HRV values confirm it: Vollering truly needed a break after turbulent World Championship period

Demi Vollering shared a glimpse into her HRV (heart rate variability) values over the past few weeks after her vacation on Instagram. The Dutch cyclist, who recently announced her transfer to FDJ-Suez, highlighted the importance of rest after a hectic period.

"Why taking time off is so important," Vollering begins. "Take a look at the picture," she says, referring to a screenshot showing her HRV status from October 6 to November 2. In the first few weeks, her HRV was consistently "down," but after taking a vacation — in her case, to Turkey — it climbed from imbalanced back up to balanced.

Read more below the photo.

The rider also commented. "After the Worlds Championships I got a little sick, with so much to overwhelm me, and my dreams felt apart. I felt like I was sleepwalking for over a week. I was not here, didn’t feel much.. I tried to enjoy my time with family who stayed with me in Switzerland. But it was as if nothing could really reach me. Even though it was very important for me that they were here that time."

"After that week a busy period followed, with visits to Spain/France for my new team, and after that sponsor clinics with team SD Worx. It was a lot of traveling and social interaction,' said Vollering, who was then finally able to go on a well-deserved vacation. Together with her boyfriend Jan, she went to Turkey.

After a week of rest, Vollering saw her HRV start to rise again

"The first days I didn’t do anything, although sometimes I still wanted to see too much but luckily I had Jan there who slowed me down," she writes. "For me it helped a lot to be at a warm place where you can lay on the beach the whole day, without feeling the need to discover all places."

"After a week I slowly did short runs again, just to be happy. We stopped during the run as much as we wanted to, because it wasn’t about the exercise, but more to see and discover while doing a run. You can discover beautiful places on your way and this always brings some adventure with it, something I really need to charge my battery," continues Vollering, who even managed to rescue a little goat during a day trip to Greece.

"So be aware, resting is a big part of getting better. Just listen to you, the inner you," Vollering concludes with heartfelt advice.

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