Thought I would pass along a little demonstration for those that wonder if HRV values really work. On 4/21 I was involved in a serious bike vs car accident while out training for an upcoming triathlon. It resulted in injuries causing no physical activity for the foreseeable future. Prior to the incident, I had been training very hard and very consistently for the prior two weeks. My HRV values, as measured by my Emfit QS, had been very low.
You can see by the increasing values after my forced rest that HRV is a very good measure of how much recovery you have been receiving. My values are 40-50 points higher than where they were during my hard training block.
And just to be sure that it wasn’t device error, I used a second device, an Oura Ring, to validate what I was seeing. Below is the trend line from the ring.
So, even more so than resting HR, I would argue that HRV is a great way to ensure your easy weeks of training are having the desired results.