Effects of alcohol on HR

zwuba

Well I did more or less accidently a pretty interesting test this week.

I did 2 identical VO2 bike workouts of about 1 hour having 3x5 sets of 60sec/60sec at 120%/60% power.

The first workout was on Tuesday evening after having a session of uphill-repeat runs earlier that day.

The second workout was on Thursday evening 18:00 without any workout before this day so I had almost 24 hours of recovery time to my last workout on Wednesday (swimming)

… BUT on Wednesday evening I had a pretty funny evening and consumed a few beers (nothing really impressive and no hard stuff)

When just looking at the metrics it's not such a big difference:

Average HR for the hard intervals = 156 bpm

Maximum HR = 174bpm

Average HR for the hard intervals = 162 bpm

Maximum HR = 178bpm

... BUT just look at the graphical charts and you will see how incredible different these 2 workouts were from a HR perspective!

cgres123

Good post, I can feel an increase in HR after a weekend having a few cold ones too. As matter of fact I feel the RPE higher as well.

Brenda Ross

dehydration?

zwuba

@David - yess correct RPE was also one level up ... I was almost crying

Very good point Brenda - Dehydration would basically explain that for sure!
I've taken 0.5l of IsoActive before going to bed and have been hydrating myself during the whole day on Thursday and did the workout in the evening ... can't tell if that's just not enough.

Robert Sabo

Are you saying that hill repeats = drinking a few beers?