So, I’m blessed that Santa Claus brought me (53 y/o) a resting heart rate of 51bpm while sleeping and 56bpm while sitting during the day*.
I‘m starting to train for a half century on my Concept2 ergs and that can get pretty boring. My 100% oxygen deco bottle was just under 100 bar (not enough to save for a team dive) so I thought I’d goof around and observe the effect of breathing 100% oxygen during my 2:00 minute rest intervals. That really turned out to only be 1:30 minutes of O2 since I had to drink water, dry my hands, spin up the flywheel before starting my work interval, etc.
I assumed my heart rate would drop noticeably faster coming off a work interval and immediately getting onto O2 while practicing intentional deep breathing. That turned out to be an incorrect assumption. This led to a second assumption that the diffusion and perfusion effects simply aren’t instantaneous.
What I did observe is I felt a lot fresher getting back into each work interval such that I picked up my pace without hesitation and I noticed that while my HR rose to about the same level (as without the aid of O2 during a rest interval), it took longer to get there. I had already completed a pretty brisk 6,000m workout before I integrated the O2 into my second workout so I think the two observations were genuine rather than psychological. However, I concede that while my home gym is pretty comprehensive, it‘s not an exercise physiology laboratory with the aid of experienced and impartial physiologists.
While it was fun, I’m not inclined to make this a habit. When I rank myself globally, I want to know I’m ranking myself honestly. And breathing O2 during my work intervals would be the ultimate in counter-productive training so there’s a 0% chance of that ever happening.
Anyways, I couldn’t find any data here in the fitness sub-forum so I thought I’d post my observations as a reference point.
*My RHR while sleeping is according to my Garmin devices and Garmin admits their wrist-readings tend to be a bit high. I’m thinking with a chest belt I’ll probably be right at 48-49bpm. The daytime RHR is from my doctor’s office. For the providers on the board, my doctor is confident I’m not suffering from bradycardia. For the layperson, bradycardia is an unusually low HR, typically anything less than 60bpm.
I‘m starting to train for a half century on my Concept2 ergs and that can get pretty boring. My 100% oxygen deco bottle was just under 100 bar (not enough to save for a team dive) so I thought I’d goof around and observe the effect of breathing 100% oxygen during my 2:00 minute rest intervals. That really turned out to only be 1:30 minutes of O2 since I had to drink water, dry my hands, spin up the flywheel before starting my work interval, etc.
I assumed my heart rate would drop noticeably faster coming off a work interval and immediately getting onto O2 while practicing intentional deep breathing. That turned out to be an incorrect assumption. This led to a second assumption that the diffusion and perfusion effects simply aren’t instantaneous.
What I did observe is I felt a lot fresher getting back into each work interval such that I picked up my pace without hesitation and I noticed that while my HR rose to about the same level (as without the aid of O2 during a rest interval), it took longer to get there. I had already completed a pretty brisk 6,000m workout before I integrated the O2 into my second workout so I think the two observations were genuine rather than psychological. However, I concede that while my home gym is pretty comprehensive, it‘s not an exercise physiology laboratory with the aid of experienced and impartial physiologists.
While it was fun, I’m not inclined to make this a habit. When I rank myself globally, I want to know I’m ranking myself honestly. And breathing O2 during my work intervals would be the ultimate in counter-productive training so there’s a 0% chance of that ever happening.
Anyways, I couldn’t find any data here in the fitness sub-forum so I thought I’d post my observations as a reference point.
*My RHR while sleeping is according to my Garmin devices and Garmin admits their wrist-readings tend to be a bit high. I’m thinking with a chest belt I’ll probably be right at 48-49bpm. The daytime RHR is from my doctor’s office. For the providers on the board, my doctor is confident I’m not suffering from bradycardia. For the layperson, bradycardia is an unusually low HR, typically anything less than 60bpm.
