One of the most important jobs of a triathlon coach is to avoid overtraining his/her athletes. There are lots of ways this can be done, yet, unfortunately, too many athletes find that somewhere in their training cycle they enter into a state of chronic overtraining. As a result, their enthusiasm wanes and they become discouraged.

Recently, a professional cyclist asked me about heart rate variability and it’s usefulness in predicting/measuring overtraining. The last time I was interested in the topic was sometime in 2004 so I decided to revisit the topic. One development, over the past 5 years, was the advent of the Polar cs800 heart rate monitor that has the ability to measure heart rate variability.

I expect to finish my work on this issue soon and get it on one of the triathlon training websites. In the mean time, I am wondering if anyone out there is using HRV in her/her training and might have some anecdotal evidence for whether or not it’s a worthy investment.