Faster Podcast, this time with Dr Charlie Simpson. Charlie is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science at Oxford Brookes University and well known for his publications. The Complete Guide to Indoor Rowing and Advanced Rowing. In this episode, Charlie and I cover the following topics and…

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How Alcohol Impacts Your Sleep

One of the things I’ve been experimenting with, over the last 8-weeks, is measuring and tracking my Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and Morning Resting Heart Rate (MRHR). I’m doing this to understand how I am recovering from training and day-to-day stress. I’ve been really surprised at the impact of a couple of glasses of wine…

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What is Heart Rate Variability (HRV)?

Sharing exerts from original articles on HRV, published on Harvard University Health Blog (2017) and Oura website 2020. What is HRV? As popular as the metaphor may be, a healthy heart doesn’t beat as regularly as a metronome—it actually changes its rhythm with each beat. This constant variation in milliseconds between your heartbeats is known…

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The Power and Importance of Mitochondria in Rowing

Original article published on Training Peaks, by Molly Breslin 2020 Rowing is predominately an endurance sport, and mitochondria play a fundamental role in your performance as a Masters Rower. Molly Breslin breaks down what mitochondria is, why it is important, and how you can increase it. Many of you may wonder what mitochondria are and…

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