Hi Reader,
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If you’re like most athletes, you track your heart rate on most workouts. Every interval, every long run, every Zwift session, even the ones where you swore you were “just spinning easy.” 😅
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Heart rate variability, HRV, is probably already on your radar. It’s on your watch, in your recovery score, in every wearable ad. But for most of us, that’s where it ends: we know the acronym, maybe glance at the number after a hard block, and couldn’t tell you what actually shifts it.
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Here’s the short version: HRV is the tiny variation in time between your heartbeats, and it works like a dashboard light for your nervous system.
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When your HRV is humming along, your body is shifting gears between effort and recovery the way it’s designed to. But when it’s suppressed day after day, your nervous system is quietly telling you it’s been running on stress longer than it should. This drop in HRV often shows up before the fatigue, the flat workouts, and the “why won’t my fitness show up on race day?” confusion.

So here are two of the five daily habits we break down in the latest blog post. Both habits are likely to raise your HRV (or lower it when neglected!):
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​😴Protect your sleep window like it’s a workout. Going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time every day (yes, weekends too) is one of the most reliable levers you have. In one study, simply making sleep timing more consistent, without even sleeping longer, raised HRV and lowered resting heart rate. Our bodies love routines.
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​☕ Give caffeine a curfew. I know, I know, this one might be a hard one for some (including me!!). I myself am guilty of that 2pm coffee shop run when my energy starts to fade. 😅 But that late afternoon coffee has a half-life of four to five hours (sometimes much longer). Try cutting it off at least eight hours before bed for two weeks, and let your morning HRV tell you the truth your afternoon self won’t.
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The other three habits? One involves your phone, one involves that evening glass of wine, and one involves how you breathe.
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Before I ADD to your stress levels by rattling these habits off, please remember: you do not need to nail all five of these tomorrow. HRV responds to patterns, so remember consistency over intensity. The athlete who goes to bed on time most nights beats the one who does everything perfectly for a week and then burns out.
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​👉 Want all five habits (with the actual studies behind them)?

🎙️While you're here: I recently guested on the Train Your Mind Like Your Body podcast talking all things sports psychology for endurance athletes. If you liked this email, you'll probably appreciate that conversation, give it a listen here.

Til next time,
Dr. A

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