Roses and Heart Rate

Roses went well. Wil Deth ran the tournament for me so I could fight, and I won it. I fought well, as did my opponents. I could talk about that, but instead I'm going to talk about my new Fitbit.

On Friday, I made an impulse purchase of a Fitbit Charge HR. It's something I have been thinking about for a while, but the actual purchase was an impulse choice. I want to know what my heart is doing. This is partly because I know I have anxiety which negatively impacts my fencing. This is also partly because I have periodic anxiety which negatively impacts me in other ways. Lastly, I have a family history of heart problems, so more data is better.

So, here's my heart rate data from Saturday, when I day-tripped to Roses.

Can you see the tournament in there?

I took a super-hot shower around midnight before going to bed. It looks like I actually got to sleep around 1am. It wasn't a super restful night because my cat was being Very Loud. So, I woke up from my alarm around 7:30 and then got ready and started driving.

We arrived around 12:15 or so, eventually making it to the list around 12:30 to arrange the 1pm tournament. I fought some pickups against Caine, and then sat around some and sipped water before the tournament.

I paid close attention to the monitor on my wrist. The highest heart rate listed here is 154 bpm, but that isn't what it said in-the-moment. Before fights, my heart rate would spike from ~100 bpm to between 145 and 165 bpm. Usually my heart rate dropped to around 120 by the time I got back from fighting and delivering cards, but this cycle kept happening. During fights, my heartbeat was so loud in my ears that I could count it out, and it seemed like I had hit more than three beats per second. According to this data though, I'm not sure if that's the case.

What I need to do is understand better what to do with a high heart rate. I am pretty sure that I tend to fight better when either my heart rate isn't that high, or when I do some prior exercise and my body is actually warmed up to the point that my muscles are keeping up with the resources being provided by my heart.

I've noted that eating, drinking water, and being in cold or cool places tends to drop heart rate. Being in hot places raises heart rate. Anxiety sometimes raises heart rate, and a range of positive and negative emotions drop heart rate.

Next time I fight, I plan to use this data to try to make sure my heart rate matches with how I am exerting myself. The Fitbit also contains other interesting data, like telling me that I haven't eaten enough in the morning and afternoon and letting me know how much I should eat given the amount of exertion I have done in a day.