Week 34: TrainingPeaks CoachCast
A chat with Dirk Friel
hi there 👋
I hope everything is well. A few weeks ago I had a chat with Dirk Friel for TrainingPeaks’ CoachCast, in which we discussed important aspects related to heart rate variability measurement and interpretation.
From Training Peak’s website:
Heart rate variability (HRV) is unique to each athlete. Learn how to effectively measure and use HRV data alongside subjective feedback to optimize your training and recovery.
Our guest for episode 10 is Marco Altini, a scientist, app developer and expert in using data from wearable devices to optimize health and performance. Many will recognize his name from the app HRV4Training, which integrates with TrainingPeaks. Marco's background spans computer science, human movement and high-performance coaching. He's also an avid runner, having qualified for the Boston Marathon and competed in European ultramarathons.
Our discussion digs into the details of HRV, an increasingly popular metric for endurance athletes. Marco breaks down what HRV actually measures, its history of use in scientific research, and how it serves as a marker of the body's response to various stressors — from training to travel to simple daily life.
He also clears up some of the biggest misconceptions about HRV, like the idea that you can directly compare your HRV to someone else's or that a single HRV reading can predict if you're about to get sick or injured. Marco emphasizes the importance of context and tracking your individual trends over time to have a valid baseline to analyze your stress response.
Perhaps most importantly, we cover how HRV data is best used as one piece of the puzzle in understanding your body so that you can have productive training sessions.
Episode links:
Blog page
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTube
I hope you’ll find the episode useful.
10 11 years of HRV4Training
This week it’s 11 years since we started this independent business. If you’d like to know a bit more about our story, you can find some consideration in the blog below, which I wrote last year. Unsurprisingly, not much has changed in the meantime!
Thank you for your support.
Discount for Pro: 20% off 🖥️
HRV4Training Pro is the ultimate platform to help you analyze and interpret your physiological data, for individuals and teams.
You can find a guide here.
Try HRV4Training Pro for free at HRVTraining.web.app or use promo code SCIENCE for 20% off.
In the app, Pro brings the normal values view, which can help contextualizing longer-term changes, as well as rMSSD on the homepage, see an example below:
See you next week!
Marco holds a PhD cum laude in applied machine learning, a M.Sc. cum laude in computer science engineering, and a M.Sc. cum laude in human movement sciences and high-performance coaching.
He has published more than 50 papers and patents at the intersection between physiology, health, technology, and human performance.
He is co-founder of HRV4Training, advisor at Oura, guest lecturer at VU Amsterdam, and editor for IEEE Pervasive Computing Magazine. He loves running.
Social:
