Regaining fitness, heart rate recovery.

[gbb]

I'm just musing really but your input may help in my quest to regain lost fitness through pneumonia, pleurisy last year, and a perhaps permanent case of pleural thickening that restricts my ability to open my lungs as I used to be able to do.

33 miles yesterday at 15mph average. I feel fine but I didnt sleep well last night, my heart rate was still up hours after my ride..which although wasnt a full on push all the way, but I didnt hang around either.
My hearts not hammering, just a bit 'taxed' perhaps.
I always considered your hearts ability to recover quickly after much longer and faster rides in the past as an indicator to fitness, riding within ones ability...thats definately not the case at the moment. Am I right in this thinking ?

At 55, im never going to regain what I had anyway, I dont have the time to spend on the bike anymore, dont commute anymore (one of the best things you can do to increase fitness over a long period)...but just pootling on a roadbike doesnt do it for me.

Anyone remember your heart feeling this way while increasing fitness..from whatever level ?

 

[MartinQ]

I'm "recovering" from a couple of sets of PEs over the past couple of years coupled with on-going, borderline PH and in my 40s (won't admit to which side). The few long rides which I've done have meant that its difficult to recover after (sleep isn't very deep, faster heart rate, deeper beats ...). I'm not expecting to be "fit" anytime soon, but as I'm not pushing up the daisies, I've won.
One upside is that the commute has got easier (25 mile round trip) and I've also been including a decent hill on the way back for the last couple of months. This has got a bit easier and it does show that progress is happening, but not very fast. On Friday, I'd found I'd been on the largest front chainring all the way up (rather then middle) , so yes, definitely some progress.
The boring advice is that you're fitter than if you'd not done any cycling recently and its good to do it, but fully understand the frustration in not being back to normal. Can't give any proper advice about your heart's recovery.

 

[ColinJ]

I am still recovering from my well-known illness and I find that my heart rate can remain elevated for up to 24 hours after exercise now. I take that as a sign that my body is damaged and so is taking longer to recover than it did pre-illness.

I am finally able to push myself fairly hard, but try to hold back a few percent because my body is telling me that it doesn't feel right when I try harder. I get a particular 'sick' feeling which I never used to get before and it is an unpleasant reminder that all is not yet well. Perhaps it never will be?

It is a bit of a balancing act - pushing hard enough to induce improvements in fitness, but not so hard as to make myself ill again.

I do not feel guilty now if I leave an extra day for recovery between hard rides.

I am also going to fit a triple chainset so I have the option to use lower gears if steep hills feel a bit too hard.

I think all we can do is to keep on trying and see where it takes us. I would like to develop 50-100% more power than I can at the moment, but I can already get round fairly long, fairly strenuous routes as long as I take my time.

 

[gbb]

Keep on trying and see where it takes us..just about sums it up really.
Forgive me im spending all my time psyching myself into getting on the bike...when ive lost my mojo in the past its been hard enough. I suspect shorter more regular rides will help, its not rocket science. It is early in the year, just got to keep plugging away